Salgótarján could be a wonderful city surrounded by forests and mountains, but unfortunately I am not proud of it.
This area was once famous for its thriving industry and mining. The great development began at the end of the 19th century, and industrialization and the relocation of villagers to cities continued in the 1950s and 1960s. But let’s face, that traditional folk culture has also been destroyed. Salgótarján is an artificially created town, where the separate villages and mining settlements of the valleys were merged under one administration and the population was moved to panel block houses, in parallel most of the old houses were demolished.
In the late 1980s, the industry began to decline, and today most factories have closed, becoming rust cemeteries. Many residential buildings and gardens have suffered the same fate, and are now overgrown with weeds and bushes. There are parts of the city where poverty is high, almost only gypsies live among rubbish hills. I didn’t take photos in the most deserted and scary places, I tried to leave those as soon as possible.
However, I find the following images interesting, it’s like flying back in time.
