MISKOLC – A CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN CITY IN THE CROSSROADS

The main objective of this study is to present the overarching history of a second-tier city (Miskolc, Hungary) in Central and Eastern Europe from its foundation to the current era and beyond, to the plans for the next EU programming period between 2021–2027. The city has been in the crossroads of industries, cultures, borders, innovations and EU programming periods throughout its history. Our basic hypothesis was that with the overarching but systematically structured analysis and presentation of the history of the city, we can define its main development stages and gain deeper insights in the roots of the present and future tendencies. Thus, we studied and synthetized the literature about the history of the city and identified six phases in its development path based on two main aspects (1) geopolitics and legal status and (2) local economy and society. With a strong focus on the 20 century, we summarized the main tendencies and city forming forces, actors and catalysts, and also identified some critical points. Finally, the determining and newest initiative for the next EU programming period between 2021–2027 is introduced (Creative Region), that is expected to shape the future of the examined city and its region. Some conclusions are presented in the last chapter of the study.


INTRODUCTION
"Miskolc is the Hungarian city with the brightest future … There is such vitality in this city, that if the smallest opportunity opens for it, enormous energies will start to operate" (Zsigmond Móricz, 1930) industrialisation and soon after one of the main industrial crisis zones of the county to depression, pathfinding, slow recovery and repositioning in our days. Our basic hypothesis was that with the overarching but systematically structured analysis and presentation of the history of the city, we can define its main development stages and gain deeper insights in the roots of the present and future tendencies. As a provincialist born and raised in Miskolc, the author not only aims to provide a transparent overview of the city's development path until today, but also to generate common thinking about the possible future scenarios of Miskolc and so many similar cities.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The history of Miskolc stems from the prehistoric age. The territory of the current settlement was already inhabited in the prehistoric age, according to the relics of human communities from 60-70 thousand years ago. Additionally, Miskolc has an outstandingly important role in the birth of the Hungarian prehistoric archaeology, through the works of Ottó Herman at the end of the 19 th century. There is a major geographic reason why mankind has been continuously present in this area; Miskolc is situated in the junction of the Great Plain and the Bükk Mountains in a 20 km long valley. Three types of relief can be found in its area, dolomitic mountains, hill-country formed by the sea and terrestrial sedimental and volcanic rocks (Avas), and plain countryside (bordered by Sajó river and streams arriving from the mountains such as Szinva, Hejő and Bódva). These were good preconditions for both crop production (especially graveyards) and animal husbandry. Thus, the area of Miskolc has been a North-East Hungarian target location for the continuous migrations of historic ages.
On the other hand, the constructed environment of the oppidum was formulated by three large firestorms in 1746, 1781 and 1843 and a huge flooding in 1878, when the downtown of the city was almost totally destroyed by the water from the streams arriving from the Bükk Mountains. This catastrophe forced the elaboration of urban regulations and spatial planning.
The road network of the city was formulated in the Middle Ages, only the significance of the specific roads has been changed from that time. Before the establishment of Greater Miskolc (1945/1950), the area of the city was much smaller and more homogenous, from that time the city has become the inheritor of districts with different historical roots (mainly separate agrarian villages). Regarding the founding of the city, the founding documents are not available, but the Clan Miskoucz was mentioned at first in a degree dated in 1236, while the Benedictine Abbey in Tapolca was first mentioned in 1214 (Kubinyi, 1996). With the lack of Józsa, V. 84 the founding documents, the City Day is celebrated on 11 May every year, that is the date of the royal charter about the municipal right, obtained in 1907. In the following, we summarize the main development stages of Miskolc.

PRESENTATION OF THE SURVEYED AREA
Miskolc is the capital city of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county. It has a direct motorway connection (M3 and M30 finalised in 2002-2004) and fast track connection to Budapest (1.5 hours), two regional centres (Debrecen and Kosice) and two county capitals (Eger and Nyíregyháza) within 100 km distance. The new section of M30 will establish the direct road connection between Miskolc and Kosice also (57 kms to be finalized in 2021).

Figure 1 Logistic Situation of Miskolc
Source: Miskolc Integrated Settlement Development Strategy, Annexes, 2013 'As a whole, it is not an exaggeration to talk about an agglomeration-functional city-region with 300-350,000 inhabitants, in which connections in the economy, vocational training, services and R&D&I could be multi-layered and mutual and in which Miskolc plays the (junction and organizer) role of a significant 'HUB' (Miskolc SUMP, 2016). The administrative border of the 20 th century city (236.6 km 2 ) was finalized in 1982 with the annexing of Bükkszentlászló, when the number of inhabitants of Miskolc exceeded 210,000 Józsa, V. 85 with an additional more than 32,00 daily commuters, so the daylight population of the city was almost a quarter million that positioned Miskolc as the second largest city in Hungary. In 1950, four districts were designated in the city as follows: (1)  The population of the city shows a decreasing tendency that is fuelled by significant suburbanization and migration. In the development of Miskolc in the 20 th century, the county capital functions (administrative, commercial, health, vocational, …) are of decisive importance, additionally to industrial development. The same tendencies can be observed in the development processes from state socialism to dependent market economies in case of other regional centres in Central and Eastern Europe (Rácz, 2019).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Based on the literature studied during the research, we divided the development path of Miskolc into six stages, out of which three covers the period before the twentieth century and the other three includes the last 120 years from 1900 to our days. We separated the stages based on the ever changing geopolitical situation, administrative role and functions, with special emphasis on the 20 th century and our era.

The Development Stages of Miskolc before the 20 th Century
This era can be divided into the following three main stages (1) the oppidum status, (2) the era of pledgees and Ottoman thraldom and (3) the fight for separateness.
Following the downfall of the clans, in the framework of a property exchange, Louis the Great (or Louis I) acquired Miskolc, and from 1365 the city received more and more privileges together with the oppidum status. The strategic importance of Diósgyőr has been further strengthened, as it was located exactly halfway between the two royal centres, Buda  (Szakály, 1998).
During the last era before the 20 th century, a totally new period has begun marked by the fight for separateness . The annual local government elections have been introduced and more and more administrative functions were completed locally. The preparations for free royal town status have also begun and there was a mixture of the elements of operation as oppidum and free royal town. This process was interrupted by the war of independence, and after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 -that strengthened the counties -Miskolc found itself under the supervision of the county.
As regards the local economy, wine-trade was the most important and reputed activity of the city and the region from the Middle Ages onwards. Until the 1870s-1880s, Miskolc had been a commercial city with significant agrarian functions, but after these years rapid industrialization has been started, especially with coal mining upgrading to industrial scale (in In these years, the population growth of the city was also accelerated, and the city underwent a dynamic development process directed by its excellent leaders, Palóczy,  Around the turn of the century, more and more industrial plants began their operation inand outside the city, but massive industrialization did not start before the first years of the 20 th century. In these years, the formerly dominant agricultural production lost its primacy over commerce and rapidly developing industry. Thematic fairs took over the place of traditional national sales and weekly markets, and these thematic fairs (especially for wheat, malting barley and cotton) were considered as the most important fairs of Upper-Hungary (Veres, 2003). Public transport and transfer penetrated into everyday life with the appearance of railway (1870: handover of the railway between Budapest and Miskolc), which further strengthened the central position of Miskolc, as trains arrived and departed from three directions -making Miskolc the gate of the highlands.
As a summary, we can state that by the turn of the 20 th century Miskolc had lost its feudal bonds, and separated from the Diósgyőr lordship and the county, embarking on its own development path. As this process was completed merely in a few decades following the Compromise, our hypothesis is that the intellectual potential has been long present in the city, waiting for the best moment to discover and exploit the latent resources of the city in an innovative way.
The fight for separateness of Miskolc was terminated in 1907, when the house of representatives accepted its request for municipal law. This title resulted in positive tendencies and the strengthening of local patriotism also.

Miskolc the Border City, the Regional Capital and the Second Largest City of Hungary
The role of Miskolc has completely changed after the Treaty of Trianon. Following the  Miskolc undertook more and larger responsibilities in administrative issues of national importance also, for example when the reform of territorial governance was born in 1929, the city organized the cultural congress of the cities east from the Danube, and as a result, the Cultural Alliance of the Hungarian (Rural) Cities was formed in Miskolc also.
Several factories have been established in the city, the most important facilities were the brick-and furniture factories, the cloth-mills, the two engineering (machine) works, the steam-mill and the car-shops plant connected to the railway. By 1920, the past due works of the sewage and water pipe network had been started (that consumed a significant part of the Speyer loan) and 30-35% of the population of the city was working in the local industry.
Although the explosive development of the city in the first decades of the 20 th century was concetrated at the outskirts of the town (outside the administrative border, for example the siderurgy in Diósgyőr and the coal-mining in Pereces), it influenced the life, social structure, and the composition of the population to a large extent. At this point, it is important to highlight that the site where the operation of the factory began was part of the administratively independent Diósgyőr of that time, so the plant was established in an unbuilt area between Miskolc and Diósgyőr, as a real 'greenfield investment' in the recent terminology.
Scientists, economists, lawyers and politicians were working together on the concept that mostly compared the regional role of Miskolc to that of Budapest, and regularly published and negotiated its conclusions even in the year of the war with the widest possible public audience. This long preparatory work was fruitful, as Greater Miskolc was born on 1 January 1945 based on the resolution of the National Committee of Miskolc.
During the second World War the city suffered significant casualties and its social structure has changed, for example the loss of almost 4/5 of its Jewish community resulted in a major diminution of the city's former commercial and civilian character after 1945.

The Era of State Socialism: The Flourishing Industrial City and the Collapse
After World War II, the construction of socialism was immediately started, in parallel to the recovery, although the framework of civil development has barely evolved. It triggered a fundamental transformation of the administrative system and a shift to centrally planned (LKM), and the separation of the Diósgyőr Machine Works (DIGÉP)), the city has once again become a major target location for immigration, not for the first time in its history. As a direct consequence, with the increasing number and ratio of immigrants, the former commercialcivilian character of the city has been progressively transformed to an industrial-worker character. Miskolc has lost its civilian traditions and the immigrants from small rural settlements could hardly accommodate to the urban environment. This tendency has determined the milieu, culture and façade of the city also for a long period. Localism, that has been so strong previously in Miskolc, took a back seat.
Although the fast transformation during socialism was very attractive to inmoving workers, it influenced the reputation of the city in a negative way at the same time; the image of the city with a great cultural heritage has been transformed in public thinking into an industrial centre with all its disadvantageous attributes, such as dirty, unhealthy (poor air quality) and uncultured. The emblematic Avas Mountain of the city has become prey to the vast and rapid housing estate projects, completed from brick with traditional technology initially, but followed by panel technology from the 1960s. One of the country's largest panel residential districts was constructed in Miskolc during this period, called Southern Avas District.
Some positive features of the dynamic development were the advanced educational system, the child protection of national reputation, the well-developed health and social network, and finally, in the early 1950s, a long-awaited dream of the city has also come true: the Technical University of Heavy Industry was constructed, forming furnace-, mechanic-and mining engineers for the region. On the other hand, from the late 1980s, thunder clouds began to appear in the form of decreased order numbers, and people could feel that the phenomenon of unemployment (last experienced before WWII) could return… The main tendencies were the following: − unstable population of the city (large absorption but small retention capacity); − replacement and downscaling of the population (loss of qualified workforce and inmoving of low-skilled workers); − self-catalysing character of the above tendencies aggravated by the rigid, one-sided and low-efficiency nature of the economy (Dobrossy, 2002). European) geographical scope (Hajdú, Horeczki, & Rácz, 2017).

From the Change of Regime to Our Days -The Early-Birds and the Main Economic Actors
Starting from the change of regime, several international companies have selected Miskolc as a location site for their production activities, although with a decade-long delay compared to the Western part of the country. In parallel to these inter-and multinational companies, numerous Hungarian-owned small-and medium-sized companies have been operating in the city also. The city's economy could be characterized as diverse, in sectoral terms, with mainly first-and second-level (Tier-1 and Tier-2) supplier companies.
One of the first international companies, the Japanese Shinwa (manufacturing plastic components and solutions, and recently electronic devices also for automotive industry) settled in the city in 1998, and was followed first by the power tool division of Robert Bosch and financial instruments also. These incentives and financial resources had (and still have) a major role not only in the renewal of the city and its built heritage, but also in the increased competitiveness and continuous development of local companies (for more detailed results on the effects of public funds on enterprises in Hungary, see Nyikos-Béres-Laposa, 2020).

Industrial Parks, Industrial and Business Infrastructure
As industrial parks and areas are the main infrastructural tools of local economic development (Egyed, 2012), it is of major importance to all settlements which kind of sites -preferably greenfield areas -could be designated for the purposes of both new industry settlement projects and the reinvestments of existing economic actors. In case of Miskolc, this factor has had an even higher significance in the last decades for two reasons; firstly, because the city possesses extensive brownfield areas on the ruins of the collapsed metallurgy (almost 200 hectares, out of which 45 hectares as DIGÉP site) 1 , and secondly, because up to 2008, the city had been located in the circle of greenfield industrial parks and areas (for example Alsózsolca, Felsőzsolca, Szikszó, Sajóbábony) that absorbed potential investors, with the lack of an own greenfield industrial area, or a dedicated industrial park (maybe uniquely from the Hungarian cities with county rank). The breakthrough, the city's first own greenfield industrial park The third large segment of the city's economy, tourism and culture, is represented by the Miskolc Cultural Cluster (kultMIX) and the Miskolc Gastro Cluster, as one of the latest and most colourful players.

Innovative Forces and Energies
The city has always been well-known for its musical education and choir culture. The  (Bitport, 2014).

Cooperations in the field of Research and Development and Innovation (RDI)
The University of Miskolc has been completing several RDI projects in cooperation with business partners, of which the Higher Education and Industry Cooperation Centre (FIEK) 2 The cooperation focuses on the development and testing of superconductor components of the next generation hadron collider.

Inclusive and Supportive Local Business Environment
Miskolc has always been a welcoming host environment for merchants, craftsmen, producers and other actors of the economy, although recovery from the collapse of heavy industry required more than a decade. Even in the 2000s, heated debates were generated among local leaders on the need to construct a greenfield industrial park in the city. The general public opinion was that the rehabilitation of brownfield areas was more necessary, and these areas were the main sites of foreign direct investment (FDI) support activities coordinated and operated at the national level. For this reason, the Technopolis Competitiveness Pole Programme -and the development of the Mechatronics Industrial Park in particular -was a real milestone and was of outstanding importance. In this respect, the changing attitude of local decision-makers, but also benchmarking activities conducted with other (competing?) cities, mapping of international good practices, advanced cooperation with the national level, sectoral ministries and policies, (re)strengthening of local partnerships, identity and patriotism played a part.
Local economic development activities by the local municipality were launched in parallel to the establishment of Miskolc Holding Zrt., based on international and national good practices with the addition of some institutional innovations also (for example that of Debrecen city, the major difference being that economic development was not included among the activities of the asset management company).
The first step was strategic programming, namely the development of the Technopolis Strategy based on a wide partnership, in a bottom-up process, including a project matrix as 3 Out of which two are connected to e-mobility (for one project Robert Bosch Energy and Body Systems Kft. is the project consortium leader), one to health ndustry, one to services (ICT, call center and one to bank informatics. well. The main identified objectives were (i) modern infrastructure tailored to investors' needs, (ii) efficient, coordinated local organization and business-friendly environment, (iii) cooperative local partnership, (iv) international visibility (Józsa & Nagy, 2013).
As a second step, the Local Economic Development (

City-forming Energies, the Catalysts of Transformation
At the end of the 1980s, the city turned back to its forgotten values, and the reconstruction of the historical city centre and the renewal of the cultural institutions were started. The early 4 This was strengthened and supported by the General block exemption Regulation (800/2008/EC) of the Eropean Commission on temporary state aids because of the global financial and economic crisis.
1990s opened a new chapter in urban planning and development, although these historical years also brought a great deal of uncertainties in local governance; the disintegration of the former social systems and coordinating mechanisms were accompanied with a frequently changing legal-regulatory background and waning governmental financial resources.
The decade following the change of regime was mostly marked by the belief that the city's traditional heavy industry -that secured steady living conditions for the citizens -could still be resurrected. This was supported by local decision-makers also, as they delayed the recognition that Miskolc needed new visions -a part of its history was closed and now something new should begin. Thus, only the second decade after the change of regime brought the insight that the city should be repositioned.  In order to establish an ideal investment-friendly environment, it is indispensable to create (1) special development zones that offer attractive investment environment and the conditions of further growth potential together with (2) the availability of appropriate infrastructural, institutional and service background.  It is also interesting to examine how a new initiative could be formulated and transferred into practice from the policy level, more specifically: what have been the subsequent steps and timeline of the establishment of the Creative Region. Table 2 summarises the policy actions completed so far, based on the relevant government decrees. The intervention logic was as follows: (1) "flagging" the large-scale investment project in the region, of strategic importance for the national economy (e.g.: prioritisation in administrative processes), (2) connected "hard infrastructure" development, (3) delegating a representative from the government (commissioner), (4) connected "soft infrastructure" development, (5) establishment of the decision-making body, (6) elaboration of the programming document, (7) widening of the activity scope of the government representative (8) allocation of resources for short-term project implementation and mid-term programming.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded as a starting point that the so-called Bükk culture that evolved already in B.C. 5000 is special and unique. The openness and ambition to continuous innovations accompany the history of the city, especially in taxation, spatial planning, technologies and sciences, without being exhaustive. Throughout its history, the city has had a pioneering or outstanding role in several aspects distinguishing it from other cities in Hungary. In parallel to these, the fight for separateness and internal division have characterized Miskolc for centuries.
The acquisition of municipal right from 1909 gave a boost to spatial planning and urban development, and the administrative border of the city was significantly extended in the mid-20 th century (with the formation of Greater Miskolc). On the other hand, we cannot ignore the tendencies that shaped the life of citizens in Miskolc and Northern Hungary in the first decades of the 20 th century, namely World War I, the migration waves at the turn of the century, after Trianon and then in the 1930s, the subsequent changes of county borders and the personal losses during World War II. As a summary, the first half of the 20 th century was a troubled period in the history of Miskolc, characterized with outstanding performances and large traumas and ruptures.
Post-WWII, in the era of state socialism, forced industrialization further strengthened the one-sided heavy industry-based character of the local economy, and at the same time, positioned Miskolc as one of the major immigration targets (not for the first time in its history). The local population reached its peak (over 210,000 inhabitants) in 1985, from which date it shows a continuously decreasing trend. Currently, the population of Miskolc is about 155,000, and although the break or reversal of the decreasing trend would be welcome, we should also mention that this is the size for which the local infrastructure forms an optimal background.
With the collapse of heavy industry, several tens of thousands of workplaces were destroyed, causing a severe structural crisis in the city. At the end of the 1980s, the city turned towards its forgotten values and in the 1990s, a new chapter was opened in the history of spatial planning and urban development, accompanied by the uncertainties of local governance. In the decade following the change of regime, city leaders were still hoping that heavy industry could be revitalized, and the recognition that the city should be repositioned only arrived in the 2000s. From these years, the city has embarked on a road towards a sustainable, liveable, safe, smart and environment-cautious city image.
Based on our hypothesis and as a summary of the analysis, we can conclude that there are some characteristics of the city that could be detected at each stage of its development path, such as its openness to innovation and creativity, its friendliness and inclusiveness to all people (e.g: visitors, workers, settling families), its skilled and creative workforce curious and ready for the newest technologies and sciences, its beautiful natural environment, built heritage and good logistic position, and its capability and willingness for regeneration. On the other hand, internal division, the relative lack of cohesive forces and patriotism, local identity and consciousness as a community, culture of cooperation and trust are also characteristics of the city. Miskolc is not unique in Central and Eastern Europe with these features in our days: as a recent study demonstrates, a stronger cohesion in the social dimension, as a general feature, can be observed when examining CEE countries, alongside indicators in territorial cohesion and sharp differences in physical and social geography (Szabó, Kukely, & Bártfai 2019).
It is hard to tell what the future will bring for Miskolc, but in economic terms the city is stabilized to date. In social terms, there is still a lot to do, especially in the field of local patriotism and identity, community development and the institutionalization of collaborations.
Competition for international investment projects, talent, resources, positions, high valueadded activities will be even fiercer in the forthcoming years. Thus, based on the development path presented in the study, it would be advisable to return to our roots, to the 'welcoming city', the (re)attraction of talented professionals, the elimination of divisions and quarrels, and to join all forces in the interest of the city. In this respect, other Hungarian cities may provide several good examples. Collaboration and community-building efforts of those who are eager to work for the city are the key and token for the future of Miskolc.