Zemplén County

Zemplén was an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. The northern part of its territory is now situated in eastern Slovakia, while a smaller southern portion of the former county belongs to Hungary, as part of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County.

Geography

Zemplén county shared borders with Poland and the Hungarian counties Sáros, Abaúj-Torna, Borsod, Szabolcs and Ung. It was situated in the easternmost strip of what is now Slovakia, plus a strip along the Bodrog and Tisza rivers in present-day Hungary. The rivers Laborc and Bodrog flowed through the county. Its area was 6,269 km² around 1910.

Initially, the capital of the county was the Zemplín Castle, in the 13th century also Sárospatak. Since the Late Middle Ages the capital was the town of Zemplén, and since 1748 was Sátoraljaújhely.

Zemplén was one of the oldest counties of the Kingdom of Hungary. In the aftermath of World War I, in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon the northern part of Zemplén county became part of newly formed Czechoslovakia. The southern half stayed in Hungary as the county of Zemplén. Following the provisions of the First Vienna Award, an additional part became part of Hungary again in November 1938. The Trianon borders were restored after World War II, and the Hungarian county Zemplén merged with Abaúj, the most of Borsod-Gömör and a little part of Szabolcs counties to form the present Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County.

In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of Zemplén county were:
The towns of Sátoraljaújhely, Sárospatak, Tokaj and Szerencs are now in Hungary, except for a small northern part of Sátoraljaújhely to the northeast of the Ronyva stream in Slovakia, now a small village with its own artificial Slovak name Slovenské Nové Mesto.