Nagyszénás was mentioned for the first time in an offical record on 23rd November 1403 by King Sigismund. So, it is a historical fact that Nagyszénás (ZENASEGHÁZA /Szénásegyháza/ ) was inhabited at this time. Moreover, it means that our village exsisted at least from the end of the 14th century. The existence of Nagyszénás cannot be certified earlier than 1375-1380 until other records, documents will be found.

The placenames are known from land donation certificates where the names of the villages are listed. The identification of the names requires some research. However, it is easy to understand the names of the villages in this particular record. These names and the mention of the nearby Szenttornya makes it clear that Zenasegháza is known today as Nagyszénás.

Had Nagyszénás existed before 1375-1380? Possibly it had. The documents mention 22 settlements in Bekes county until the Mongol invasion (1241-42) and 22 until the middle of the 14th century. Since four of the settlements /Békés, Szarvas, Ege, Gyúr/ are documented in both periods, we know only 38 of the Békés county settlements from Árpád-age. However, Júlia Kovalovszki showed signs of 43 villages only in Orosháza’s 30x30 km area, so the number of settlements in this period could be around 150. Szénás probably was one of them. It is worh to mention that the name of Szarvas stands in a land donation certificates in 1200, Kondoros in 1229, Gádoros in 1436 and Orosháza is 1446.

Since the placenames were recorded because of the possession rights, these documents cannot show the real map of settlements. We should calculate on more villages than there are mentioned in the records.

”The medieval Orosháza was researched by Júlia Kovalovszki. She collected 53 quarries from which 43 could have been settlements. In connection with our examined period she has three definitions: 1. A village with church from Árpád-age, 2. A village without church from Árpád-age, 3. late-medieval village with Árpád-age antecendent” 2

Júlia Kovalovszki illustrated her research on maps. According to the maps, today’s Nagyszénás was located north-west from its recent location. It probably stood where Pálmatér today is. On the bank of the former Szénás-rill two settlements from the 10-11st century could have stood (with and without church), meanwhile she implies that there was a cemetery on the south, in Hajdúvölgy, from the time of the Hungarian Conquest .

So, Szénás could have existed in the Árpád-age. Until other documents, records are not found the inquestionable fact is that the area of our village was continuously inhabited. This settlement was called Szénásegyháza on the turn of 14-15th century which could unequivocally become Nagyszénás.

The area’s hydrogeology, soil quality and flora play extremely important roles in the birth of the inhabited settlements. The optimal formation of them provides the proper conditions for crop production and livestock-breeding. Actually, the natural conditions of the county are the same since the Conquest: the rivers are running where they did a thousand year ago and the terrain conditions have not changed either. Because of the erosion, the upfilling, the agriculture and stream-regulation most of the smaller natural watercourses do not exist anymore. However, there used to be many natural rills and streams in the area of our village in this examined age.
The ancestral community used the Szénás-rill and the watercourses in Hajdúvölgy as drinking-troughs and water supply.
Furthermore, Tibor Mendöl noted that people probably used groundwater to satisfy their water needs as well. The names like Székkutas and Kútvölgy imply that people dug wells. Not only the water supplies were provided, there were also high quality fields, meadows.The name of Szénás is a memory of these meadows. Furthermore, raising livestock played an important role in this region.
Probably, the people of Nagyszénás kept animals for a living. However, a tax summary from 150 years later includes wheat-, hemp- and cabbage taxes, we can still only assume that people producted their own grain and vegetables in the end of the 14th century. This can be justified only by other research, excavation.
The settlers arrived around 895 in this region, Tisza’s valley was among the first regions to be occupied. They settled near to waters, these settlements became permanent villages later. Many of their cemeteries were unfolded there.
To sum up, the hydrogeological and geographic conditions of the ancestral Nagyszénás and the settlement organising traditions of this age give us the conclusion that there was every condition provided for the existence of an animal keeping, and agricultural settlement. The cemetery from the time of the Conquest inHajdúvölgy, the village with a church and the village without a church on the bank of the Szénás-rill confirm that this area was inhabited since the Conquest.

Nagyszénás belonged to the lordship of Gyula which was given to the Marothi family in 1403. The Marothis reformed Békés county profoundly. They had the Castle of Gyula built between 1403-1405. This castle was not only the most important strength of the Maros-Körös köz, but also became the centre of the county sized lordship. Therefore, Gyula had become the centre of agricultural production in its most developed period before the Turkish times.
The first news about Nagyszénás’ people –according to Karácsonyi’s book- is from 1468 when eleven serfs / Oláh, Nemze, Szabó, Bakócz, Kolompár, Szénási, Csiszár, Baka/ took part in the destroying of Sopron. The first judge of Szénás was Lukács Bánya who attended the inauguration of Szentetornya’s judge.
The lordship was given to the king again in 1476. The town of Gyula, its people and salesmen were given privilage by King Mathias in this year. This shows the development and importance of the town. Gyula and the lordship, including Szénás, were donated to John Corvinus in 1482.
John Corvinus presented it to one of his devotees, Michael Várkonyi but he took it back from him shortly. The serfs in Nagyszénás could have been really violent since 41 of them were arrested in Donáthtornya in 1498, even the judge, Máté Sólyom was among them. The others were: Szabó, Vadas, Gyenge, Kajla, Tatár, SzÅ?ke, TÅ?zsér, Okri, Dienese, Belczi, Koros, Botos, Nagy, Igód, Pazmad, Veleszi, Majos, Tok, Fodor, Polgár, Bacz, Tóth, Pap és Kis.
From this time on /from the end of the 15th century/ Szénás appeared in many records, documents. It always mentioned as the part of the Gyula lordship, for example the diploma in 1506, in which Wladislaw II donated the lordship to Elisabeth (daughter of John Corvinus), listed the villages of the lordship including Szénás as well. The history of Szénás and Körös-Maros köz was deeply connected.

After the death of John Corvinus’s widow and daughter /both of them were buried in Gyula/ Wladislaw II gave the lordship to George of Brandenburg in 1510. This way, this area was provided for Wladislaw II against Szapolyai who was forging ahead in Transylvania.
After the defeat in Mohács the county became a sticking point. Parties couldn’t reach an agreement on which king they should support. (Ferdinand Habsburg or John Szapolyai)
Szapolyai occupied the Castle of Gyula with the help of bishop Imre Czibak in 1530. From now on, Czibak owned Szénás and they even occupied the fields called ”Nádas” and ”Bodzás.”
Some data from the middle of the 16th century: Szénás used to be a quite big village. There were taxes paid after 42 gates in 1553, after 76 in 1556, after 81 in 1560, after 109 in 1562 and after 91 gates in 1864.

Lukács Kis was the judge in 1559, then Máté Hegedűs was elected who rejected the position, instead of him Kelemen Nagy became the judge.
 „The system of the agriculture was the same here as well. The serfs did every work and gave the ninth of the harvest to the landlord. Later the landlords made them work on their lands for free, this was the grange farming. According to a census there were grange farming in MezÅ?-Berény, Gyúr, Kondoros, Décse, Szénás, Eperjes and Püly in 1561. 

The 'ispán' controlled all incomes of the landship for the landlord.
At the end of August 1566 the Turkish occupied Gyula, so Szénás felt under Turkish rule. They occupied a developing, improved Békés county with modern agriculture including a flourishing Szénás.
Since this area functioned as a protection line, not so many Turkish family moved there. Still, the newly occupied Hungarian regions were inserted into the Osman Empire’s administration system.

The Osman Empire created a special type of feudalism, since the property of the Turkish state belonged to the sultan. Practically, the taxes meant the income of the sultan, therefore many tax census were done. These are called defters. Our village featured in two defters: in 1567 and in 1579.
Naturally, as in every feudal state, the sultan donated lands. For example TIMÁR-land was given to the church. However, the new landlords only used the land, it did not bacome their property. That is why, they tried to get as much benefits from them as they could. This is the so called ’stealing farming’. The lands that were not donated had better conditions to develop, Nagyszénás was one of these HASZ lands. Inhabitants payed taxes annual.
In the census the householders name, his single sons, his son-in-laws and his brothers (if they lived in the same household), even his servant were recorded. Only the householders surname was registered, the others were listed only with their firsnames. The number of the lambs were registered above the names. The householder was the taxpayer.

Szénás had to pay 35 000 akcse /the currency/ tax a year. After 1579 this price went up to 70 000 akcse. /approximately 1 akcse was the price of 1kg wheat/ To be able to pay this tax, trading became really important. As a proof of this, there is a document mentioning that people from Szénás sold 410 cattles in Vác in 1563.
What kind of taxes did they pay?

Every householder paid dzsije tax /gate tax/ which was 50 akcse in every year. Furthermore, they paid the ten procent of the harvest (wheat, heam, hay, cabbage, lens, fruits). There were taxes for beehives, lambs, wine selling and firewood. Taxes were paid for getting married and even for the fines. An average family paid 311 akcse in 1567 and 483 akcse in 1579. The number of taxpayer families were the following: 133 families in 1563, 113 in 1567 and 145 in 1579. This means that Szénás was the fourth biggest settlement in Békés county at this time.
Above these taxes, the Turkish made people pay taxes for wars. The life of local people was even more difficult because of the Hungarian landlords since they also tried to enforce their rights.

István Szénássy became the landlord in 1572. He made the serfs pay the tithe and the ninth. Moreover, he ordered that wheat and barley have to be sown for him. Serfs had to scythe and carry timber for free for a week.
Meanwhile lords started to fight for this land – because of its good soil- Szénássy and the Várkonyi family (the offsprings of Mihály Várkonyi for whom John Corvinus donated the land) were litigating.
During the Turkish regime the landlords left the county, while the serfs stayed. However, they were recording their lands, and sent armed tax-collectors.

So, the occupation, the high taxes by the sultan and by the landlords didn’t mean the destruction of Szénás. Moreover, the population had grown with 32 families in 13 years. In a more peaceful region our village would have become a town.
In contrary, the Mongols attacked this area. The people were killed, the villages were burnt down. Szénás was destroyed as well. The county was almost totally deserted at the beginning of the 17th century.
Szénás had been ’puszta’ until the resettlement at the beginning of the 19th century.
The medieval Szénás probably existed from the Hungarian conquest and surely from the end of the 14th century until 1596. This settlement, village can be considered as the ancestor of Nagyszénás, their history is the first chapter of our history. Today’s Szénás has got not only present and future, but a respectful past as well.
Respect for the forefathers.