Ancient Times

According to the most recent archeological findings, traces of human settlement(s) from the bronze age can be found on the river banks of Kanjiza (presently: the Fishermen's Square), while the earliest human traces were found in Tresnjevac from the neolithic age. The formation of early human settlements can be interpreted by the favourable conditions of the region (plentitude of water) as well as the fact, that the earliest crossing (haven) on the Tisa was beyond the Maros river discharge.

    Close to the haven - in order to safeguard the crossing on the river- a watchtower was built on the highest peak of the terrain during the Roman age and later in the age of migrations, then, a fortification was built at the discharge of the Koros creek into the river Tisa. The brook was named by the Slavs living there in the 9th century and it appeared in the first written Hungarian sources after the Hungarian conquest as CNESA and KENESNA respectively, and is one of those Slav names that has survived all the turbulent centuries of the Tisa region.

    According to a document dated 1093, after the Hungarian conquest, Kanjiza was a principal estate of the Pannonhalma Benedictine Abbey. This property located by the "discharge of the Cnesa creek" was awarded to the Benedictine Abbey together with a fishpond called Miruth by Kind Salamon (1066-1074). In the archives of the Pannohalma Benedictine Abbey there are still six documents from the period between 1093 and 1240 referring to Kanjiza.

    Kanjiza is also mentioned in the Hungarian conquest tale of Anonymus as a place where the Hungarians crossed the river Tisa in 896 in order to conquer the territory between the rivers of Maros, Tisa and Danube from the Bulgarian king, Glad. These sources evidence that Kanjiza in the early 13th century - in the age of Anonymus - was a wellknown crossing place on the Tisa.

    At the time of the Tartar invasion in the region of the river Tisa, Kanjiza was devastated and for several hundred years no mentioning can be found in historical documents, though in 1335 it appears again as VILLA CANYSA, i.e. the village of Kanizsa, in a document on the border crossing allowances referring to the neighbouring settlement, ADORJAN.

    From the nearby settlements - that survived the turbulent ages of history - Adorjan is mentioned in sources from the 12th century (1198), than MARTONOS (1237) in the 13th century and HORGOS in the early 14th century (1502). These wealthy villages of farmers, fishermen and husbandry became victims of the Turkish invasion in 1526. At the outset of the Turkish Rule those Hungarians who survived, settled in Martonos and Szentpéter (a settlemen that was located near Horgos and completely deserted in the 18th century), while after 1553 the deserted villages - and Kanjiza, too - were settled by south Slavs. Still, the frequent wars between the Hungarian and Turkish armies in the 17th century forced this population - small in number though - to desert the region and so they become homless.

    mgr. Dobos János