Miskolc, city in northeastern Hungary, capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, located on the Sajó River at the mouth of the Szinva River. The city lies at the eastern foot of the Bükk Mountains in a pass called the Miskolc Gate, and its water supply is derived from perennial limestone springs in the Bükks. Miskolc is an agricultural market center trading in grain, tobacco, wine,and fruit; vineyards and lignite mines are nearby. A road and rail hub, the city is the second most important industrial center in Hungary after Budapest. Industries include iron and steel mills, engineering works, machine shops, flour, paper, and textile mills, tobacco warehouses, and wineries. Motor vehicles, locomotives, food products, glass, apparel, cement, furniture, bricks, soap, and candles also are produced. The city is the site of a technical university specializing in heavy industry, a law school, a music conservatory, a 13th-century Gothic church, and a museum containing 6th-century BC Scythian and Bronze Age artifacts. Miskolc was sacked by the Mongols in the 13th century and by the Ottomans in the 17th and 18th centuries. Most of the city's industries developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Population (1999 estimate) 176,629.
