of the 2nd Ukrainian Front found only a couple thousand people when they entered the decimated city on 4 November 1944, in the course of the Budapest Offensive. During the Socialist era, Szolnok began to recover with Soviet aid. Factories were built, and touristic importance grew when a thermal bath was opened. Szolnok was granted the rank of city with county rights on November 13, 1990. Demographics In 2001, the population of Szolnok consisted of 98% Hungarian, 1% Gypsy, and 1% people of other nationalities (mainly German). Szolnok's population reached its highest level in 1989 with almost 82,000 people. Since then it has been slowly but steadily declining; it is predicted to sink to 70,000 by the year 2020. Main sights Bath Beer Museum and Manufactory - Sörárium Museum of Hungarian Aviation Damjanich János Museum The Synagogue Tiszavirág Bridge Politics The current mayor of Szolnok is Ferenc Szalay (Fidesz-KDNP). The local Municipal Assembly, elected at the 2019 local government elections, is made up of 18 members (1 Mayor, 12 Individual constituencies MEPs and 5 Compensation List MEPs) divided into this political parties and alliances: List of mayors List of City Mayors from 1990: Sport Szolnoki MÁV FC, football team Szolnoki Légierő SK, defunct football team Szolnoki Olaj KK, basketball team Szolnoki Vízilabda SC, waterpolo team Festivals Goulash Festival Tiszavirág Festival Notable people Born in Szolnok Ferenc Anisits (born 1938) engineer, founder of BMW Diesel Development Center Rev Peter Bedekovics (born 1989) Reformed minister, national chair of the Hungarian Scout Association Csaba Horváth (1930–2004) chemical engineer and inventor of HPLC Zoltán Jeney (1943–2019) composer Gina Kanizsa (born 1988), jazz singer Hedvig Karakas (born 1990) Olympic Judoka Katalin Karikó (born 1955) biochemist, senior vice president at BioNTech Ferenc Molnár (born 1982), Hungarian singer Arpád Račko (1930–2015) Slovak sculptor Gábor Szabó, architect Gizella Tary (1884–1960) Olympic fencer Lived in Szolnok Bertalan Farkas (born 1949), cosmonaut Martin Nedić (1810–1895) Croatian poet Viktor Orbán (born 1963), prime minister Gábor Szegő (1895–1985), mathematician International relations A public transport stop in the Estonian city of Tallinn is named for Szolnok. Twin towns – sister cities Szolnok is twinned with: Baia Mare, Romania (1990) Bengbu, China Bielsko-Biała, Poland (1995) Eastwood, England, UK (2006) Forlì, Italy (1998) Jinzhong, China Rakvere, Estonia (2008) Reutlingen, Germany (1990) Riihimäki, Finland (1969) Sanmenxia, China (2008) Shoham, Israel (2001) Yuza, Japan (2004) References Notes External links Official site in Hungarian, English and German Aerial