Gönc

Gönc was a market town in Abaúj county, south of Košice. Founded among settlements of German colonists, it grew through trade and guild crafts and held weekly markets and several annual fairs. A timber palisade enclosed the town, whose council governed its inhabitants and kept records in Hungarian.

The Reformation gave Gönc a place in Hungarian literary history. Gáspár Károlyi became its Reformed minister in 1563 and led a group of translators in preparing the first complete Hungarian Bible, a project that occupied the scholars for several years. The work was printed at nearby Vizsoly and completed in 1590. Károlyi's long ministry and the translation linked the market town to a wider movement to make scripture available in the vernacular throughout Hungary.