Karcag

Karcag was a Cuman town in the Nagykunság whose privileges survived only through repeated struggles. Ottoman warfare devastated the settlement after the battle of Mezőkeresztes in 1596; rebuilding began around 1618–1620. Further Crimean Tatar attacks brought burning and captivity in the late seventeenth century.

In 1702 Leopold I sold the Jászkun districts to the Teutonic Order, compromising the inhabitants' cherished freedoms. The communities eventually redeemed their lands and rights, and Maria Theresa confirmed their restored privileges in her charter of 6 May 1745. These included choosing local officials and clergy and exemption from seigneurial obligations. Karcag also asserted its religious life through construction: work on a larger Reformed church began in 1743 despite official obstruction. That church was completed in 1756, then rebuilt in 1793–1797, giving the recovering town a substantial new place of worship.