Szakoly was first mentioned in
1290. Inhabited area as early as the
Avars age was built by
B.C. II.-I. century. This is evidenced by several archaeological finds. During the reign of
King of Bela III. of
Hungary, it was a hospital in Szakoly. Here was a county assembly in
1320. It were owned by the
Zakoly family in
1487, hence the name of the settlement known today. The
Turks almost completely destroyed the settlement in the
18th century. As a border settlement, it was part of the
Kingdom of Hungary and the
Principality of Transylvania. Szakoly was annexed to
Romania for a year, only to return to
Hungary again after the
Trianon peace dictatorship in
World War II. During the
Horthy era, many emigrated to America (
USA,
Canada). Szakoly's fire brigade was established in
1992. Hungary's first greenfield biomass power plant was built here, with a production capacity of 19.8 MW. Operating since
2009, it is now owned and strategically important by the French
Veolia Group. An extremely rare event was observed, aurora borealis in
2024. == Economy ==