Magyar Posta is issuing a promotional personalised stamp to celebrate Kaposvár. Thirty-five thousand copies of the philatelic novelty made by printing on the label part of the Your Own Stamp personalised stamp were produced by the banknote printing company Pénzjegynyomda. It can be purchased at Filaposta and designated post offices or ordered from Magyar Posta’s online store from 4 April 2023.
Kaposvár is a city with county rights, which is located among the hills of South Transdanubia, and has been the seat of Somogy County since 1749. It has a population of roughly 60,000. Kapos, the river it lies on, was first mentioned in records in 1009 and its Benedictine abbey was founded in 1061. Kaposvár’s castle was extended continually from the 14th century onwards and was occupied by Ottoman forces in 1555. The fortress was liberated from Turkish occupation in 1686 but the town, which had just begun to develop, was almost totally destroyed during Rákóczi’s War of Independence in the early 18th century. The history of Kaposvár as it is today dates from 1712, when Prince Pál Esterházy issued a permit to settlers. It was mainly the merchants and artisans who went there to live after that who launched Kaposvár on the road of civic development. The construction of the first railway line in 1872 gave new impetus to the prosperity of the town. Kaposvár was declared a council administered city in 1873, a status it has held continuously for 150 years. In 1950, 1970 and 1973, several neighbouring municipalities were annexed to it. Since 1993, it has been the seat of a bishopric. In 2000 the University of Kaposvár was established by the merger of the higher education institutions operating in the city, and it is now the Kaposvár Campus of the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The city centre of Kaposvár was largely built in the second half of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century. The mainly eclectic and Art Nouveau buildings, together with streets lined with different species of trees, lush vegetation and fountains, create an attractive and welcoming cityscape. Since the 1910s, Kaposvár has been referred to as the “City of Flowers” and has also been closely associated with the name and work of the famous Hungarian painter József Rippl-Rónai.
The main element of the label for the stamp is the City Hall, opened in 1904, and the city’s central public place, Kossuth Square. The well-known and popular Csiky Gergely Theatre, which opened in 1911, and the arms of the city appear on the first day cover. The imprint of the special postmark on the first day cover features a composition referring to the anniversary.
