The village of Mérk is situated near the border between Hungary and Romania, where the Nyirjan sand and the Ecsedi marsh meet in an east-west direction, on the banks of the Kraszna river, about 62 km from Nyíregyháza.
Its name is said to be derived from a personal name by some people from a Hungarian eponymy, based on the personal name Mérk, popular in Old Hungarian, which may be derived from the Slavic personal name Mirk. According to other theories, the name of the village was probably Merch, the ispan of the Germans of Satu Mare.
Its climate is between a moderately warm and a moderately cool climate zone. A large part of its forests is characterised by acacia, with oak, hard and soft deciduous trees and pine. Open communities include sand scrub and shrubland, with the presence of ploughs and peat strawberries. The soils are meadow mire, humic sand and marshy meadow soils.
Access: from road 471, on the lower road branching off at Nyírbátor. The nearest towns, Mátészalka and Nyírbátor, are connected by daily bus services. There is no direct railway line through the village, the nearest railway station is in Tiborszállás.
The village appeared in 1299 as the estate of a certain Nicholas. The charter issued a year later informs that Ákos nb. István, the king's judge, donated this settlement to his daughter. In 1318, King Charles I of the clan of Ákos was stripped of their property for disloyalty and made the Gut-Keled nb. Bátori Bereck's son János. From that time on, he shared the fate of the manor as an appendage of the Ecsed castle. After 1613, it became the property of the Transylvanian princes ( Bethlen, then György Rákóczi ), and after the death of Ferenc Rákóczi II, it was given to Count Aspremont by his daughter Juliet, thus escaping confiscation.
In 1724, Sándor Károlyi bought the estate from the Aspremont family, settled Swabians and from then until 1945 it was part of the Károlyi estate of Nagykárolyi. After the turn of the century, the village, which had been settled by Germans in the 18th century, retained its cultural distinctiveness, but assimilation began in earnest.
The Treaty of Trianon separated the village from the Greater Karolyn area. The new catchment area became the villages of Mátészalka and Nyírbátor, 20 km from Mirek. The decline of the Swabian culture can be counted from this time, since the Swabian settlements (Csanálos, Fény, Börvely) were annexed to Romania. The territorial unity of the closed Swabian settlements was dissolved.
In the First World War 26 people from the village died heroically. After the Second World War, nearly 300 people were deported from the village to the so-called "Hungarian camps". After the Second World War, over 300 people from the settlement were sent to the "Malenky robot" to the Soviet Union because of their Swabian origin. This is the period when there were mass requests for name changes, e.g. Reszler became Révész, Linzenbold became Losonci, Schrek became Somogyiak, etc.
The organisation of the SS in 1960 went off without a hitch, which is explained by the fact that the Swabians, who had experienced many hardships, did not want to experience any more.
The administrative classification of the village in 1990: a large village with an independent mayor and an independent body of representatives in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county.
1/2003/I.29./Kt. of the Municipal Council of Mérk Nagyközség on the establishment and use of the local coat of arms and flag
The members of the Assembly, feeling their responsibility for the municipality of Mérk, decided to make a coat of arms and a flag for our municipality, with which we will commemorate our past, draw strength for the present and send a message to the future generation of our municipality.
The coat of arms is the symbol that reflects on the flag the love of the ancestors for their homeland, their appreciation of their homeland, their source of livelihood. It shows the determination, strength and struggle that prove that it is always and everywhere worth doing good and doing well, an example of heroism, humanity, and the testing times.
Written sources repeatedly describe our village as a village destroyed by war, fires and epidemics, but always reviving. Rebuilding has always made it more beautiful, but its inhabitants have always been intrigued by the memory of the past, of when and how our village was founded.
Folk tales, legends and legends are always woven through the memory of the people.
Our Assembly uses the memory of the people when it defines the local coat of arms and flag as a symbol.
According to an old and now forgotten legend, Gábor Báthori marched with his army against the Turks.
A fearsome dragon tried to stop their march, which could only be averted by fighting the dragon. Gábor Báthori was asked, "Will you stand against it? The answer: I dare. Where this word was uttered, a village was later founded on the site, its name derived from the word Merk, and later became known as Mérk.
According to legend, the first time the knight wounded the dragon in the shoulder, the village of Vallaj was founded. Then, having defeated the dragon, he threw its carcass into the nettle shed, where the village of Csanálos was founded.
The coat of arms depicts the moment when, as a test of courage, the hero is preparing for a duel against the dragon.
The Assembly will immortalise this moment in time as a coat of arms for posterity.
The shape of the shield is upright, with a tapered base, and the proportions are in the classic 8:7 (length to width) ratio.
The coat of arms - heraldic images - and glazes, and the shield field with the name of the place - MÉRK - contain the local legend of the origin of the place, as well as the centuries-old works and desires of the people living here.
The heraldic images together tell the story, the shapes used are in accordance with the established heraldic rules - stylized in planes - their colouring is in accordance with the requirements of heraldry glazes - colour and metal.
The shield is divided in two by a convex arch from the front to the left of the shield crest, in the lower third.
The part below the arc refers to the geographical features of the area. The curved hill shape and its dark green glaze refer to the fertile agricultural character of the area, while the three light blue undulating bands at the bottom of the hill represent the marshy, waterlogged character of the area and the Kraszna River, which runs alongside the village.
The curved field is also used to support and hold the two heraldic images in the coat of arms.
The protagonists of the legend appear in the upper two-thirds of the coat of arms, in a solid light blue field, which is the colour of the sky in the background.
On the right side of the shield field is an imaginary figure of the dragon, which is a symbol of evil, evil , the devil in the Christian faith world. The dragon is a four-legged creature, in accordance with heraldic conventions and expectations. The dragon stands on one leg facing towards the centre of the coat of arms, and with the other three legs it takes up an attacking stance, facing the armoured knight with its snarling mouth. The glaze is gold-yellow in accordance with heraldic rules.
On the left side of the shield, facing right, opposite the dragon, stands the main figure of the coat of arms, the armoured knight. He is the noble knight for whom the village is named - the conqueror of evil, the Christian knight in armour of pure virtue - with a silver medallion. He enters the fray with his left foot forward, his sword raised above his head in an attacking stance, ready to strike. His costume is a stylized armoured knight's dress and equipment, with a straight sword, the helmet guard lowered, a large triangular shield with a red glaze, and a double cross (crux patriarchalis) filling the shield, known in international literature as the Hungarian cross.
The two coats of arms - the dragon and the knight - are roughly identical in size and proportions, intended to represent the heroic struggle between evil and good as forces of similar size.
The coat of arms includes both organic and inorganic natural figures from the natural world, man-made objects and the imaginary figure, so that it almost entirely encompasses the figures of heraldic representations.
The coat of arms is framed by a baroque frill, except for the lower part, where the name of the municipality of MÉRK appears on a green front and gold back strip in a similar style. The ribbon is symmetrical, but the two sides have different glazes. On the right side of the coat of arms - on the dragon's side - the ribbon is dark grey and red - symbolising struggle, sadness, blood and destruction, while on the left side of the coat of arms - on the knight's side - the ribbon is green and gold - symbolising renewal, life, hope and wealth.
(The coat of arms was designed by Péter Dániel, Professor, Nyíregyháza Teacher Training College, Department of Drawing)
White base with a green-gold wolf's tooth frame with the coat of arms in the centre. The upper corner of the flag is green, the lower corner is green with a gold fleur-de-lis.
