Our Company     |     Partners     |     Encyclopedia     |     About us Our History - Maps in the Making Our company was founded in 1990. Until 1994 it operated as a deposit company, since then it has been existing in the form of a limited company. After a short period of experimenting, cartography became our main profile. Between 1990 and 1994 we accomplished the linear maps of several hundred Hungarian settlements, the maps of the counties complemented with their coats of arms and the map of Hungary. With this, being the greatest achievement in Hungary, we managed to surpass among others Cartographia Ltd., the successor of Cartographia Corporation, which was in a monopolistisc position at that time. The organization of cartographic publications was administered by 10 direct collaborators at our headquarters in Gyula, 10-15 subcontractors were woking simultaneously on the company's publications and 50-60 advertisement organizers were arranging ads to finance our cartographic activities. In the autumn of 1994, when ours became a limited company, we pegged at creating the maps of all (~3150) Hungarian settlements as our primary objective - a job no other companies had dared undertake. As accomplishing the maps one by one seemed a mission impossible, we ended up doing and publishing several settlement maps at a time, which brought up the idea of a County Atlas containing the maps of all the settlements within a certain county, together with a trilingual outline on each of them, information of public interest and completed with photoes. By 1999 we brought forth all of the county maps and an irregular one containing the settlements surrounding Lake Balaton. This series eventually created a ground-breaking new genre in Hungarian - and as far as our experience goes, also international - cartography, resulting in ours being the single one company to have the digital and printed maps of each and every settlement in Hungary. At that time a staff of 30 people worked at our headquarters in Gyula, which we meanwhile swapped for a modern office block. In addition to this, a number of cartographic experts from all over the country sub-contracted to us accomplishing our maps and hundreds of advertisement organizers were arranging ads in various publications on a country-wide scale for us to be able to finance our workings. We have been experiencing a change of paradigm. At the onset of our history - in 1990 -, traditional cartographic technologies shapen during centuries were used to create maps, that were finalized on drafting board tables. Around 1993 Bimap Dc., that had been our subcontractor (since 1990 - and further on till 1994) exclusively in traditional map-making, owing to its innovative director started to experiment with computerised cartography. Two years later all our cartographic projects were accomplished by computer, by a multiplied number of sub-contractors (Dimap Dc., Sollun Dc., Atlasz Dc., Térkép Stúdió, Cartographia Ltd., Firbás Dc., Erina Gmk., etc.). This circle of cartographers more or less equalled the expertise of the time in map-making. Around 1996 customers with expressed requests for digital maps appeared. The following 3 years were devoted to transforming HISZI maps into GIS (Geographical Information System) databases. The major companies of the country, including the two leading cola-companies, purchased the maps of towns from us. In the first period (from 1998 to 2000) the transformation of graphic maps of the ~3150 Hungarian settlements into EOV projection took place. In the second period (from 2000 to 2002) the survey of corner-point house numbers of all the Hungarian settlements was accomplished. The third phase, meaning the thorough, integrated survey of the highway codes and POIs concerning all Hungarian settlements, is still in progress. In 2001-2002 we brought into being TOP-MAP Ltd., seated in Budapest. Between 1999 and 2002 we conducted a unique cartographic survey by GPS - revolutionary in terms of technology. Today all GIS (Geographical Information System) innovations involving a significant number of settlement maps take place using HISZI-MAP Ltd.'s original survey data. Our Romanian Activities: In 1996, after the successful launch of a County Atlas series, we started preparations for the publication of a Romanian County Atlas series. Visiting the heads of local governments in 10 Transylvanian counties, we set off to accomplish the atlas of Hargita county. It was our aim to adapt the 'know-how' of the County Atlas. We managed to find in Miercurea-Ciuc and Odorheiu Secuiesc the most significant enterprises to complete jobs as far as finance, cartography, photography and written outlines of settlements are concerned. The publication of the Atlas was a success, except for one thing: the actual launch. Our Romanian business partners, seeing that our project was meant to be an inevitable success, simply excluded us from the publication of further county maps, knowing that the preparation process for those is already under way and hoping that further moves towards the completion would be welcome by the counties anyway. This put us off Romanian atlas and map-making for three years, but we started again in 2000. The success of the second 'run' can be measured by a brand new County Atlas, a second one in progress and the maps of ~900 Romanian settlements. Exhibitions: We have taken part in trade exhibitions of the highest account in Hungary and abroad since 1992. The 'Travel' Fair, the Info Fair, the Frankfurt Bookfair and the Logistics World Fair are the most memorable ones for us. The Frankfurt Bookfair in 1995 mad us aware that our County Atlas series is unique even on an internarional scale. We wish to give The Great Atlas of Hungary as a present to the country after its joining the European Union... Telefon: +36 (66) 561-530   E-mail: hiszi-map@hiszi-map.hu     Top