Miskolc not only survived the catastrophes of the first decades of the 18TH century, it came out rejuvenated as well.

The second half of the century saw the signs of a dynamic development in this direction. The most important was to gain the title of ‘royal free borough'. Seeking new ways of development and broader space, Miskolc tried to separate from Diósgyőr, which belonged to the royal court, a couple of times. In 1702, then in 1731, the town could buy its independence for 25-25 years. In 1755 they made a contract ‘for ever' but it did not last longer then two decades either.

Meanwhile, the Castle of Diósgyőr was blown up by the Austrians, and its condition got worse and worse. Treasury lists spoke about it as a ruin now. Almost two hundred years had to pass by till renovations could begin. (Since 1973, there has been a museum in the renovated old castle of kings and queens.)

The legal status of Miskolc and both the social and religious composition of the town changed in the 18TH century. Beside viniculture and trade, industry and handicrafts developed.

In the forests of the Bükk Mountains around Miskolc, glass-works, iron-works, and paper mills broke the century-old silence.
Henrik Fazola, a blacksmith of German origin, found iron ore and in 1770 managed to build his iron furnace with Maria Theresa's treasury support. Huge hammers driven by the water of the Garadna stream forged the crude iron. A dam was built to provide an even water-level for the iron-works. That was the birth of Lake Hámori. Henrik Fazola's work was continued by his son, Frigyes Fazola, who built the second iron furnace in Újmassa, which in 1868 developed into the state iron factory of Diósgyőr.
The paper industry is almost as old as the ironworks; it has existed since the late 18TH century.

The wars of Napoleon held back the development of Miskolc too for a while. Industries stagnated, and iron could not be sold.
Macedonian and Greek traders from the Balkans and Jewish tradesmen from Poland settled down in our town in great number. Forming their own trade unions, they specialized in the different areas of trade, with the different groups selling different goods. Miskolc became known as the Greek traders' town and later in the 19TH century as a Jewish center. Before World War II, Miskolc had the largest population of Jews in the region.

The developing city-life, the foreign goods of the Greek traders, the one and a half hundred craftsmen of different guilds attracted more and more people to the fairs. That is why the Council decided to build the first multi-storied hostelry in 1750. Noblemen, moving from the country into Miskolc erected rows of Baroque houses in the main street. The first census, decreed by Emperor Joseph II (1780-1790), found 14,179 people in 2,414 houses. The tax lists from that time contain names of doctors, lawyers and chemists in great number.

The population became many-coloured from a religious point of view, just as the institutes belonging to the different Churches proliferated (hospitals, schools, churches and other public institutes). Roman, Greek and Orthodox Catholics, Calvinists, Lutherans, and Jews lived in the town beside each other. The 18TH century ended with the growth of religious and national tolerance, the transformation from market town into an industrial one and the change of the architectural picture. Looking down today from the hill of Avas, we can still see as orientation points the churches and monuments built in the 18TH century.

Wine-production and wine-trade, with all the crafts bound to them, meant a good living for many hundreds of people until the end of the 19TH century when the phylloxera (vine-pest, an insect living on the vines) put an end to it.