capital in the 18th century, mostly because the councils were always held there, because of its importance in the Ottoman times and because it wasn't the estate of a local lord, unlike the other towns in Zala. The county hall was built between 1730 and 1732 in Baroque style, and for a long time it was the only significant building of the town. In the 1760s a large church and a barracks was built. Most of the citizens still not owned stone-built houses, and fires often destroyed the town, until 1826, when stone buildings were built.
Until the early 19th century there were only a few craftsmen and merchants in the town, because they had to pay taxes to the bishop who owned the city. By the 1830s 10% of the residents of the mostly Roman Catholic town were Jewish, but even they did not give a boost to trade. Because of this, even though the town was the centre of administration, economically and culturally it wasn't really important. Even though it had about 3500 residents, it had only two primary schools. The cultural centres of the comitatus were Kanizsa and Keszthely.
Zalaegerszeg played only a minor role in the revolution and freedom fight in 1848-49. In 1870 it lost its town status and became a village, which meant a decrease in prestige, even more so, since Nagykanizsa kept its town status. On May 31, 1885 Zalaegerszeg became a town again. In 1887 the village of Ola was annexed to the town. In 1890 the railway line between Ukk and Csáktornya (Croatian: Čakovec) connected Zalaegerszeg to the railway system of the country. In 1895 several new buildings were built, including a new secondary school, a town hall, a hotel, a nursery school and a brick factory, but the town ran into debt and the mayor, Károly Kovács had to resign. His successor, Lajos Botfy decreased the debt and could continue the development of the town, but in the early 20th century Zalaegerszeg was still behind the other county seats in many ways.
The 1920s brought
