Cerovo is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the Krupina District

Krupina District

Krupina District is a district inthe Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. Until 1918, the district was in the Hungarian Hont County.- Municipalities :*Bzovík*Cerovo*Čabradský Vrbovok*Čekovce*Devičie*Dolné Mladonice...

 of the Banská Bystrica Region

Banská Bystrica Region

The Banská Bystrica Region is one of the Slovak regions in the country of Slovakia in Europe.-Geography:It is located in the central part of Slovakia and has an area of 9,455 km². The region is prevailingly mountains, with several ranges within the area. The highest of them are the Low Tatras...

 of Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

.

History

The village was first mentioned as Chery in a charter in 1273, its name is derived from Old Slavic "cěrъ"/Slovak "cer"/Hungarian "cser" (the Hungarian word is derived from the Slavic one), which means Turkey oak. It had Slovak

Slovaks

The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...

 inhabitants.
Scarce ruins of old Litava castle can be found south-west of Cerovo on northern end of Pustý hrad mountain. The Litava Castle was built by Hunt or his son, Big Derž (Derš, Hungarian: Ders) from the Hunt-Poznan family. The castle was first mentioned in 1276. In this year, the grandchildren of Lambert, of the Hunt-Poznan family, Small Derž (Ders) and Demeter captured Litava and robbed values of 3000 marks and charters. Therefore the king sentenced them loss of property, and gave their property to Big Derž from the Hunt-Poznan family. Before 1307 Nicholas Túri Kövér, son of Big Derž of the Hunt-Poznan, exchanged castle Litava with his relatives, Derž and Demeter of Hunt. In 1318 master Tomáš, son of Derž of Hunt-Poznan, protested against the occupation of Litava by Matthew Csák. The castle perished not more after it probably during struggles of the oligarchs.

But there was built a new castle 3 kilometres north-west of old Litava, it was called Litava too until the middle of 15th century, and the new castle would be called Čabraď

Cabrad Castle

The Čabraď Castle is a castle ruin in Slovakia near the village of Čabradský Vrbovok, southeast of Krupina.It was built in the 13th century. In the 15th century, it was captured by the army of John Giskra for a while. In 1585 and 1602 it withstood attacks of Ottoman Turks. It was the residence of...

 later (also called Litava, Haradnuk, Haradnok, Chabrad, Chabragh, Lytva, Hradnok, Haradna, Castrum ad Litavan etc.). In 1342 the king debarred the new castle together with the old ruined Litava and 26 villages and 6 customs from Peter and Leukus of the Dobrakutyai family because of their treachery according to a charter.

The village became deserted in the beginning of 15th century. It became peopled again only after Hussite struggles. The local population converted into Lutheran faith in 16th century. Present Lutheran church was built between 1855 and 1859.

External links

• About the old and new Litava Castle in Slovak
• About old Litava castle in Hungarian
• http://www.e-obce.sk/obec/cerovo/cerovo.html
• http://www.regionhont.sk/