Hlohovec
Encyclopedia
Hlohovec is a town in southwestern 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...

, with a population of 23,029.

History

The first written evidence of its existence is from 1113, when a town with the name Galgocz was mentioned in the so-called Second Zobor Document. In 1362 Hlohovec obtained town privileges. Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 troops captured city and annexed it to the sanjak
Sanjak
Sanjaks were administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire. Sanjak, and the variant spellings sandjak, sanjaq, and sinjaq, are English transliterations of the Turkish word sancak, meaning district, banner, or flag...

 of Uyvar
Nové Zámky
Nové Zámky is a town in southwestern Slovakia.-Geography:The town is located on the Danubian Lowland, on the Nitra River, at an altitude of 119 metres. It is located around 100 km from Bratislava and around 25 km from the Hungarian border. It is a road and railway hub of southern...

 as the Holok eyalet in 1663. Austrian troops retook it in 1685.

Landmarks

The dominant building is a Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

-Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 built in 1720. The castle is built on the place of a pre-existing Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

 settlement and a medieval castle. In the castle area is the Empire
Empire (style)
The Empire style, , sometimes considered the second phase of Neoclassicism, is an early-19th-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts followed in Europe and America until around 1830, although in the U. S. it continued in popularity in...

 theatre built in 1802, a riding school from the 18th century, and a Baroque garden pavilion.

In the middle of St. Michael Square stands the Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 church of St. Michael with its highly decorated portal. Next to the church is the Chapel of Saint Anna from the 18th century. In the northern border of the central part of the town is the Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....

 church and monastery built in 1492. Part of the monastery premises nowadays occupies the Museum of National History and Geography.

The most visited and beautiful natural part of town is the castle park with its lake, French terraces, and rare wood-species, especially old sycamore trees
Sycamore Maple
Acer pseudoplatanus, the sycamore maple, is a species of maple native to central Europe and southwestern Asia, from France east to Ukraine, and south in mountains to northern Spain, northern Turkey, and the Caucasus. It is not related to other trees called sycamore or plane tree in the Platanus...

.

Demographics

According to the 1910 census the town had 7749 inhabitants: 5645 Slovaks 1401 Hungarians and 667 Germans, 83.6% of the people were Roman Catholic, 13.7% Jewish and 2.1% Lutheran.
According to the 2001 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, the town had 23,729 inhabitants. 97.85% of inhabitants were Slovaks
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...

, 0.72% Roma and 0.63% Czechs
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...

. The religious make-up was 79.58% Roman Catholics, 14.85% people with no religious affiliation and 2.44% Lutherans.

Famous people

  • Peter Burian
    Peter Burian
    Ambassador Peter Burian is the Slovak Ambassador to the United States of America.Born in Hlohovec, Peter Burian graduated in Oriental Studies at St. Petersburg University in the USSR and entered the service of the Czechoslovak foreign ministry in 1983...

     (b. 1959), diplomat
  • Ján Hollý
    Ján Hollý
    Ján Hollý was a Slovak poet and translator. He was the first greater Slovak poet to write exclusively in the newly standardized literary Slovak language. His predecessors mostly wrote in various regional versions of Czech, Slovakized Czech or Latin...

     (1785–1849), writer

Twin towns — Sister cities

Hlohovec is twinned
Town twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...

 with:
  • De Panne
    De Panne
    De Panne is a municipality located along the North Sea coast of the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Adinkerke and De Panne proper. On 1 January 2006 De Panne had a total population of 10,060. The total area is 23.90 km² which gives a population...

    , Belgium
    Belgium
    Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

  • Hranice, Czech Republic
    Czech Republic
    The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

  • Slovenske Konjice
    Slovenske Konjice
    Slovenske Konjice is a town and a municipality in northeastern Slovenia. The area was part of the traditional region of Lower Styria.- Slovenske Konjice municipality :...

    , Slovenia
    Slovenia
    Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...


External links

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