Trnava : Slovakia
Trnava (Hungarian: Nagyszombat, German: Tyrnau) is a town in western Slovakia, 45 km to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnvka river, and at the main Bratislava-ilina railway and Bratislava-ilina limited-access highway. It is the capital of a region (kraj), a Higher Territorial Unit (VC) and the biggest town of a district (okres). It is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishopric (1541-1820 and then again since 1978). The town has a historic center. Because of the many churches within its town walls, Trnava has often been called the “Slovak Rome.”
Name
The name of the town is derived from the Slovak word t?nie (=thornbush) which characterized the river banks in the region.
History
Permanent settlements on the town’s territory are known from the Neolithic period onwards. During the Middle Ages, an important market settlement arose here at the junction of two important roads- from Bohemia to Hungary and from the Mediterranean to Poland.
The first written reference to Trnava dates from 1211. In 1238, Trnava was the first town in Slovakia to be granted a town charter (civic privileges) by the king. The former agricultural center gradually became a center of manufacture, trade, and crafts. By the early 13th century, the king of Hungary had invited numerous Germans to settle in Trnava; this settlement increased after the Tatar invasion in 1242. At the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, a part of Trnava was enclosed by a very long town wall. The original Slovak market settlement and the Germans, however, stayed behind this wall.
The town was also the place of many important negotiations: Charles I, the king of Hungary, signed here a currency agreement with the Czech King John of Luxemburg in 1327, and King Louis I (who often stayed in the town and died there in 1380) signed here a friendship agreement with Emperor Charles IV in 1360.
