Gemer

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The article is about the historical region: for the village in Slovakia, see Gemer (village).

Gemer (Hungarian: Gömör, German: Gemer or Gömör, Latin: Gömörinum) is the name of a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. In the 19th century, and in the beginning of the 20th century, it was united with the Malohont region to form Gemer-Malohont county (in Hungarian: Gömör-Kishont). Its territory is presently in southern Slovakia and northern Hungary. Today Gemer is only an informal designation of the corresponding territory.

[edit] Geography

Gemer county was situated in Slovenské rudohorie approximately between the present-day Slovak-Hungarian border, the towns Poltár and Rožňava and the Low Tatras (Nízke Tatry). The river Slaná flowed through the county. Its area was 4,289 km² around 1910.

[edit] Capitals

The capital of Gemer was the Gemer Castle, and from the early 18th century Plešivec. The capital after the addition of Malohont was Rimavská Sobota.

[edit] History

Gemer is one of the oldest counties of the Kingdom of Hungary, and was already mentioned in the 11th century. The territory approximately between the towns Tisovec and Rimavská Sobota, called Malohont (Hungarian: Kishont), was added from 1786 until 1790, and again in 1802. The county was called Gemer a Malohont (Gömör és Kishont) since.

In 1918 (confirmed by the Treaty of Trianon 1920), most of the county became part of newly formed Czechoslovakia, except 7,5% of its area (around Putnok), which became temporarily part of the Hungarian county Borsod-Gömör-Kishont (presently part of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén).

The Czechoslovakian part of the county was part of the Slovak Land (Slovenská krajina/zem). During World War II, when Czechoslovakia was split temporarily, most of the county became part of Hungary under the First Vienna Award, and the Gömör-Kishont county was recreated. This situation lasted until the end of the war, when 92.5% of the area became part of Czechoslovakia again. Today in Hungary the name of Gömör is preserved only in the name of a small village, Gömörszőlős and in that of Gömöri station, the smaller railway station of Miskolc.

Since 1993, when Czechoslovakia was split, Gemer and Malohont are part of Slovakia, Košice region.

See also: List of traditional regions of Slovakia