Prievidza

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Prievidza
Image:Pd erb.jpg
Region (kraj)	Trenčín Region
District (okres)	Prievidza District
Location	48°46′16″N, 18°37′38″E
Altitude	280 m
Population	53,097 (2002)
Area	40.52 km²
Time Zone • Summer DST	CET: UTC+1 CEST: UTC+2
Telephone prefix	+421-46
Postal code	97101
Car registration plate	PD

Prievidza (Hungarian: Privigye, German: Priwitz) is a town in western Slovakia. With 54,000 inhabitants it is one of the biggest towns in the Trenčín Region.

1 Geography
2 Features
3 History
4 Demographics
5 Partner towns
6 External links

[edit] Geography

The town is situated very near the smaller but more famous town of Bojnice, actually sharing the public transport system. The valley of the Nitra River, in which the town lies, is surrounded by mountains on all sides. Kľak is the tallest and arguably the most beautiful of them. The town is the eleventh largest town in Slovakia, being the last town with more than 50,000 inhabitants in Slovakia.

[edit] Features

Prievidza is a centre for many institutions of regional importance - governmental as well as commercial. It is commonly called the "green city". The most prominent sporting clubs include the Prievidza Football Club and the Ice Hockey Club, both of which compete in the appropriate second national leagues.

Prievidza has 4 city parts: Staré mesto (Old Town in English), Píly, Necpaly, Kopanice, and into 3 quarters, which look like more a village than a city part: Hradec, Malá Lehôtka and Veľká Lehôtka.

[edit] History

The town was first mentioned in 1113 as Preuigan. It was promoted to a royal free town in 1383. Since the 16th century, craftsmanship was developing in Prievidza. From the 16th to the first third of the 17th century, the Thurzo family controlled the town. Encroaching Ottomans from the south burned the town in 1599, along with other towns in the upper Nitra river valley. During the Kuruc uprising in 1673, the town was burned down again, with fire burning a part of town's archives. In 1870, Prievidza had 2,719 inhabitants. Since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, industry started to grow, as the railways to Prievidza were constructed. During the World War II, the town was one of the centres of partisans. Since the end of war, the town grown enormously from 5,000 inhabitants to around 53,000 inhabitants, as the industry grew.