Košice | ||
City | ||
![]() Hlavná ulica (Main Street)
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Country | ![]() |
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Region | Košice | |
District | Košice I-IV | |
Districts | Košice I, Košice II, Košice III, Košice IV | |
River | Hornád | |
Elevation | 206 m (676 ft) | |
Coordinates | ||
Area | 242.768 km² (93.733 sq mi) | |
Population | 234,596 (2006-12-31) | |
Density | 966 /km² (2,502 /sq mi) | |
First mentioned | 1230 | |
Government | City council | |
Mayor | František Knapík | |
Timezone | CET (UTC+1) | |
- summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | |
Postal code | 040 00 | |
Area code | +421-55 | |
Car plate | KE | |
![]() ![]() ![]() Location in Slovakia
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![]() ![]() ![]() Location in the Košice Region
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Wikimedia Commons: Košice | ||
Statistics: MOŠ/MIS | ||
Website: www.kosice.sk | ||
Košice (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈkɔʃɪʦɛ]; Hungarian: Kassa; (also known by other alternative names) is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the Hornád River at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the borders with Hungary. With a population of nearly 235,000 Košice is the second largest city after Bratislava.
Being the economic and cultural centre of eastern Slovakia, Košice is the seat of the Košice Region and Košice Self-governing Region, the Slovak Constitutional Court, three universities, various dioceses, and other institutions. The city has a well-preserved historical centre, with Slovakia's biggest Gothic cathedral. The city is well known as the first settlement in Europe to be granted its own coat-of-arms.
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The first written mention of the city was in 1230 as "villa Cassa".[1] The Slovak name of the city comes from the Slavic personal name "Koša" with the patronymic suffix "-ice".[2] Though according to other sources the city name probably stems from an ancient Hungarian first name which begins with "Ko" such as Kokos-Kakas, Kolumbán-Kálmán, Kopov-Kopó.[3] Historically, the city has been known as Kaschau in German, Kassa in Hungarian, Cassovia or Caschovia in Latin, Cassovie in French, Caşovia in Romanian, Кошицы (Koshitsy) in Russian and Koszyce in Polish (see here for more languages).
The first evidence of inhabitance can be traced back to the end of the Paleolithic era. However, the first written reference to Košice (its southern suburb) comes only from 1230 as Villa Cassa. After the invasion of Mongols in 1241, King Béla IV of Hungary invited German colonists to fill the gaps in population. The city was made of two independent settlements: Lower Košice and Upper Košice, amalgamated in the 13th century. The first known town privileges come from 1290.[4] The city grew quickly because of its strategic location on an international trade route to Poland. The privileges given by the king were helpful in developing crafts, business, increasing importance and for the development of this city.[1] The oldest guild regulations were registered in 1307.[5] In 1321 Košice became a free royal town after it reinforced the king's troops in the crucial moment of the bloody Battle of Rozgony against the Amadé family. In 1347, Košice became the second placed city in the hierarchy of the Hungarian free royal towns, after the capital Buda. As the first city in Europe, Košice received its own coat of arms in 1369 from Louis I of Hungary.[4] The Diet convened by Louis I to Košice decided that women can inherit the Hungarian throne. Since the beginning of the 15th century, the city had been playing a leading role in the Pentapolitana - a league of towns of five most important cities of the northern part of the Kingdom (Bardejov, Levoča, Košice, Prešov, and Sabinov).[6]
The history of Košice in the subsequent centuries was influenced by the dynastic disputes over the Hungarian throne. Władysław III of Poland failed to capture the city in 1441. Johann Giskra's mercenaries from Bohemia defeated Tamás Székely's Hungarian army in 1449. Albert, Prince of Poland could not capture the city during a six months long siege in 1491. In 1526 the city homaged for Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor. János Szapolyai captured the city in 1536 but Ferdinand I reconquered the city in 1551. [7] In 1604 Stephen Bocskay occupied Košice during his insurrection against the Habsburg dynasty. Giorgio Basta, commander of the Habsburg forces, failed to capture the city, but Ferdinand I eventually conquered it in 1606. Stephen Bocskay died in Košice on 29 December, 1606 and was also interred there. On 5 September 1619 Gabriel Bethlen captured Košice in another anti-Habsubrg insurrection. Košice also became the place of his wedding with Katalin Brandenburgi.[8] On 18 january 1644 the Diet in Košice elected George I Rákóczi the prince of Hungary. In 1657 a printing house and a college were founded by the Jesuits there. The city was besieged by kuruc armies several times in the 1670s and it revolted against the Habsburg emperor. The rebel leaders were massacred by emperor's soldiers on 26 November 1677. A modern pentagonal fortress was built by the Habsburgs south of the city in 1670. Another rebel leader, Imre Thököly captured it in 1682 but the Austrian field marshal Aeneas de Caprara got it back on 25 October 1685. The fortress was demolished by 1713.
In the 17th century it was the de facto capital of Upper Hungary (in 1563–1686 as the seat of the "Captaincy of Upper Hungary", and in 1567–1848 as the seat of the Chamber of Szepes county (Spiš), which was a subsidiary of the supreme financial agency in Vienna responsible for Upper Hungary). The city was residence of Eger's bishop from 1596 to 1700.[9] Since 1657 it was also seat of the historic Košice University, which was promoted to a Royal Academy in 1777. It was transformed into a Law Academy in the 19th century and ceased to exist in the turbulent year of 1921. After the end of the anti-Habsburg uprisings in the early 18th century, the victorious Austrian armies drove the Ottoman forces back to the south and this major territorial change also created new trade routes, now circumventing Košice. The city came into decay and turned from a rich medieval town into a provincial town, dependent mainly on agriculture.[10] In 1723, there was erected the Immaculata statue at the place of a former gallows at Hlavná ulica (Main Street) commemorating the plague from the years 1710–1711.[11] There was a centre of the Hungarian language regenerate movement which published the first Hungarian language periodical called Magyar Museum in Hungary in 1788.[12] The city's walls were demolished step by step from the late 18th century to 1856; only the Executioner's Bastion remained with few parts of the wall. The city became a seat of its own bishopric in 1802. The city's surroundings became a theatre of war again during the Revolutions of 1848, when the Imperial cavalry general Franz Schlik defeated the Hungarian army on 8 December, 1848 and on 4 January, 1849. The city was captured by the Hungarian army on 15 February, 1849, but the Russian troops drove them back on 24 June, 1849.[13]
At the beginning of the 19th century there were three manufactures and 460 workshops in 1828.[14] The first factories were established in the 1840s (sugar and nail factories). The first telegram message arrived in 1856 and the railway connected the city to Miskolc, Hungary in 1860. In 1873 there were already connections to Prešov, Žilina and Chop (in today's Ukraine). The city gained a public transit system in 1891 when track was laid down for a horse-drawn tramway. The traction was electrified in 1914.[14] In 1906, Francis II Rákóczi's house of Rodosto was reproduced in Košice and his remains were buried in the St. Elisabeth Cathedral.[15]
After World War I and during the gradual break-up of Austria-Hungary, the city at first became a part of the transient "Eastern Slovak Republic", declared on 11 December 1918 in Košice and earlier in Prešov under protection of Hungary. On 29 December 1918 the Czechoslovak Legions entered the city, making it part of the newly established Czechoslovakia. However, in June 1919 Košice was occupied again, as part of the Slovak Soviet Republic, a proletarian puppet state of Hungary. The Czechoslovak troops secured the city for Czechoslovakia in July 1919,[16] confirmed by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920.
Košice was awarded to Hungary, by the First Vienna Award, from 1938 until early 1945. The town was bombarded on 26 June 1941, in what became a welcome pretext for the Hungarian government to declare war on Soviet Union a day later. The German occupation of Hungary led to the deportation of Košice's entire Jewish population of 12,000 and an additional 2,000 from surrounding areas via cattle cars to the concentration camps for their eventual murder. The town was captured by Soviets in January 1945 and for a short time it became a temporary capital city of the restored Czechoslovak Republic until the Soviet Red Army reached Prague. Among other acts, the Košice Government Programme was declared on 5 April 1945.[16]
After the Communist Party seized power in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, the city became part of the Eastern Bloc. Several present-day cultural institutions were founded and large residential areas around the city were built. and the construction and expansion of the East Slovak Ironworks caused population growth from population of 60,700 in 1950 to 235,000 in 1991 and before break-up of Czechoslovakia, it was the fifth largest city in the country. Following the Velvet Divorce and creation of the Slovak Republic, Košice became the second largest city in the country, became a seat of a constitutional court and since 1995 is the seat of the Archdiocese of Košice. The city has been selected as a European Capital of Culture for year 2013, along with Marseille in France.
Košice lies at an altitude of 206 metres (676 ft) above sea level and covers an area of 242.77 square kilometres (93.7 sq mi).[17] It is located in eastern Slovakia, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the Hungarian, 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the Ukrainian and 90 kilometres (56 mi) from the Polish borders. It is about 400 kilometres (249 mi) east of Slovakia's capital Bratislava and a chain of villages connects it to Prešov about 36 kilometres (22 mi) to the north.
Košice is situated on the Hornád River in the Košice Basin, at the easternmost reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, more precisely its subdivisions of Čierna hora mountains in the north-west and Volovské vrchy mountains in the south-west. The basin is surrounded from the east by the Slanské vrchy mountains.
Košice lies in the north temperate zone and has a continental climate with four distinct seasons. It is characterized by a significant variation between hot summers and cold, snowy winters.
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
Average high °C (°F) | 0 (32) |
3 (37) |
9 (48) |
15 (59) |
21 (67) |
24 (74) |
25 (78) |
25 (78) |
20 (69) |
14 (58) |
6 (44) |
1 (34) |
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Average low °C (°F) | -5 (23) |
-4 (25) |
0 (32) |
5 (40) |
9 (49) |
12 (54) |
14 (57) |
14 (57) |
10 (49) |
5 (41) |
0 (33) |
-4 (26) |
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Precipitation cm (inches) | 1.59 (0.63) |
1.89 (0.74) |
1.90 (0.75) |
3.85 (1.52) |
4.48 (1.76) |
5.99 (2.36) |
6.76 (2.66) |
5.09 (2.00) |
3.57 (1.41) |
3.30 (1.30) |
2.91 (1.15) |
1.97 (0.78) |
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Source: MSN Weather[18] 2008-01-20 |
Košice has a population of 234,596 (31 December 2006).[19] According to the 2001 census, 89.1% of its inhabitants were Slovaks, 3,8% Hungarians, 2,1% Roma, 1.2% Czechs, 0.5% Rusyns, 0.5% Ukrainians, and 0.2% Germans. The religious makeup was 58.3% Roman Catholics, 19.4% people with no religious affiliation, 7.6% Greek Catholics, and 4.1% Lutherans.[20]
Year | Population | Year | Population | Year | Population |
1480 | 10,000 | 1890 | 28,900 | 1961 | 79,400 |
1800 | 6,000 | 1910 | 44,200 | 1970 | 142,200 |
1820 | 8,700 | 1921 | 52,900 | 1980 | 202,400 |
1846 | 13,700 | 1942 | 67,000 | 1991 | 235,160 |
1869 | 21,700 | 1950 | 60,700 | 2001 | 236,093 |
The linguistic makeup of the town's population underwent historical changes that alternated between a growth of the ratio of those who claimed Hungarian and those who claimed Slovak as their language. With a population of 28,884 in 1891, just under a half (49.9%) of the inhabitants of Košice declared the then official Hungarian language as their main means of communication, 33.6% Slovak, and 13.5% German. 72.2% were Roman Catholics, 11.4% Jews, 7.3% Lutherans, 6.7% Greek Catholics, and 4.3% Calvinists.[22]
By 1910, 75.4% of the 44,211 inhabitants claimed Hungarian, 14.8% Slovak, 7.2% German, and 1.8% Polish.[23] The Jews were split among other groups by the 1910 census, as only the most frequently used language and not ethnicity was registered.[24] The linguistic balance within the town limits, too, began to shift towards Slovak after World War I with Slovakization in the newly established Czechoslovakia. As a consequence of the Vienna Award Kosice was ceded to Hungary. During the German ocupation of Hungary towards the end of World War II, approximately 10,000 Jews were deported by the Arrow Cross Party and nazists, and killed in Auschwitz concentration camps.[25]
Košice is the economic hub of eastern Slovakia. It accounts for about 9% of the Slovak gross domestic product.[26] The steel mill U. S. Steel Košice (16,000 employees) is the largest employer in the city and the second largest employer in the whole country.[27] Other major sectors include mechanical engineering, food industry, services and trade.[28] GDP per capita in 2001 was €4,004, which was below Slovakia's average (€4,400).[28] The unemployment rate was 11.4% in September 2005,[26], which was below the country's average 15.6% at that time.[29]
The city has a balanced budget of 2.78 billion Slovak korunas (almost €83 million, as of 2007) with a small surplus of 25 million korunas. The budget for 2008 projects spending of 2.82 billion korunas.[30]
The city centre and most historical monuments are located in or around the Main Street (Hlavná ulica) and the town has the largest Town Monument Reserve in Slovakia.[31] The dominant monument of the city is Slovakia's biggest church, the 14th-century Gothic St. Elisabeth Cathedral, the easternmost Gothic cathedral of western type in Central Europe,[31] and is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Košice. In addition to the cathedral, there is also the 14th-century St. Michael Chapel, the St. Urban Tower and the Neo-baroque State Theatre in the centre of the town. The Executioner's Bastion and the Mill Bastion are remains the city fortification system. The Church of Virgin Mary's Birth is the cathedral for the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Košice. The visitors can also discover the beauty of several other monuments and buildings of great cultural and historical interest (the old Town Hall, the Old University, the Captain's Palace, Liberation Square, etc.) as well as several galleries (the East Slovak Gallery) and museums (the East Slovak Museum). As for the parks, there is a Municipal Park located between the historical city centre and the main railway station and the city has its own zoo, located north-west of the city, in the borough of Kavečany.
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There are several theatres in Košice. State Theatre Košice is a state-run theatre founded in 1945 (then under name East Slovak National Theatre). It consists of three ensembles: drama, opera and ballet. Other theatres include the Marionette Theatre and the Old Town Theatre (Staromestské divadlo). Due to the presence of Hungarian and Roma minorities, it also hosts the Hungarian "Thália" theatre and the professional Roma theatre "Romathan".[32]
Košice is also home to the State Philharmonic Košice (Štátna filharmónia Košice), established in 1968 as the second professional symphonic orchestra in Slovakia. It organizes festivals such as the Košice Music Spring, International Organ Music Festival and Festival of Contemporary Art.[33]
Some of the museums and galleries based in the city include the East Slovak Museum (Slovak: Vychodoslovenské múzeum), originally established in 1872 under name Upper Hungarian Museum. The Slovak Technical Museum with planetarium, established in 1947, is the only museum of technical category in Slovakia that specializes on the history and traditions of science and technology.[34] The East Slovak Gallery was established in 1951 as the first regional gallery, with the aim to document artistic life in present-day eastern Slovakia.[35]
The first and the oldest international festival of local TV broadcasters (founded in 1995) - The Golden Beggar, takes place every year in June in Košice. The Hungarian writer Sandor Marai was born in this town and wrote about it on his autobiography.
The oldest marathon in Europe (the second oldest in the world after the Boston Marathon) is the Košice Peace Marathon, founded in 1924, which is run on the first Sunday of October every year in in the city.
Ice hockey club HC Košice is one of the most successful Slovak hockey clubs. It plays in the Slovak highest league, the Extraliga, and has won three titles in 1995, 1996 and 1999 and two titles in the former Czechoslovak Extraliga. Since 2006, their home is at the Steel Aréna, with a capacity of 8,343 spectators. Soccer club MFK Košice currently plays in the Corgoň Liga. The club reached as the first club from Slovakia the UEFA Champions League group stages and is double domestic league winner (1998, 1999). After relegation in 2003, the club returned to the Corgoň Liga in 2005. Other clubs in the city include the women's basketball team KOSIT 2013 Košice.
Košice is the seat of the Košice Region, since 2002 also of the autonomous Košice Self-governing Region, and it is also the seat of the Slovak Constitutional Court. The city also hosts a regional branch of the National Bank of Slovakia, and Czech and Hungarian consulates.
The local government is composed of a mayor (Slovak: primátor), a city council (mestské zastupiteľstvo), a city board (mestská rada), city commissions (Komisie mestského zastupiteľstva) and a city magistrate's office (magistrát). The directly elected mayor is the head of the city and its chief executive. The term of office is for four years. The current mayor, František Knapík, was nominated in 2006 by a coalition of the political parties KDH, SMK, and SDKÚ-DS.
Administratively, the city of Košice is divided into four districts: Košice I (covering centre and northern parts), Košice II (covering south-west), Košice III (east) and Košice IV (south) and further into 22 boroughs (wards):
Administrative division of Košice | |
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District | Boroughs |
Košice I | Džungľa, Kavečany, Sever, Sídlisko Ťahanovce, Staré Mesto, Ťahanovce |
Košice II | Lorinčík, Luník IX, Myslava, Pereš, Poľov, Sídlisko KVP, Šaca, Západ |
Košice III | Sídlisko dargovských hrdinov, Košická Nová Ves |
Košice IV | Barca, Juh, Krásna, Nad jazerom, Šebastovce, Vyšné Opátske |
Košice is the second university town in Slovakia, after Bratislava. Technical University of Košice is the largest university, with 16,015 students, including 867 doctoral students.[36] Another major university is the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, with 7,403 students, including 527 doctoral students.[37] Other universities and colleges include the University of Veterinary Medicine (1,381 students)[38] and the private Security Management College in Košice (1,168 students).[39] In addition, each of University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra and Catholic University in Ružomberok have one faculty based in the city.
There are 38 public elementary schools, six private elementary schools, and three religious elementary schools.[40] Overall, they enroll 20,158 pupils.[40] The city's system of secondary education (some middle schools and all high schools) consists of 20 gymnasia with 7,692 students,[41] 24 specialized high schools with 8,812 students,[42] and 13 vocational schools with 6,616 students.[37][43]
Public transport in Košice is managed by Dopravný podnik mesta Košice (literally Public Transport Company of the city of Košice). The municipal mass transit system is the oldest one in present-day Slovakia, with the first horse-car line in operation in 1891 (electrified in 1914).[14] Today, the city's public transport system is composed of buses (in use since 1950s), trams and trolleybuses (since 1990s).
Košice is also a rail hub of eastern Slovakia. It is connected by rail to Bratislava, Prešov, Čierna nad Tisou, Miskolc and Zvolen. There is also a broad gauge track from Ukraine, leading to a steel mill south-west of the city. The D1 motorway also connects the city to Prešov and more motorways and motorroads are planned around the city.[44]
The city also has an international airport, located south of the city. From Košice International Airport are available these regular direct flights: London-Luton, Bratislava, Manchester, Vienna, Prague. It served 443,448 passengers in 2007, which is more than a threefold increase since 2001.[45]
Košice has several partner towns and sister cities around the world:[46]
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