Smolenice

Smolenice (German Smolenitz, Hungarian Szomolány) is a village and municipality of Trnava District in the Trnava Region of Slovakia, on the foothills of the Little Carpathians. It is 60 km northeast of Bratislava and 25 km northwest of Trnava. The village is made of two parts, Smolenice and Smolenická Nová Ves (formerly Neštich)

History

Although the site was inhabited since Paleolithic, but more archaeological discoveries are from Neolith. The most significant period was a transition from Bronze to the Iron Ages, when the Celts around the 6th century BC had oppidum above the village. On the same place was a settlement from the Great Moravia period. The village was first mentioned in 1256 under name villa Solmus, though the settlement started to grow in the late Middle Ages. In the 14th century, the gothic Smolenice Castle was built above the village, as a part of chain of the castle protecting passes in the Little Carpathians. The castle with the village was royal at first, but it kept changing its hands for several centuries, until the Pálffys took it in the 18th century, when the castle was in decay. During the Napoleonic Wars, it burned down, and only outer fortifications remained. In the 19th century, new wood processing works sprung up near the village, which were replaced in 1968 with the chemical works Chemolak. In the 20th century, reconstruction of the Smolenice castle ruins began, and was reconstructed as a château. Reconstruction finished after the Second World War.

Sights

• The Smolenice Castle, now reconstructed as a château.
• Ruins of Celtic oppidum on the Molpír hill.
• The Driny limestone cave, the only public accessible cave in western Slovakia.
• Little Carpathians with many castle ruins, with the protected Hlboča valley, and the highest point of the Little Carpathians, Záruby (768 m)
• Grave of Štefan Banič

People

• Štefan Banič, born 1870 in Neštich, inventor of the military parachute.

References

External links

• Municipal website (Slovak)