Zólyom County

Comitatus Zoliensis
Zólyom County
County of the Kingdom of Hungary
12th century–1920

Coat of arms

Capital Banská Bystrica
History
 - Established 12th century
 - Treaty of Trianon June 4 1920
Area
 - 1910 2,634 km2 (1,017 sq mi)
Population
 - 1910 133,700 
     Density 50.8 /km2  (131.5 /sq mi)
Today part of Slovakia

Zólyom county (in Latin: comitatus Zoliensis, in Hungarian Zólyom (vár)megye, in Slovak Zvolenský komitát/ Zvolenská stolica/ Zvolenská župa, in German Sohler Gespanschaft/Komitat Sohl) is the name of a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Slovakia.

Contents

Geography

Zólyom county shared borders with the counties of Bars (Tekov), Turóc (Turiec), Liptó (Liptov), Gömör-Kishont (Gemer-Malohont), Nógrád (Novohrad) and Hont. The county's territory was situated along the central Hron river, approximately between (excluding) Krupina and (including) Brezno. Its area was 2634 km² around 1910. The county was characterised by extensive mining activities.

Capitals

The capital of the county was the castle of Pustý hrad near Zvolen, then from the late 15th century the Zvolen Castle and from the 1760s the town of Banská Bystrica.

History

Zvolen county arose as a Hungarian comitatus in the 12th century, when most parts of the territory were conquered by the Kingdom of Hungary, from a huge royal property (the Zvolen dominium). Initially, its territory included the later counties Orava, Turiec and Liptov, which became separate counties in the early 14th century.

In the aftermath of World War I, Zólyom county became part of newly formed Czechoslovakia, as recognized by the concerned states in the 1920 Treaty of Trianon. The Zvolen county (Zvolenská župa) continued to exist till 1927, but it had completely different powers etc. and somewhat different borders. When Slovakia became independent temporarily between 1939 and 1945, the Hron county (Pohronská župa) was created in 1940, whose territory roughly corresponded to that of the Zvolen county. The capital was Banská Bystrica.

Together with the Slovak parts of Hont and Gemer, it became part of the Banská Bystrica Region (Banskobystrický kraj) created in 1948. In 1993, Czechoslovakia was split and the Zvolen county became part of Slovakia.

Demographics

Population by language (1910 census):

Subdivisions

In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of Zólyom/Zvolen county were:

Districts
District Capital
Besztercebánya Besztercebánya, SK Banská Bystrica
Breznóbánya Breznóbánya, SK Brezno
Nagyszalatna Nagyszalatna, SK Zvolenská Slatina
Zólyom Zólyom, SK Zvolen
Urban districts (rendezett tanácsú város)
Besztercebánya, SK Banská Bystrica
Breznóbánya, SK Brezno
Zólyom, SK Zvolen