Place:Nitra, Nitra, Slovensko, Czechoslovakia

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Nitra (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. With a population of about 78,353, it is the fifth largest city in Slovakia. Nitra is also one of the oldest cities in Slovakia; it was the political center of the Principality of Nitra. Today, it is a seat of a kraj (Nitra Region), and an okres (Nitra District).

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Nitra is the oldest city in Slovakia.

Before the 5th century

The oldest archaeological findings in Nitra are dated to around 25,000-30,000 years ago. The locality has been inhabited in all historical periods in the last 5,000-7,000 years. Several European archaeological cultures and groups were named after important archaeological discoveries in Nitra or near surroundings - Nitra culture, Brodzany-Nitra group or Lužianky group of Lengyel culture.

The people of Madarovce culture had built the first fortification on Castle Hill by around 1,600 BCE. In the Iron Age, a large hillfort was built on Zobor Hill and additional smaller hillforts on the Lupka Hill and in Dražovce (700-500 BCE). Several Celtic settlements are known from the 5th-1st centuries. The Celts minted silver tetradrachms known as coins of Nitra type and probably also built a hillfort in the locality Na Vŕšku. In the Roman period (1st-4th centuries CE), the Germanic tribe of Quadi settled in the area, which is also mentioned as their possible capital (396 CE). The largest Germanic settlement from the migration period in Slovakia was unearthed in Nitra-Párovské Háje.

5th to 10th centuries

The first Slavs arrived to Slovakia at the end of the 5th and early 6th century. The early Slavs settled mainly in the lowlands near the water flows, the highest density of their settlements is documented just in the area of Nitra. As the Avars expanded to the territory of Slovakia in the later half of the 7th century and early 8th century, the border between Slavic and Slavo-Avaric territory moved toward Nitra. A biritual cemetery in Nitra-Dolné Krškany lay on the northern border of mixed settlement area.

The importance of Nitra for the Slavs began to grow in the 8th century and thereafter it evolved to administrative centre of the wider region. Nitra became the center of the Principality of Nitra. Three of the eleven extant copies of the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum contains a reference to a church consecrated for Pribina in his domain called Nitrava. The problem of Pribina's church and the dating of this event was addressed by numerous scholars, most of them have no doubt about reliability of information and associates this event with Nitra. In 833, Pribina was ousted by the Moravian prince Mojmír I and both regions were united into the early medieval empire of Great Moravia.

In the 9th century, Nitra was one of the largest agglomeration in Central Europe. The agglomeration consisted of fortified centres and more than twenty non-fortified villages. It spread out on a territory exceeding the present town. The Slavs, Slovak ancestors, built a large castle (8.5 hectares) on Castle Hill, further important locations Na vŕšku and Martinský Vrch were probably also fortified. Other hills, some of them fortified already in prehistoric times, had guarding and refuge function. Surrounding villages were used as an agricultural hinterland for princely retinue and for specialised production (jewellery production, forges, pottery kilns, etc.). More than forty burial sites are documented on 20 km². In all burial sites, exclusively inhumation rite (compliant with Christian belief) was practised, instead of cremation typical for earlier Slavs. The known necropolises with military equipment around the perimeter of the agglomeration probably belonged to the settlements guarding access roads to the centre.

The city reached its height during the reign of Svätopluk I. During his rule, the first known Christian bishopric in Slovakia was established in Nitra in 880 (with Wiching as the bishop). The question of origin of Monastery of St. Hippolytus (the oldest Benedictine Monastery in Kingdom of Hungary) has not been sufficiently answered yet. Even if findings of ceramics documented a settlement in the location, its character is unclear.

10th to 13th centuries

The development of Nitra was temporarily slowed down after the disintegration of Great Moravia. However, Nitra did not follow the fate of other prominent Great Moravian centres (Mikulčice-Valy, Pohansko, Staré Město-Uherské Hradište), and until the 13th century it preserved its status as a prestigious centre. According to older assumptions, Nitra should have been occupied by masses of Magyar (Hungarian) units, predictably followed by significant destruction of the previous settlements. However, later archaeological research does not support this theory. The extinction horizon (e.g. destruction by fire) is not documented for any known settlement, and the continuity between the graveyards from different periods remained high. In the 10th century, the settlement structure was not affected by any observable destruction process or significant change in the ethnic composition. The continuity of Slavic settlements and economic infrastructure was preserved. Archaeological evidence pointing to an early presence of Magyars directly in Nitra has not been found yet, except of the warrior grave in Nitra-Mlynárce Paradoxically, their presence is documented north of Nitra (Čakajovce) and from peripheral areas with more rural character, where they joined the majority Slavic population. Here, their members were buried together with the Slavs in common graveyards. Later, both cultures merged into the common Bijelo Brdo culture, with ethnic-specific attributes fading away.

Political affiliation of the territory in the 10th and the early 11th century is unclearthe influence of Hungarian Árpáds, Czech Přemyslids and Polish Piasts is being considered. Finally, Nitra became an integral part of the Kingdom of Hungary and the seat of several Árpáds princes. The town survived the invasion of Mongols in 1241. In 1248, Béla IV gave Nitra the privileges of a free royal town. In 1271–1272, Nitra was heavily damaged by the Czech king Ottakar II. The raids also damaged the bishop's property and therefore, as compensation, Nitra was put under his administration in 1288. The town lost its royal privileges and in the next centuries it was unable to recover mainly because of frequent military conflicts.

14th to 19th centuries

In the early 14th century, the town and the castle were damaged several times by Matthew III Csák. In the conflict between the king and oligarchy the bishop of Nitra remained loyal to the king. In 1313, the king confirmed bishopric privileges and extended them for the right to administer not only Nitra, but whole Nitra County.

The town became a target of Hussite attacks in the 15th century, at the time defended by Ispán of Nitra county, Stibor of Stiboricz and later his son Stibor de Beckov. After the Hungarian defeat at the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and subsequent Ottoman advances into the Hungarian territory, Nitra was under threat of Ottoman attacks. In 1563, the town became the seat of the Captaincy of Lower Hungary. The Turkish forces failed to capture the castle three times, before they conquered it in 1663, when the city became a center of the Litra sanjak, which bounded to Uyvar eyalet. The town was reconquered in 1685. The town was also affected by anti-Habsburg uprisings, from Stephen Bocskay and Gabriel Bethlen uprisings in the 17th century to the Kuruc uprisings from 1703 to 1711, and the town burned down in 1708 as a result of fights. It was renovated in the 18th century in the Baroque style. As a consequence of the Revolutions of 1848, Nitra was awarded an independent self-government for the first time since 1288 and became independent from the Diocese of Nitra and its bishops. Still an agricultural and handicraft town, Nitra started to industrialize. Until World War I, distillery, agricultural machines factory, brewery, dairy and other works were established. The first indirect connection to a railway was a road built in 1850 to the closest station in Trnovec nad Váhom. The railway arrived to Nitra in 1876, when a connection from Šurany was built. Later, lines were built to Topoľčany, Hlohovec and Nové Zámky. As a part of Magyarization, from 1883 to 1919, Nitra was the seat of the Upper Hungarian Teaching Association (FEMKE), a government-sponsored association whose main goal was to apply Magyarization policies on Slovaks

20th to 21st centuries

After World War I and in the atmosphere of postwar chaos and raising anarchy, the Hungarian National Council in Nitra decided to negotiate with the Czechoslovak Army, pushing out Hungarian military forces and police from the territory of present Slovakia. The Hungarian National Council and the Town Council needed the Czechoslovak Army to restore public order, but hoped that situation was only temporary and formally protested against the "occupation" on 10 December 1918. However, the town became a part of Czechoslovakia. Nitra continued to be the seat of the Nitra county, until it was dissolved in 1928. In 1933, Nitra played an important role in the Slovak autonomist movement when the Pribina's Celebration (the anniversary of the consecration of the first Christian church) turned to the largest demonstration against Czechoslovakism.

After break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Nitra became a part of the First Slovak Republic and once again a seat of Nitra county until 1945. The period of the First Slovak Republic was tragic for the numerous Jewish population of Nitra, which was first victimized by the anti-Jewish law and then mostly exterminated in German concentration camps (90% of Jewish citizens). The city was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in 1945, for only three years of restored democracy in Czechoslovakia.

Slovak historians believe that Nitra is the location of the oldest Slovakian Jewish community.

The Communist period from 1948 to 1989 was marked by the oppression of the Catholic church, which has traditionally had a strong presence in Nitra. Catholic seminaries, monasteries and other properties were nationalized and converted to museums, schools and offices. This period experienced extensive growth, building of housing projects and annexing of formerly independent villages. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Nitra became part of newly established Slovakia and became a seat of the Nitra Region in 1996.

In 2008, the remains of Jozef Tiso—the controversial leader of the First Slovak Republic who collaborated with the Nazis and was executed in 1947 as a war criminal—were exhumed from a Bratislava cemetery and reburied in the canonical crypt of the Catholic Cathedral in Nitra.

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