city of KOŠICE, Slovakia
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slideshow of KOŠICE (SLOVAKIA)
Košice (; also known by alternative names) is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of nearly 242,000, Košice is the second largest city in Slovakia after Bratislava.
Being the economic and cultural center 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 many museums, galleries, and theaters. Košice is an important industrial center of Slovakia. The U. S. Steel Košice steel mill is the biggest employer in the region. The town has good railway connections and an international airport.
The city has a well preserved historical center, which is the largest among Slovak towns. There are many heritage protected buildings in Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Secession styles with Slovakia's largest church - St. Elisabeth Cathedral. The long main street, rimmed with aristocratic palaces, Catholic churches, and townsfolk's houses, is a thriving pedestrian zone with many boutiques, cafés, and restaurants. The city is well known as the first settlement in Europe to be granted its own coat-of-arms.
In 2013, it will hold the European Capital of Culture title together with Marseille, France.
The first evidence of inhabitance can be traced back to the end of the Paleolithic era. The first written reference to the Hungarian town of Košice (as the royal village - Villa Cassa) comes from 1230. After the Mongol invasion 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 around the long lens-formed ring, of today's Main Street. The first known town privileges come from 1290.
As a Hungarian free royal town, Košice reinforced the king's troops in the crucial moment of the bloody Battle of Rozgony in 1312 against the strong aristocratic Palatine Amadé Aba (family). In 1347, it became the second place city in the hierarchy of the Hungarian free royal towns with the same rights as the capital Buda. In 1369, it received its own coat of arms from Louis I of Hungary. The Diet convened by Louis I in Košice decided that women could inherit the Hungarian throne.
The significance and wealth of the city in the end of the 14th century was mirrored by the decision to build a completely new church on the grounds of the previously destroyed smaller St. Elisabeth Church. The construction of the biggest cathedral in the Kingdom of Hungary - St. Elisabeth Cathedral - was supported by the Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg, and by the apostolic see itself. Since the beginning of the 15th century, the city played a leading role in the Pentapolitana - the league of towns of five most important cities in Upper Hungary (Bardejov, Levoča, Košice, Prešov, and Sabinov). During the reign of King Matthias Corvinus the city reached its medieval population peak. With an estimated 10,000 Hungarian inhabitants, it was among the largest medieval cities in Europe.
The history of Košice was heavily influenced by the dynastic disputes over the Hungarian throne, which together with the decline of the continental trade brought the city into stagnation. Vladislaus III of Varna failed to capture the city in 1441. John Jiskra's mercenaries from Bohemia defeated Tamás Székely's Hungarian army in 1449. John I Albert, Prince of Poland, could not capture the city during a six month 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. 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 recaptured it in 1606. Stephen Bocskay died in Košice on 29 December 1606 and was interred there. On 5 September 1619, Gabriel Bethlen captured Košice in another anti-Habsburg insurrection. He married Catherine von Hohenzollern, of Johann Sigismund Kurfürst von Brandenburg, in Košice in 1626. 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 (citadel) was built by the Habsburgs south of the city in 1670s. Another rebel leader, Imre Thököly captured it in 1682 but the Austrian field marshal Aeneas de Caprara got it back on 1685. In 1704-1711 Prince of Transylvania Francis II Rákóczi made Košice the main base in his War for Independence. The fortress was demolished by 1713.
In the 17th century it was the 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, Zips), which was a subsidiary of the supreme financial agency in Vienna responsible for Upper Hungary). Due to Ottoman occupation, the city was the residence of Eger's archbishop from 1596 to 1700. Since 1657, it was the seat of the historic Royal University of Košice (Universitas Cassoviensis). It was transformed into a Royal Academy in 1777, then into a Law Academy in the 19th century; it ceased to exist in the turbulent year of 1921. After the end of the anti-Habsburg uprisings in 1711 the victorious Austrian armies drove the Ottoman forces back to the south and this major territorial change created new trade routes which circumvented Košice. The city began to decay and turned from a rich medieval town into a provincial town known for its military base and dependent mainly on agriculture. In 1723, the Immaculata statue was erected in the place of a former gallows at Hlavná ulica (Main Street) commemorating the plague from the years 1710-1711. This was one of the centers of the Hungarian language regenerate movement which published the first Hungarian language periodical called the Magyar Museum in Hungary in 1788. The city's walls were demolished step by step from the early 19th 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 theater of the war again during the Revolutions of 1848, when the Imperial cavalry general Franz Schlik defeated the Hungarian army on 8 December 1848 and 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.
At the beginning of the 19th century there were three manufacturers and 460 workshops in 1828.
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 the 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, which was later upheld under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon in 1920.
Košice was ceded 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 the 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. The town was captured by the 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 Program was declared on 5 April 1945. It is located in eastern Slovakia, about from the Hungarian, from the Ukrainian, and from the Polish borders. It is about east of Slovakia's capital Bratislava and a chain of villages connects it to Prešov which is about 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 it is a subdivision of the Čierna hora mountains in the northwest and Volovské vrchy mountains in the southwest. The basin is met on the east by the Slanské vrchy mountains.
| Metric first | Yes |
|---|---|
| Single line | Yes |
| Location | Košice |
| Jan hi °f | 32.9 |Jan_Hi_°C = 0.5 |Jan_REC_Hi_°F = |Jan_REC_Lo_°F= |
| Feb hi °f | 37.8 |Feb_Hi_°C = 3.2 |Feb_REC_Hi_°F = |Feb_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Mar hi °f | 48.7 |Mar_Hi_°C = 9.3 |Mar_REC_Hi_°F = |Mar_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Apr hi °f | 59.0 |Apr_Hi_°C = 15.0 |Apr_REC_Hi_°F = |Apr_REC_Lo_°F = |
| May hi °f | 68.5 |May_Hi_°C = 20.3 |May_REC_Hi_°F = |May_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Jun hi °f | 73.8 |Jun_Hi_°C = 23.2 |Jun_REC_Hi_°F = |Jun_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Jul hi °f | 77.2 |Jul_Hi_°C = 25.1 |Jul_REC_Hi_°F = |Jul_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Aug hi °f | 77.2 |Aug_Hi_°C = 25.1 |Aug_REC_Hi_°F = |Aug_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Sep hi °f | 68.5 |Sep_Hi_°C = 20.3 |Sep_REC_Hi_°F = |Sep_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Oct hi °f | 57.7 |Oct_Hi_°C = 14.3 |Oct_REC_Hi_°F = |Oct_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Nov hi °f | 43.2 |Nov_Hi_°C = 6.2 |Nov_REC_Hi_°F = |Nov_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Dec hi °f | 34.5 |Dec_Hi_°C = 1.4 |Dec_REC_Hi_°F = |Dec_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Year hi °f | 56.7 |Year_Hi_°C = 13.7 |Year_REC_Hi_°F = |Year_REC_Lo_°F = |
| Jan lo °f | 21.9 |Jan_Lo_°C = -5.6 |Jan_REC_Hi_°C = |Jan_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Feb lo °f | 25.0 |Feb_Lo_°C = -3.9 |Feb_REC_Hi_°C = |Feb_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Mar lo °f | 31.3 |Mar_Lo_°C = -0.4 |Mar_REC_Hi_°C = |Mar_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Apr lo °f | 39.6 |Apr_Lo_°C = 4.2 |Apr_REC_Hi_°C = |Apr_REC_Lo_°C = |
| May lo °f | 48.0 |May_Lo_°C = 8.9 |May_REC_Hi_°C = |May_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Jun lo °f | 53.2 |Jun_Lo_°C = 11.8 |Jun_REC_Hi_°C = |Jun_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Jul lo °f | 56.1 |Jul_Lo_°C = 13.4 |Jul_REC_Hi_°C = |Jul_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Aug lo °f | 55.6 |Aug_Lo_°C = 13.1 |Aug_REC_Hi_°C = |Aug_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Sep lo °f | 48.6 |Sep_Lo_°C = 9.2 |Sep_REC_Hi_°C = |Sep_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Oct lo °f | 40.1 |Oct_Lo_°C = 4.5 |Oct_REC_Hi_°C = |Oct_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Nov lo °f | 31.6 |Nov_Lo_°C = -0.2 |Nov_REC_Hi_°C = |Nov_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Dec lo °f | 25.0 |Dec_Lo_°C = -3.9 |Dec_REC_Hi_°C = |Dec_REC_Lo_°C = |
| Year lo °f | 39.7 |Year_Lo_°C = 4.3 |Year_REC_Hi_°C = |Year_REC_Lo_°C = |
| |jan precip cm | |Jan_Precip_mm =25 |
| Feb precip cm | |Feb_Precip_mm =24 |
| Mar precip cm | |Mar_Precip_mm =26 |
| Apr precip cm | |Apr_Precip_mm =49 |
| May precip cm | |May_Precip_mm =70 |
| Jun precip cm | |Jun_Precip_mm =86 |
| Jul precip cm | |Jul_Precip_mm =83 |
| Aug precip cm | |Aug_Precip_mm =70 |
| Sep precip cm | |Sep_Precip_mm =53 |
| Oct precip cm | |Oct_Precip_mm =47 |
| Nov precip cm | |Nov_Precip_mm =42 |
| Dec precip cm | |Dec_Precip_mm =33 |
| Year precip cm | |Year_Precip_mm = 608 |
| Source | Weather Information Slovakia |
| Accessdate | 2009-01-20}} |
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 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.
By 1910, 75.4% of the 44,211 inhabitants claimed Hungarian, 14.8% Slovak, 7.2% German, and 1.8% Polish. The Jews were split among other groups by the 1910 census, as only the most frequently used language and not ethnicity was registered. The linguistic balance within the town limits began to shift towards Slovak after World War I with Slovakization in the newly established Czechoslovakia. As a consequence of the Vienna Awards, Kosice was ceded to Hungary. During the German occupation of Hungary towards the end of World War II, approximately 10,000 Jews were deported by the Arrow Cross Party and the nazis and killed in Auschwitz. The ethnic makeup of the town was dramatically changed by the persecution of the town's large Hungarian majority and their replacement with Slovak peasants from the north following mass deportations.
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.
The city center 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. The dominant monument of the city is Slovakia's largest church, the 14th century Gothic St. Elisabeth Cathedral, it is the easternmost cathedral of western style Gothic architecture in Central Europe,
Košice is the home of 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 Festival, the International Organ Music Festival, and the Festival of Contemporary Art.
Ice hockey club HC Košice is one of the most successful Slovak hockey clubs. It plays in Slovakia's highest league, the Extraliga, and has won five titles in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2009 and 2010, and two titles (1986 and 1988) in the former Czechoslovak Extraliga. Since 2006, their home is the Steel Aréna which has a capacity of 8,343 spectators. Football club MFK Košice currently plays in the Corgoň Liga. It was the first club from Slovakia reach the group stages of the UEFA Champions League and is a two times domestic league winner (1998 and 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.
The local government is composed of a mayor (), 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 and chief executive of the city. The term of office is 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 the center and northern parts), Košice II (covering the southwest), Košice III (east), and Košice IV (south) and further into 22 boroughs (wards):
{| class=wikitable |+Administrative division of Košice |- ! 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 |}
There are 38 public elementary schools, six private elementary schools, and three religious elementary schools. Overall, they enroll 20,158 pupils. 24 specialized high schools with 8,812 students, and 13 vocational schools with 6,616 students.
Košice is a rail hub of eastern Slovakia. It is connected by rail to Bratislava, Prešov, Čierna nad Tisou, Miskolc Hungary, and Zvolen. There is a broad gauge track from the Ukraine, leading to the steel mill southwest of the city. The D1 motorway connects the city to Prešov and more motorways and roads are planned around the city.
The Košice international airport is located south of the city. Regular direct flights from the airport are available to: Bratislava, Vienna, and Prague. Regular flights are provided by Czech Airlines, Austrian Airlines, and Danube Wings. At its peak in year 2008, it served 590,919 passengers but the number has since declined.
{|- style="vertical-align:top;" | Budapest, Hungary (since 1997) Bursa, Turkey (since 2000) Cottbus, Germany (since 1992) || Ostrava, Czech Republic (since 2001) Raahe, Finland (since 1987) Saint Petersburg, Russia (since 1995) || Uzhhorod, Ukraine (since 1993) Vysoké Tatry, Slovakia (since 2006)
Category:Cities and towns in Slovakia Category:European Capitals of Culture
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
![State Theater, Košice City Center Košice (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈkɔʃɪt͡sɛ] ( listen); Hungarian: Kassa pronounced [kɒʃːɒ]; and other names) is a city in eastern Slovakia.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110224040813im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/b2/c3/56c1b7a91119437ee8945925d719_grande.jpg "State Theater, Košice City Center Košice (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈkɔʃɪt͡sɛ] ( listen); Hungarian: Kassa pronounced [kɒʃːɒ]; and other names) is a city in eastern Slovakia.")
![Whole view on Ťahanovce [pronunciation: 'tyahanoutse] is a city part of Košice, Slovakia. The first written mention about Ťahanovce is dated back to 1263. It was an independent village until 1969 when it was connected with Košice.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110224040813im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/53/38/7474741968d7710a8b637aaea6c1_grande.jpg "Whole view on Ťahanovce [pronunciation: 'tyahanoutse] is a city part of Košice, Slovakia. The first written mention about Ťahanovce is dated back to 1263. It was an independent village until 1969 when it was connected with Košice.")
![Houses of Ťahanovce [pronunciation: 'tyahanoutse] is a city part of Košice, Slovakia. The first written mention about Ťahanovce is dated back to 1263.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110224040813im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/b9/3f/667a3aac8aa5838fb54dd2f5cbd8_grande.jpg "Houses of Ťahanovce [pronunciation: 'tyahanoutse] is a city part of Košice, Slovakia. The first written mention about Ťahanovce is dated back to 1263.")
![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).[22] 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.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110224040813im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/35/60/4a0b79620e2efa3bfca41e5b02a9_grande.jpg "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).[22] 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.")
![State Theater, Košice City Center Košice (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈkɔʃɪt͡sɛ] ( listen); Hungarian: Kassa pronounced [kɒʃːɒ]; and other names) is a city in eastern Slovakia.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110224040813im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/b2/c3/56c1b7a91119437ee8945925d719_thumb.jpg "State Theater, Košice City Center Košice (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈkɔʃɪt͡sɛ] ( listen); Hungarian: Kassa pronounced [kɒʃːɒ]; and other names) is a city in eastern Slovakia.")
![Whole view on Ťahanovce [pronunciation: 'tyahanoutse] is a city part of Košice, Slovakia. The first written mention about Ťahanovce is dated back to 1263. It was an independent village until 1969 when it was connected with Košice.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110224040813im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/53/38/7474741968d7710a8b637aaea6c1_thumb.jpg "Whole view on Ťahanovce [pronunciation: 'tyahanoutse] is a city part of Košice, Slovakia. The first written mention about Ťahanovce is dated back to 1263. It was an independent village until 1969 when it was connected with Košice.")
![Houses of Ťahanovce [pronunciation: 'tyahanoutse] is a city part of Košice, Slovakia. The first written mention about Ťahanovce is dated back to 1263.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110224040813im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/b9/3f/667a3aac8aa5838fb54dd2f5cbd8_thumb.jpg "Houses of Ťahanovce [pronunciation: 'tyahanoutse] is a city part of Košice, Slovakia. The first written mention about Ťahanovce is dated back to 1263.")
![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).[22] 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.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110224040813im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/35/60/4a0b79620e2efa3bfca41e5b02a9_thumb.jpg "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).[22] 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.")
