Šurany (until 1927, ''Veľké Šurany''; hu, Nagysurány; german: Schuran) is a town and a railroad hub in the
Nové Zámky District,
Nitra Region, southern
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
.
Alongside the main settlement, it has the boroughs of Kostolný Sek and
Nitriansky Hrádok, both annexed 1976.
Etymology
The town name comes from
Slavic ''šur-'', ''šurý'' (curved, in a wider sense hilly) + the suffix ''-any'' referring to people. Šurany: "people from hills", the opposite of
Rovňany
Rovňany ( hu, Ipolyróna) is a village and municipality in the Poltár District in the Banská Bystrica Region of Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocke ...
: "people from plains".
History
Archaeological discoveries show that the site of the present-day town was inhabited in the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
. The town was first mentioned under name ''villa Suran'' in a document of Hungarian king
Béla II
Béla may refer to:
* Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater
* Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name
See also
* Bela (disambiguation)
Bela may refer to:
Places Asia
* Bela Pratapgarh, a town in Pratapgarh District, Uttar ...
in 1138. There was a castle existing since the second half of the 15th century. Between 1568 and 1581, the town was the seat of the
Captaincy of Lower Hungary. The settlement was occupied by the
Turks in 1663–84. The castle was torn down in 1725. In 1832 the town was made a royal town with market rights. A sugar factory was established in 1854 (closed in 2000).
:: VÃtajte na stránkach mesta Å urany ::. .:: www.surany.sk ::
/ref> The town was part of Hungary until 1920 and in 1938–45 as a consequence of the First Vienna Award.
Geography
Å urany lies at an altitude of above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''.
The comb ...
and covers an area of .Danubian Lowland
::''The Serbian lowland is treated under Danube Plain (Serbia)''
The Danubian Lowland or Danube Lowland () is the name of the part of Little Alföld (Slovak: ''Malá dunajská kotlina'') situated in Slovakia, located between the Danube, the Litt ...
near the Nitra River, away from Nové Zámky and around from Bratislava
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...
.
Demographics
According to the 2001 census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
, the town had 10,491 inhabitants. 97.28% of inhabitants were Slovaks
The Slovaks ( sk, Slováci, singular: ''Slovák'', feminine: ''Slovenka'', plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovak.
In Slovakia, 4.4 mi ...
, 1.12% Hungarians
Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
, 0.64% Czechs
The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, c ...
. The religious make-up was 80.02% Roman Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, 14.76% people with no religious affiliation, and 1.19% Lutherans.
People
Å urany featured in a 2006 episode of '' Who Do You Think You Are?'' featuring Stephen Fry. Fry was tracing his Jewish ancestry in the town, where his maternal grandfather Martin Neumann was a manager at the Å urany sugar factory and was recruited to work in the burgeoning sugar industry in Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
References
External links
* (Slovak, only History is in English as well)
Šurany – Nové Zámky okolie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Surany
Cities and towns in Slovakia