Divina ( hu, Nagydivény) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Žilina District Žilina District ( sk, Okres Žilina) is an '' okres'' (district) of the Žilina Region in north-western Slovakia. The district was first established in 1923. Its present borders date from 1996. The heart of the district is the Váh and Rajec rive ...

in the

Žilina Region The Žilina Region ( sk, Žilinský kraj; pl, Kraj żyliński; hu, Zsolnai kerület) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 11 districts ( okresy) and 315 municipalities, from which 18 have a town status. The region ...

of northern

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 ...

History

In historical records the

was first mentioned in 1325. File:Divina, pečať.jpg, Oldest seal of Divina village File:Lúky, pečať.JPG, Oldest seal of Lúky village, part of Divina

Geography

The

lies at an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

between 355 – 910 metres (center of the village 550 meters) and covers an

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an obje ...

of 21.881 km². It has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of about 2384 people.

Monuments and Memorials

Church of St. Andrew

Late baroque church, built between 1773 and 1779 by John Nepomuk Szunyogh. The church is registered in the Central List of the Slovak Memorial Fund under the number 1333/1.

Statue of St. John of Nepomuk in Divina

The Statue of St. John of Nepomuk is registered in the Central List of the Slovak Memorial Fund under the number 1334/2. It is a sandstone sculpture from 1796 standing on a stone base. The project of restoration of St. John of Nepomuk statue was initiated by architect

Marek Sobola Marek Sobola (born 3 July 1981) is an authorised landscape architect, professional gardener and heraldic artist from Slovakia. Biography Sobola was born in Žilina, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) into a family from Lalinok and Divina. He spe ...

and was started in 2016, was completed in June 2017. Partners, who were addressed to cooperate have either some connection to St. John of Nepomuk or to Slovakia and was from:

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

and

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. The project was carried out under auspices of the

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

of the Federal Republic of Germany in Slovakia. Exceptional realization of the restoration project of the statie has gained a Honorable recognition by Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic, Ľubica Laššáková on the 13th edition of the competition Phoenix – National Cultural Monument of the Year 2017. File:Divina Kostol sv. Ondreja.jpg, Church of St. Andrew in Divina File:Ľudový dom.JPG, Typical folk house from Divina, built 1907

Monument of Divina Meteorite

Meteorit from Divina (official name Gross-Divina) fell into the center of the village on July 24, 1837. From the mineralogical point of view it is a

chondrite A chondrite is a stony (non-metallic) meteorite that has not been modified, by either melting or differentiation of the parent body. They are formed when various types of dust and small grains in the early Solar System accreted to form primi ...

. The weight was 10.5 kg. The memorial was designed by architect Marek Sobola, native of Divina. Architect used a

corten steel Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting, and form a stable rus ...

for the construction. The memorial contains a precise 3D copy of the meteorite. The original is in the

Hungarian Natural History Museum The Hungarian Natural History Museum ( hu, Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum) in Budapest, dating back to 1802, houses the largest natural history collections of Hungary and the region. History of the museum Foundation In 1802, Count Fere ...

as well as the Natural History Museum Vienna. File:Pamätník divinského meteoritu, Divina.jpg, Monument of Divina Meteorite File:Divina John of Nepomuk Overall view.jpg, Statue of St. John of Nepomuk in Divina File:Štefan Závodník.jpg, Štefan Závodník

Personalities and natives

* Štefan Závodník (*2. 9. 1813, Horná Poruba – † 12. 2. 1885,

Pružina Pružina ( hu, Barossháza) is a village and municipality in Považská Bystrica District in the Trenčín Region of north-western Slovakia. Pružina is also a surname that comes from the village of Pružina and is very uncommon. History Severa ...

) was a Roman Catholic priest, pedagogue, important personality of Slovak national past and pioneer of

bee-keeping Beekeeping (or apiculture) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made beehives. Honey bees in the genus '' Apis'' are the most-commonly-kept species but other honey-producing bees such as ''Melipona'' stingless bees are also kept. ...

. He was also the organizer of the first Upper Hungarian societies. In the years 1836 – 1841 he worked as a chaplain in Divina and between 1841 – 1850 he was a Roman Catholic priest in Divina. *

(*3. 7. 1981, Žilina) is a Slovak authorised garden and landscape architect, professional gardener, designer and

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...

artist. He is a member of the Slovak Chamber of Architects and Czech Chamber of Architects. His specialization is an

Ecclesiastical heraldry Ecclesiastical heraldry refers to the use of heraldry within Christianity for dioceses, organisations and Christian clergy. Initially used to mark documents, ecclesiastical heraldry evolved as a system for identifying people and dioceses. It ...

Missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

countries.

Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Štátny archív v Žiline so sídlom v Bytči". * Roman Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1771-1898 (parish A).