Gabčíkovo ( hu, Bős, ) is a town and municipality in the Dunajská Streda District, in the

Trnava Region The Trnava Region ( sk, Trnavský kraj, ; hu, Nagyszombati kerület; german: Tyrnauer Landschaftsverband) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions. It was established in 1996, before which date most of its districts were parts of Brat ...

of southwestern

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 ...

. It has 5,232 inhabitants of whom approximately 80% are

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 ...

. After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, the city was named after Jozef Gabčík, an important figure in the Czechoslovakian resistance to Nazi occupation.

Name

The Hungarian name of the town was first recorded in 1102 as ''Beys'' and preserves the name of its erstwhile

Pecheneg The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პაჭ ...

inhabitants, ''pecheneg'' being ''besenyő'' in Hungarian. The town appears in several documents between 1262 and 1274 as a borderguard Pecheneg settlement. The current Slovak name of the town was given by the authorities in 1948 after Jozef Gabčík, a Slovak soldier involved in Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...

, Deputy Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.

Geography

Gabčíkovo is situated along the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

river on the border with

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

, in the southern part of Great Rye Island around 12 km south of

Dunajská Streda Dunajská Streda (; hu, Dunaszerdahely; german: Niedermarkt; he, דונהסרדהיי) is a town located in southern Slovakia ( Trnavský kraj). Dunajská Streda is the most culturally significant town in the Žitný ostrov area. The town has a p ...

bordered by

Baka Baka, baká or BAKA may refer to: Ethnicities and languages * Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon), an African ethnic group * Baka people (Congo and South Sudan), an African ethnic group * Baka language, a dialect cluster of Cameroon and Gabon * Baka ...

to the west, Vrakúň to the east, Pataš, Baloň, Sap and

Ňárad Ňárad ( hu, Csiliznyárad, ) is a village and municipality in the Dunajská Streda District in the Trnava Region of south-west Slovakia. History The village was first recorded in 1468 as the estate of the Dóczy family. Until the end of W ...

to the southeast, and the Hungarian villages of Lipót and Ásványráró to the southwest. Administratively, the village belongs to the

, Dunajská Streda District. Near to the village, there is the main part of the Gabčíkovo Waterworks, which is the reason for a long-term dispute between

and the Slovak Republic.

History

In the 10th century, the territory of Gabčíkovo became part of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coronation of the Hungarian monarch, c ...

. In 1468, Hungarian king

Matthias Corvinus Matthias Corvinus, also called Matthias I ( hu, Hunyadi Mátyás, ro, Matia/Matei Corvin, hr, Matija/Matijaš Korvin, sk, Matej Korvín, cz, Matyáš Korvín; ), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458 to 1490. After conducting several m ...

gave Gabčíkovo, then known as Bős, the right of organizing a fair. It was part of Hungary and later Austria Hungary until the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (french: Traité de Trianon, hu, Trianoni békeszerződés, it, Trattato del Trianon) was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in Versailles on 4 June 1920. It forma ...

. No plebiscites were allowed to take place despite the overwhelming majority of the population being Hungarian. After the

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1 ...

army disintegrated in November 1918, Czechoslovak troops occupied the area, later acknowledged internationally by the

. Between 1938 and 1945 Bős once more became part of

Miklós Horthy Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya ( hu, Vitéz nagybányai Horthy Miklós; ; English: Nicholas Horthy; german: Nikolaus Horthy Ritter von Nagybánya; 18 June 1868 – 9 February 1957), was a Hungarian admiral and dictator who served as the regent ...

's Hungary through the

First Vienna Award The First Vienna Award was a treaty signed on 2 November 1938 pursuant to the Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace. The arbitration and award were direct consequences of the previous month's Munich Agreement, which ...

. From 1945 until the

Velvet Divorce The dissolution of Czechoslovakia ( cs, Rozdělení Československa, sk, Rozdelenie Česko-Slovenska) took effect on December 31, 1992, and was the self-determined split of the federal republic of Czechoslovakia into the independent countries o ...

, it was part of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. Since then it has been part of Slovakia.

Demography

In 1910, it had a population of 2823 of whom 2805 (99.36%) were listed as Hungarians (included Jews and Slovaks in the state service). After the Treaty of Trianon, more Slovaks started to move into the area. As of 2021, the population includes 5,232 inhabitants, of which 4,217 (80.6%) are

, and 727 (13.9%) are

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 ...

Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Bratislava, Slovakia" * Roman Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1720-1896 (parish A)

Twin towns – sister cities

Gabčíkovois twinned with: * Enese, Hungary *

Kondoros Kondoros ( sk, Kondoroš) is a town in Békés County, in the Southern Great Plain region of south-east Hungary. Jews lived in Kondorosh at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the local Jewish community was subo ...

, Hungary * Mihăileni, Romania * Nagymaros, Hungary * Pázmándfalu, Hungary

References

External links

Municipal website

Villages and municipalities in Dunajská Streda District Hungarian communities in Slovakia {{Trnava-geo-stub