Handlová (german: Krickerhau, hu, Nyitrabánya, before 1913 ) is a town in the
Prievidza District
Prievidza District ( sk, okres Prievidza, hu, Privigyei járás) is a district in the Trenčín Region of western Slovakia. Until 1918, the district was mostly part of the county of Kingdom of Hungary of Nyitra, apart from a small area in the so ...
,
Trenčín Region
The Trenčín Region ( sk, Trenčiansky kraj, ; cs, Trenčínský kraj; hu, Trencséni kerület) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions. It consists of 9 districts ('' okresy''). The region was established in 1996: previously it had ...
in the middle of
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 ...
. It is made up of the three parts Handlová, Nová Lehota and Morovno.
Geography
It is located in the ''Handlovka'' brook valley, surrounded by the mountain ranges of Vtáčnik in the west and Žiar in the south, east and north, in the historical region of
Hauerland
Hauerland (also called ''Kremnitz-Deutschprobener Sprachinsel'') is the German name for a region presently located in central Slovakia once inhabited by Carpathian Germans. Arisen from medieval '' Ostsiedlung'' population movements, it belonged ...
. It is away from
Prievidza
Prievidza (; hu, Privigye, german: Priwitz) is a city in the central-western Slovakia. With approximately 46,000 inhabitants it is the second biggest municipality in the Trenčín Region and 11th largest city in Slovakia generally.
Name
The ...
and from
Žiar nad Hronom
Žiar nad Hronom (slang: Žiar, german: link=no, Heiligenkreuz, hu, Garamszentkereszt; until 1920 ''Svätý Kríž'' and until 1955 ''Svätý Kríž nad Hronom'') is a city in Banská Bystrica Region, Slovakia.
Name development
The name of the ...
.
Besides the main settlement, it also has "parts" of Morovno (north-west) and Nová Lehota (south), both annexed 1976.
History
The town was established in 1376 and was inhabited by German settlers which were later known as the
Carpathian Germans
Carpathian Germans (german: Karpatendeutsche, Mantaken, hu, kárpátnémetek or ''felvidéki németek'', sk, karpatskí Nemci) are a group of ethnic Germans. The term was coined by the historian Raimund Friedrich Kaindl (1866–1930), originall ...
. The first known settler in Handlová was Peter Kricker from Kremnica, who came here together with 200 others to establish a settlement on a site called Krásny les (Beautiful Forest). At first the settlers lived just from crops and pastoral farming. Only much later, in the 18th century, did coal mining begin. Local miners at first worked mainly to supply the needs of nearby
Bojnice Castle
Bojnice Castle ( sk, Bojnický zámok, hu, Bajmóci vár) is a medieval castle in Bojnice, Slovakia. It is a Romanesque castle with some original Gothic and Renaissance elements built in the 12th century. Bojnice Castle is one of the most visit ...
.
In 1945 after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Handlová underwent the biggest upheaval in its centuries-long history. Most of its ethnic German inhabitants was expelled from the town due to the so-called Beneš decrees. Of the original 12,800 people who lived here as late as in 1943, only 4,000 remained in Handlová by 1945. As a result, Handlová's character changed completely. It received town privileges in 1960.
In 2009, the town suffered a major disaster during the 2009 Handlová mine blast, in which 20 people were killed.
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 in ...
, the town had 18,018 inhabitants. 96.14% of inhabitants were Slovaks, 0.85% Hungarian, 0.67%
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, ...
Atheists
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
Lutherans
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...
.
People
* Peter Paliatka, designer, sculptor and university pedagogue
*
Martin Škrtel
Martin Škrtel (born 15 December 1984) is a Slovak former professional footballer, a former player and captain of the Slovakia national team and Liverpool Football Club.
Škrtel previously played for FK AS Trenčín and Zenit Saint Petersburg ...
Voerde
Voerde ([]) is a town in the Wesel (district), district of Wesel, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, approximately south-east of Wesel, and 20 km north of Duisburg.
City structure
According t ...
, Germany
*
Zábřeh
Zábřeh (; german: Hohenstadt) is a town in Šumperk District in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 13,000 inhabitants.
Administrative parts
Villages of Dolní Bušínov, Hněvkov, Pivonín and Václavov are administrative p ...