Sklabiňa ( hu, Szklabinya) 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 ...

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 ...

Martin District Martin District (''okres Martin'') is a district in the Žilina Region of central Slovakia. Its main cultural, economic and administrative seat is the city of Martin. Martin District is one of the most important cultural centers in Slovakia. The ci ...

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 ...

Names

The name is derived from the word ''Sclavus'', ''Sclabus'' (

Slav Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

). In historical records the

was first mentioned in 1242 - ''Zklabonya'', later as ''Sclabonya'' (1252), ''Sclouuan'' (Slovan - the native name of Slavs, 1266), ''Sclabana'' (1309) but also as ''Szklabinka'' (1736) or in the Hungarized form ''Szklabinya'' (1786).

History

The locality was settled already by the people of

Púchov culture The Púchov culture was an archaeological culture named after site of Púchov-Skalka in Slovakia. Its probable bearer was the Celtic Cotini and/or Anartes tribes. It existed in northern and central Slovakia (although it also plausibly spread to the ...

who built a

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

near the present-day village. The remains of the hillfort were reused in the Early Middle Ages by the Slavs. The village has always had a close relationship to the castle, the seat of Turiec County. During the

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 ...

the village became the center of the partisan movement. On 21 August 1944 (one week before the

Slovak National Uprising The Slovak National Uprising ( sk, Slovenské národné povstanie, abbreviated SNP) was a military uprising organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. This resistance movement was represented mainly by the members of the ...

), Sklabiňa became the first village where the partisans raised the Czechoslovak flag and declared that it is a liberated territory of

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

. The partisan

field trial A field trial is a competitive event for gundogs. Field trials are conducted for pointing dogs and setters, retrievers and spaniels, with each assessing the different types various working traits. In the United States, field trials are also co ...

executed at least 100 people, mostly members of the German minority. The village suffered from several

punitive expedition A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong beh ...

s. Among other, on 30 September 1944 Nazis imprisoned 144 citizens, 3 of them died during the questioning, additional 20 were executed together with other prisoners.

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 ...

of 480 metres 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 or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an ope ...

of 11.070 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 608 people.

References

External links

Villages and municipalities in Martin District * {{Žilina-geo-stub