Sliač ( hu, Szliács) is a small

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. H ...

located in central

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 ...

, on the Hron river, between

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other alternative names) is a middle-sized town in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, and the Kremnica Mo ...

and

Zvolen Zvolen (; hu, Zólyom; german: Altsohl) is a town in central Slovakia, situated on the confluence of Hron and Slatina rivers, close to Banská Bystrica. It is surrounded by Poľana mountain from the East, by Kremnické vrchy from the West an ...

. The town is known for its healing

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

and for an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

which has been used for military as well as civil purposes. Sliač has a population of less than 5,000.

History

The town arose through a merger of two villages, ''Hájniky'' and ''Rybáre'', in 1959 and was given the name "Sliač". However, both original settlements are much older. The

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

church in Hájniky was mentioned for the first time in 1263 (when the territory belonged to 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 first king Stephen ...

) and there is archaeological evidence of Slavic settlers living in the area since the 6th century. Some evidence also indicates that the history of the settlement stretches to 2000 B.C.

Sliač Airport Sliač Airport or, historically, ''Letisko Tri Duby'' (literally, "The Three Oaks Airport") is a military airport in central Slovakia situated between the towns of Zvolen and Banská Bystrica and near the spa town of Sliač. The airport has one ...

, formerly known as ''Letisko Tri Duby'' ("The Three-Oaks Airport") due to the name of the area it was located in, played the key strategic role during the Slovak National Uprising.

Demographics

In 2018, Sliač had a population of 4,986. 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 ...

, 96.1% 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 ...

and 2.3%

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 46.1%

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 ...

, 26.7% people with no religious affiliation, and 22.1% Lutherans.

Twin towns — sister cities

Sliač is twinned with: *

Přibyslav Přibyslav (german: Primislau) is a town in Havlíčkův Brod District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,000 people. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an Cultural monument (Czech Rep ...

, Czech Republic

References

External links

Official website of the municipality

Sliač dnes: Website about events in Sliac

Health Spa SliačHistory, present and comparison of spa Sliač
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sliac Cities and towns in Slovakia Spa towns in Slovakia