Svätý Jur (; german: Sankt Georgen; he, Yergen; hu, Szentgyörgy; formerly ''Jur pri Bratislave'') is a small historical town northeast of

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

, located in the

Bratislava Region The Bratislava Region ( sk, Bratislavský kraj, , german: Pressburger/Bratislavaer Landschaftsverband (until 1919), hu, Pozsonyi kerület) is one of the administrative regions of Slovakia. Its capital is Bratislava. The region was first esta ...

. The city is situated on the slopes of

Little Carpathians The Little Carpathians (also: ''Lesser Carpathians'', sk, Malé Karpaty; german: Kleine Karpaten; hu, Kis-Kárpátok) are a low, about 100 km long, mountain range, part of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountains are situated in Western Slov ...

mountains and surrounded by typical terraced

vineyards A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

with more than 700 years of

winemaking Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and ...

tradition. In 1990, the intact city center was declared a protected city reservation. Cadastrially, Svätý Jur includes also the natural reserve

Šúr Šúr is a national nature reserve in the Slovak municipalities of Svätý Jur and Chorvátsky Grob in the Pezinok District. The nature reserve covers an area of 655 ha and has a protective belt of 145 ha. It has a protection level of 3, 4 a ...

, established in 1952 to protect one of the last and largest remnants of a tall-stem

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

. Today, Svätý Jur has a population of over 5 thousand citizens. The town is well connected with a major road between Pezinok and Bratislava passing through and the Svätý Jur railway station situated on the main Košice - Bratislava railway line. The city is bordered by the Little Carpathian mountains to the west, Bratislava to the south, natural reserve Šúr to the east and Limbach and

Pezinok Pezinok (; hu, Bazin; german: Bösing; lat, Bazinium) is a town in southwestern Slovakia. It is roughly northeast of Bratislava and, as of December 2018, had a population of 23,002. Pezinok lies near the Little Carpathians and thrives mainly ...

to the north and northeast respectively.

Etymology

The city name translates literally as

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...

, ''Jur'' being the archaic form of ''Juraj'' in the Slovak. Between 1960 and 1990, the

Communist government A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comint ...

renamed the town to Jur pri Bratislave.

Geography

Svätý Jur is situated in the

Pezinok District Pezinok District (''okres Pezinok'') is a district in the Bratislava Region of western Slovakia The district had been established in 1996, from 1923 was its area part of Modra District. It is situated on the foothills of Little Carpathians hills, a ...

of the

in southwestern Slovakia. The surrounding areas include large

in the nearby

and the unique

swamps, a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

History

Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

excavations date the original settlement to the

Hallstatt period The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European Archaeological culture, culture of Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe ...

and the

Quadi The Quadi were a Germanic * * * people who lived approximately in the area of modern Moravia in the time of the Roman Empire. The only surviving contemporary reports about the Germanic tribe are those of the Romans, whose empire had its bord ...

period. In the 9th century, a

Great Moravia Great Moravia ( la, Regnum Marahensium; el, Μεγάλη Μοραβία, ''Meghálī Moravía''; cz, Velká Morava ; sk, Veľká Morava ; pl, Wielkie Morawy), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavs, Wes ...

n castle was built here. Svätý Jur was first mentioned in a written source in 1209 and received a town charter in 1299. It became a royal

free town Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to proc ...

in 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 ...

in 1647. Defensive city walls were constructed between 1603 and 1664, but Svätý Jur was devastated by the

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

in their invasion of 1663. The Ottoman troops also destroyed the White Castle ( sk, Biely Kameň), which had been an important administrative center of the region until then. In the 18th century, the Hungarian government recruited German farmers to repopulate the area. To encourage migration, it allowed the Germans to keep their language and religion in order to develop farmland for cultivation and produce. Through the 19th century and into the 20th century, the population of this area was largely ethnic

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, although by that time they spoke an archaic form of German. They were known as

Danube Swabians The Danube Swabians (german: Donauschwaben ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in various countries of central-eastern Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in grea ...

. In part because Nazi Germany used the eastern ethnic German communities as an excuse for its wars of expansion in eastern Europe, 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 opposin ...

, ethnic Germans were forcefully expelled to Germany and other Western countries. In 1840, the first (horse) railway in the Kingdom of Hungary was built from Bratislava to Svätý Jur.

Landmarks

The most remarkable historical monument is 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 of

St. George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...

, built in the 13th century. The sandstone altar from 1527 is an example of a transition between the Gothic and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

styles. The

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows were designed by

Janko Alexy Janko Alexy (25 January 1894 in Liptovský Mikuláš – 22 September 1970 in Bratislava) was a famous painter, writer, and publicist of Slovak origin. He is generally recognized (together with Martin Benka and Ľudovít Fulla) as one of key pe ...

in 1950. The wooden

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

from the 17th century protects a

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

from 1400. The bell cracked due to a fire in 1802 and after repair in 1848 was damaged again. There is a fame that this bell was buried during the period of the Ottoman raids and was accidentally found by a rooting pig afterwards. A Great Moravian castle was built in the 9th century and it was abandoned in the 14th century. 1,693 metres of the walls have been preserved, but their height is now lower than the original 10 metres. Other places of interest include a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

, a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

church of

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

, a

Piarist The Piarists (), officially named the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools ( la, Ordo Clericorum Regularium pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum), abbreviated SchP, is a religious order of clerics regular of the ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

from 1720, a late 18th century

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

and the ruins of the city walls. Svätý Jur is also well known for the largest raceway in Slovakia.

Biely Kameň Castle

The castle of Biely Kameň was mentioned for the first time in 1217. It was the seat of the counts of Svätý Jur until 1609, when they moved to a more comfortable manor house in the town. The castle was partially destroyed by an Ottoman raid in 1663. The ruins are still visible.

Population

In 2006, Svätý Jur had a population of 5,186. 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 ...

, 97.5% 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 ...

. The

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

is the most popular religion (72.5%), but there is also a significant number of atheists (15.9%) living in the village.

Sport

The town has an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team called

ŠK Svätý Jur ŠK Svätý Jur (English: St George Football Club) is a Slovak football team, based in the town of Svätý Jur. The club was founded in 1921 and their local rivals are PŠC Pezinok. Current squad ''As of 25 February 2018'' ...

Famous people

* Alojz Hudek (1887 – 1961), SDB,

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

end

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 ...

(

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

) * Karl Samuel Grünhut (1844–1929), Austrian jurist * Dr Imrich Sarkany FRCP, Consultant Dermatologist, Royal Free Hospital, London

Twin towns — sister cities

Svätý Jur is twinned with: *

Bělá pod Bezdězem Bělá pod Bezdězem (german: Weisswasser) is a town in Mladá Boleslav District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,700 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as urban monument zon ...

, Czech Republic

References

External links

Official pageOfficial site of Svätý JurPhotos of Svätý JurShort description of Biely Kameň Castle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Svaty Jur Cities and towns in Slovakia Villages and municipalities in Pezinok District Castles in Slovakia Great Moravia