Svit ( hu, Szvit) ( pl, Świt) is a small

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Poprad District Poprad District (''okres Poprad'') is a district in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia. The district had been established in 1923 and from 1996 exists in its current borders. It consists of 29 municipalities, from which three have a town statu ...

in the

Prešov Region The Prešov Region, also Priashiv Region ( sk, Prešovský kraj, ; hu, Eperjesi kerület; uk, Пряшівський край) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 13 districts (okresy) and 666 municipalities, 23 o ...

in 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 ...

. It lies west of the city of

Poprad Poprad (; hu, Poprád; german: Deutschendorf) is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. It is the biggest town of the Spiš region and the ten ...

, at the foothills of the

High Tatras The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains ( Slovak: Vysoké Tatry; pl, Tatry Wysokie; rue, Высокі Татри,'' Vysoki Tatry''; hu, Magas-Tátra; german: Hohe Tatra; french: Hautes Tatras), are a mountain range along the border of norther ...

History

Svit is one of the youngest Slovak towns. It was established in 1934 by business industrialist

Jan Antonín Baťa Jan Antonín Baťa (March 7, 1898 – August 23, 1965) (also known as ''Jan Antonin Bata'' or ''Jan Bata'', called The King of Shoes) was a Czech- Brazilian shoe manufacturer from Uherské Hradiště (southeastern Moravia), half-brother of Tomáš ...

Zlín Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; german: Zlin) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 73,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice river. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the ...

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

(now

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

) through his organization Baťa a.s., Zlin in accordance with his policy of setting up villages around the country for his workers. As a boy, Jan Baťa saw the poverty and sickness of his fellow countrymen. He wanted to change this by creating cities full of the most modern factories and filled with the best (and happiest) workers in Europe. The Baťa System under Jan's administration brought prosperity first to

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

, and later

and

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

. It was Jan's policy for full employment that drove him to create each Baťa town for a different purpose: Shoes, Rubber and Tires, Textiles, Airplanes, Chemicals, Plastics, Media, Stockings, Leather, Machinery. When 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 opposin ...

came, Jan Baťa's policy was to secretly fund the

Czechoslovak government-in-exile The Czechoslovak government-in-exile, sometimes styled officially as the Provisional Government of Czechoslovakia ( cz, Prozatímní vláda Československa, sk, Dočasná vláda Československa), was an informal title conferred upon the Czechos ...

, to supply the Czech Army with shoes and clothing and to secretly fund 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 ...

that started at Baťovany (now

Partizánske Partizánske (, meaning “partisan town” formerly: ''Baťovany'', hu, Simony) is a town in Trenčín Region, Slovakia. Geography Partizánske is located in the northern part of the Danubian Hills around from Nitra and from the capital Brat ...

) on August 29, 1944. Jan Baťa represented Czech/Slovak freedom and prosperity. Svit is short for "Slovenské vizkózové továrne" (in English ''Slovak Viscose Works''). (Also, the word ''svit'' means 'shine' in Slovak) Svit is the smallest town in Slovakia (4.5 km²) with the population of 7,790.

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 incl ...

, the town had 7,445 inhabitants. 96.44% 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 ...

, 1.11%

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

and 0.79%

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 62.53%

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 ...

, 20.67% people with no religious affiliation, 8.62%

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 ...

and 4.00%

Greek Catholics The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually. The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Ca ...

Churches

* Roman Catholic Church of st. Joseph * Roman Catholic Church of st. Cyril and Methodius * Greek Catholic Chapel of st. Cyril and Methodius * Lutheran Church

Sports

The town is home to the professional basketball team

BK Iskra Svit BK Iskra Svit is a Slovak professional basketball club that is based in Svit, Slovakia. The club competes in the Slovak Extraliga. The club's full name is Basketbalový Klub Iskra Svit. The club was previously known as BK Chemosvit. Current squad ...

, which plays in the

Slovak Extraliga The Tipos Extraliga (Slovak Extraliga) is the highest-level ice hockey league in Slovakia. From the 2018–19 season to the 2020–21 season, the league included one or two teams from Hungary. In 2009, it was ranked by the IIHF as the fifth stro ...

Twin towns — sister cities

Svit is twinned with: *

Česká Třebová Česká Třebová (; german: Böhmisch Trübau) is a town in Ústí nad Orlicí District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 15,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument ...

, Czech Republic *

Knurów Knurów (; german: Knurow; szl, Knurōw) is a city near Katowice in Silesia, southern Poland. Knurów borders on the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of two million. Knurów is located in the Silesian Highlands, ...

, Poland *

, Slovakia *

San Lorenzo in Campo San Lorenzo in Campo is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pesaro e Urbino in the Italian region Marche, located about west of Ancona and about south of Pesaro. The main attraction is the Gothic church of San Lorenzo, once part of a ...

, Italy

References

External links

Official website of Svit
(in Slovak only) Cities and towns in Slovakia Villages and municipalities in Poprad District Bata Corporation New towns started in the 1930s {{Prešov-geo-stub