Šenkvice () is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in central

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, 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 west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

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, ...

in the

Bratislava region The Bratislava Region (, ; (until 1919); ) is one of the Regions of Slovakia, administrative regions of Slovakia. Its capital is Bratislava. The region was first established in 1923 and its present borders exist from 1996. It is the smallest of ...

. The town of over 5,300 people lies east of

Pezinok Pezinok (; in the local dialect ''Pezinek''; ; ; ) is a town in southwestern Slovakia. It is roughly northeast of Bratislava and, as of December 2023, had a population of 24,443. Pezinok lies near the Little Carpathians and thrives mainly on vi ...

and south of

Modra Modra (, , Latin: ''Modur'') is a city and municipality in the Bratislava Region in Slovakia. It has a population of 9,201 as of 2013. It nestles in the foothills of the Malé Karpaty (Little Carpathian mountains) and is an excellent centre for ...

, and is connected to each via a main road. Another road connects Šenkvice to Blatné, which lies about five kilometers (three miles) south-east.

Name and etymology

The name derives from a Slavic personal name ''Čaník'' (1256, ''villa Chanuk''). The

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

colonists adopted the Slovak name (probably ''Čaníkovce'') as ''Sankawych'', ''Sankavich'' (1390) and finally as ''Schenkowitz'', ''Schenkwitz''. In the 16th century, the village was abandoned and resettled by the

Croatians The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They also f ...

who adopted the German name and changed it to ''Šenkvice''. This became also the Slovak name.

History

Early settlements from the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

were found in the town, as well as signs of human activity during Ancient Roman times. The first written record of the village can be found in a letter by the Hungarian king

Béla IV Béla may refer to: * Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater * Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name See also * Bela (disambiguation) * Belá (disambiguation) * Bělá (disambiguation) Bělá may refer to: Places in the Cze ...

from 1256. The town was burned down during the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire, the Mongol Empire (1206–1368), which by 1260 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

. Soon, the area was resettled by German settlers. In 1547 the village has experienced an influx of Croatians, who were fleeing from the advancing

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. More Croatians from the town of

Hrvatska Kostajnica Hrvatska Kostajnica (; ; ), also referred to as simply Kostajnica, is a town in central Croatia. It is located on the Una (Sava), Una river in the Sisak-Moslavina County, south of Petrinja and Sisak and across the river from Kostajnica, Bosnia and ...

came in 1594 and founded a small settlement nearby, originally called Malé Šenkvice. Later, it merged into Šenkvice. In 1682, the town has built fortifications around the Church of

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

, where the inhabitants hid during Ottoman incursions. During the Middle Ages, the village built its first church, roughly in 1350 in Gothic style. The church has burned down and was replaced by a new one in the second half of the 16th century. This church was later expanded and in 1666 rebuilt in

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style with some

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

elements. The church has retained this look till today. After the Ottomans were driven off, the town began stagnating. Not even the opening of a railroad line connecting Šenkvice with

in 1845 has revived the village, and only after the founding of

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

in 1918 the town started experiencing growth, thanks to an influx of new companies.

Economy and infrastructure

Šenkvice is best known for its wine production. The largest winemaker in the town is Karpatská Perla, which has received several awards for its wines. In addition, the town has a bakery, Framipek, which supplies stores in from Senec to

, and a plastic sheeting manufacturer, Novplasta. The village is fully gasified, and it has water and sewage systems. There is a train station, as well as several bus links to the surrounding cities. Šenkvice has a kindergarten and grade school, a fire station, health center, library and town museum.

Culture and entertainment

The town features a young folk group, Mladosť. It also has a town museum, currently consisting of one room near the Culture House. The Culture House features theatre and musical shows, including performances by the town's volunteer theater group, which celebrated its 100th birthday in 2006. Šenkvice has a soccer team, which plays in the Slovak league's next-to-lowest fourth division. The town also has a gymnastic team and a

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

team as well. However, it is most famous for its indoors

motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competi ...

track.

Demographics

As of December 31, 2004, the town had 4327 inhabitants: 2131 male and 2196 female. 98.2% of them were of Slovak ethnicity; the largest minority was Czech. 86.9% were Roman Catholics, 2.2% Lutherans and 8.8% atheists. Of the 1199 houses in the village, 1056 were permanently occupied.

Famous people

* Jozef Figura (*1906 – † 2001), 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 common English usage ''priest'' re ...

end

Missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who 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.Thoma ...

(

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

). * Anton Figura (*1909 – † 1996), SDB,

end

(

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

).KUBANOVIČ, Zlatko: '' Historický náhľad do dejín slovenských saleziánov (Od dona Bosca do roku 1924)''. Bratislava : Don Bosco, 2019. . S. 235 – 236.

References

External links

Official home page (in Slovak)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Senkvice Croatian communities in Slovakia Villages and municipalities in Pezinok District