Dubnica nad Váhom (; Slovak before 1927: ''Dubnica'', , , before 1899 ''Dubnic(z)'') is a town in the

Ilava District Ilava District (, ) is a Districts of Slovakia, district in the Trenčín Region of western Slovakia. Until 1918, the district was part of the Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary, county of Kingdom of Hungary of Trencsén County, Tr ...

Trenčín Region The Trenčín Region (, ; ; ) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions. It consists of nine districts ('' okresy''). The region was established in 1996: previously it had been a part of the West Slovak Region () and partly the Central S ...

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 ...

Geography

It is located on the

Váh The Váh (; , ; ; Wag
w Słowniku geograficznym Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich (''in Geograph ...

river, in the Ilava Basin, between the

White Carpathians The White Carpathians (; ; ) are a mountain range on the border of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, part of the Carpathians. They are part of the macroregion of Slovak-Moravian Carpathians, stretching from the Váh river and the Little Carpat ...

and Strážovské vrchy mountains, at an altitude of 242 metres. The town's cadastral area is composed of Dubnica and "city part" Prejta, annexed in 1973.

History

Traces of settlement in the place of today's town are from the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

. The first written mention about Dubnica nad Váhom was in 1193 as ''Dubnicza''. Sometime in the 15th century the village passed to the rule of the Trenčín Castle. After incorporation into

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 ...

, construction of a munition factory was negotiated in 1928 and built in 1936. During the Second World War, a Roma concentration camp was set up in the town. At its height, the camp housed more than 700 Roma prisoners, most of whom had been used as slave labor in the nearby factory and to build a dam on the River Vah. During January 1945 several inmates and one guard fell ill with typhus. On February 23, 1945 the inmates were taken out and murdered to stop the spread of Typhus. This was among the largest killing of Roma in Slovakia during the war

http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/get_pdf.php?file=pdf_docs/ROMANI_HISTORY/English/H_5.6_holocaust_czechoslovakia.pd

https://www.romasintigenocide.eu/en/pdf-eng/dubnic

During the

Communist Czechoslovakia The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, (Czech and Slovak: ''Československá socialistická republika'', ČSSR) known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic (''Československá republika)'', Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, or simply Czech ...

, it was one of the biggest arms producers in the whole country. After the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...

in 1989, the factory was shut down and only fragments are left now.

Demographics

According to the 2001

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, the town had 25,995 inhabitants. 96.6% of inhabitants were

Slovaks The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: ''Slovák'' (historical: ''Sloven'' ), feminine: ''Slovenka'' , plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history ...

, 1.4%

Czechs The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common Bohemia ...

and 0.2% Roma and 0.2

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...

. The religious make-up was 76.7%

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, 16.4% people with no religious affiliation, and 2.5%

Lutherans Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

Notable people

Pavol Demitra Pavol Demitra (; 29 November 1974 – 7 September 2011) was a Slovakia, Slovak professional ice hockey player. He played nineteen seasons of professional hockey, for teams in the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League (CSL), National Hockey League ...

(1974-2011), ice hockey player *

Rudolf Hrubý Rudolf Hrubý (14 April 1954 – 14 December 2023) was a Slovak businessman and investor. He was a co-founder and long-term CFO of the software company ESET. Biography Early life Rudolf Hrubý was born on 14 April 1954 in Dubnica nad Vá ...

(1954-2023), businessman * Tomáš Tatar (born 1990), ice hockey player * Martin Valjent (born 1995), footballer

Twin towns — sister cities

Dubnica nad Váhom is twinned with: *

Vác Vác (; ; ; ) is a thousand-year old city in Pest county in Hungary with approximately 35,000 inhabitants. The archaic spelling of the name is ''Vácz''. Location Vác is located north of Budapest on the eastern bank of the Danube river, below t ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

* Zawadzkie,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

* Otrokovice,

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

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl (; , ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

References

Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Bratislava, Bytca, Slovakia" * Roman Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1667-1895 (parish A) * Lutheran church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1783-1895 (parish B)

External links

big town and surrounding photogallerySlovak Wastewater Treatment Plants which are sold all over Europe - Aquatec VFL
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubnica Nad Vahom Cities and towns in Slovakia