Ducové () is a

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' ...

(village) situated in western

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 ...

, near the spa town of

Piešťany Piešťany (; , , , ) is a town in Slovakia. It is located in the western part of the country within the Trnava Region and is the seat of its Piešťany District, own district. It is the biggest and best known spa town in Slovakia and has around ...

. It was part of the municipality Moravany nad Váhom from 1976 to 1992. The village lies under the Váh Inovec. According to the 2011

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 municipality had 375 inhabitants. 365 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 ...

and 10 others and unspecified.

Etymology

The name of the village is derived from ''dux-ducis'' meaning

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

. ''Duka'' was also a borrowed word used by the Slavs for a person with a prominent social status. The village was known as 1348 Duchreuy, 1453 Duczev, 1521 De-chobrod, 1532, 1638 Ducibrod, 1576 Ducybrod, 1636 Duczowa, 1664 Ducó, 1667 Duczo, 1668 Duczove, 1693 Duczowa, 1753 Duczó, 1776 Duczo, 1773 Duczo, Dutzo, Duczowe, 1786 Duczo, Duczowce, 1808 Duczó, Ducow, 1863 -1918 Ducó, 1920 Ducov, Ducové, 1927 Ducové.

Great Moravian Court

Ducové is known for an archaeological site on the ''Kostolec'' hill, where a

Great Moravia Great Moravia (; , ''Meghálī Moravía''; ; ; , ), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe, possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Repub ...

n fortified settlement has been unearthed. Excavations of older settlements 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 ...

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 ...

and the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

indicate that Ducové benefited from its location on the

Amber Road The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber from coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Prehistoric trade routes between Northern and Southern Europe were defined by the amber trade. ...

well before the Great Moravian era. The Slavic court was founded in the mid-9th century after the fall of the nearby hill fort in Pobedim, frequently associated with the unification of principality of Moravia and Nitra. The court was similar to Frankish courts from the 8th-9th centuries and inhabited by representatives of the Slavic elite. It was protected by a massive oak palisade, doubled on one side and built on top of the prehistoric mound. Administrative and representative functions were highlighted by the strategic location near the river ford. Interior space was divided by additional palisades and occupied by residential buildings, outbuildings, a Christian rotunda church and a graveyard. The round rotunda with an

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

is similar to rotunda found in Staré Město. The court existed until 940-970 when it burned, most likely during the attack of the old Hungarians. The rotunda and the graveyard had been used by neighbouring villages also after the destruction of the residential buildings, the rotunda until the 11-12 century and the graveyard until the 14th. The site is registered as a National Cultural Landmark. Some parts of the court (such as its

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymo ...

s) have been reconstructed by archaeologists.

References

Sources

* * *

Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Bratislava, Slovakia" * Roman Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1783-1905 (parish B) * Lutheran church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1783-1922 (parish B)

External links