Gabčíkovo (, ) is a town and municipality in the Dunajská Streda District, in the Trnava Region of southwestern

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 ...

. It has 5,232 inhabitants of whom approximately 80% are

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 ...

. After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, the city was named after Jozef Gabčík, an important figure in the Czechoslovakian resistance to Nazi occupation.

Name

The Hungarian name of the town was first recorded in 1102 as ''Beys'' and preserves the name of its erstwhile Pecheneg inhabitants, ''pecheneg'' being ''besenyő'' in Hungarian. The town appears in several documents between 1262 and 1274 as a borderguard Pecheneg settlement. The current Slovak name of the town was given by the authorities in 1948 after Jozef Gabčík, a Slovak soldier involved in Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Deputy Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.

Geography

Gabčíkovo is situated along the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

river on the border with

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 ...

, in the southern part of Great Rye Island around 12 km south of Dunajská Streda bordered by Baka to the west, Vrakúň to the east, Pataš, Baloň, Sap and Ňárad to the southeast, and the Hungarian villages of Lipót and Ásványráró to the southwest. Administratively, the village belongs to the Trnava Region, Dunajská Streda District. Near to the village, there is the main part of the Gabčíkovo Waterworks, which is the reason for a long-term dispute between

and the Slovak Republic.

History

In the 10th century, the territory of Gabčíkovo became part of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

. In 1468, Hungarian king

Matthias Corvinus Matthias Corvinus (; ; ; ; ; ) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. He is often given the epithet "the Just". After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and ...

gave Gabčíkovo, then known as Bős, the right of organizing a fair. It was part of Hungary and later Austria Hungary until the Treaty of Trianon. No plebiscites were allowed to take place despite the overwhelming majority of the population being Hungarian. After the Austro-Hungarian army disintegrated in November 1918, Czechoslovak troops occupied the area, later acknowledged internationally by the Treaty of Trianon. Between 1938 and 1945 Bős once more became part of Miklós Horthy's Hungary through the First Vienna Award. From 1945 until the Velvet Divorce, it was part 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 ...

. Since then it has been part of Slovakia.

Demography

In 1910, it had a population of 2823 of whom 2805 (99.36%) were listed as Hungarians (included Jews and Slovaks in the state service). After the Treaty of Trianon, more Slovaks started to move into the area. As of 2021, the population includes 5,232 inhabitants, of which 4,217 (80.6%) are

, and 727 (13.9%) are

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 ...

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): 1720-1896 (parish A)

Twin towns – sister cities

Gabčíkovois twinned with: * Enese, Hungary * Kondoros, Hungary * Mihăileni, Romania * Nagymaros, Hungary * Pázmándfalu, Hungary

References

External links

Municipal website

Villages and municipalities in Dunajská Streda District Municipalities in Slovakia where Hungarian is an official language {{Trnava-geo-stub