Handlová (, , before 1913 ) is a town in the

Prievidza District Prievidza District (, ) is a district in the Trenčín Region of western Slovakia. Until 1918, the district was mostly part of the county of Kingdom of Hungary of Nyitra, apart from a small area in the southeast around Handlová which formed pa ...

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 ...

in the middle of

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 is made up of the three parts Handlová, Nová Lehota and Morovno.

Geography

It is located in the ''Handlovka'' brook valley, surrounded by the mountain ranges of Vtáčnik in the west and Žiar in the south, east and north, in the historical region of Hauerland. It is away from Prievidza and from Žiar nad Hronom. Besides the main settlement, it also has "parts" of Morovno (north-west) and Nová Lehota (south), both annexed 1976.

History

The town was established in 1376 and was inhabited by German settlers which were later known as the

Carpathian Germans Carpathian Germans (, or ''felvidéki németek'', , , ) are a group of Germans, ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe. The term was coined by the historian :de:Raimund Friedrich Kaindl, Raimund Friederich Kaindl (1866–1930), originally ...

. The first known settler in Handlová was Peter Kricker from Kremnica, who came here together with 200 others to establish a settlement on a site called Krásny les (Beautiful Forest). At first the settlers lived just from crops and pastoral farming. Only much later, in the 18th century, did coal mining begin. Local miners at first worked mainly to supply the needs of nearby Bojnice Castle. In 1945, after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Handlová underwent the biggest upheaval in its centuries-long history. Most of its ethnic German inhabitants were expelled from the town due to the so-called

Beneš decrees The Beneš decrees were a series of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II. They were issued by President Edvard Beneš fr ...

. Of the original 12,800 people who lived there as late as in 1943, only 4,000 remained in Handlová by 1945. As a result, Handlová's character changed completely. It received town privileges in 1960. In 2009, the town suffered a major disaster during the 2009 Handlová mine blast, in which 20 people were killed. On 15 May 2024, Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico was shot in front of the House of Culture after a government meeting, in an

assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

attempt. He was subsequently rushed to Handlová Hospital, before later being airlifted to F.D. Roosevelt Hospital in

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Greater Fatra, Veľká Fatra, and t ...

, where he underwent successful surgery.

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 18,018 inhabitants. 96.14% 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 ...

, 0.85% Hungarian, 0.67%

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 0.24%

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

. The religious make-up was 46.10% Atheists, 44.74% Roman Catholics and 2.42%

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 ...

People

* Jozef Lenč, political scientist, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava * Peter Paliatka, designer, sculptor and university pedagogue * Martin Škrtel, Slovak footballer

Twin towns – sister cities

Handlová is twinned with: * Konopiska, Poland * Sárisáp, Hungary * Voerde, Germany * Zábřeh, Czech Republic

References

Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Nitra, Slovakia" * Roman Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1642-1939 (parish A) * Lutheran church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1735-1950 (parish B)

External links

*
of living people in Handlová

Handlovské ikonické stavby-HAIKONY
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handlova Cities and towns in Slovakia Villages and municipalities in Prievidza District Mining communities in the Slovak Republic