Hlohovec (german: Freistad(l) an der Waag, Hungarian ''Galgóc''), is a town in southwestern

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), 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 s ...

, with a population of 21,508.

Name

The name comes from ''*Glogovec'', the Old Slavic name for a place densely overgrown by

hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

. The Hungarian form ''Galgóc'' was adopted before a

phonological change In historical linguistics, phonological change is any sound change that alters the distribution of phonemes in a language. In other words, a language develops a new system of oppositions among its phonemes. Old contrasts may disappear, new ones ...

''g'' > ''h'' in Slovak.Martin Štefánik - Ján Lukačka et al. 2010, Lexikón stredovekých miest na Slovensku, Historický ústav SAV, Bratislava, pp. 164, . http://forumhistoriae.sk/-/lexikon-stredovekych-miest-na-slovensku

History

The first written evidence of its existence is from 1113, when a town with the name ''Galgocz'' was mentioned in the so-called Second Zobor Document. In 1362 Hlohovec obtained town privileges. Ottoman troops captured city and annexed it to the

sanjak Sanjaks (liwāʾ) (plural form: alwiyāʾ) * Armenian language, Armenian: նահանգ (''nahang''; meaning "province") * Bulgarian language, Bulgarian: окръг (''okrǔg''; meaning "county", "province", or "region") * el, Διοίκησι� ...

of Uyvar as the Holok eyalet in 1663. Austrian troops retook it in 1664.

Landmarks

The dominant building is a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

built in 1720. The castle is built on the place of a pre-existing Slavic settlement and a medieval castle. In the castle area is the

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

theatre built in 1802, a riding school from the 18th century, and a Baroque garden pavilion. In the middle of St. Michael Square stands the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

church of St. Michael with its highly decorated portal. Next to the church is the Chapel of

Saint Anna According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come ...

from the 18th century. In the northern border of the central part of the town is the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

church and monastery built in 1492. Part of the monastery premises nowadays occupies the Museum of National History and Geography. The most visited and beautiful natural part of town is the castle park with its lake, French terraces, and rare wood-species, especially old sycamore trees.

Demographics

According to the 1910 census the town had 7749 inhabitants: 5645 Slovaks, 1401 Hungarians and 667 Germans, 83.6% of the people were Roman Catholic, 13.7% Jewish and 2.1% Lutheran. According to the 2001

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

, the town had 23,729 inhabitants. 97.85% of inhabitants were

Slovaks The Slovaks ( sk, Slováci, singular: ''Slovák'', feminine: ''Slovenka'', plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovak. In Slovakia, 4.4 mi ...

, 0.72%

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

and 0.63%

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

. The religious make-up was 79.58%

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, 14.85% people with no religious affiliation and 2.44%

Lutherans Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

Notable people

Heinrich Berté Heinrich Berté (), born Heinrich Bettelheim (8 May 1858 – 23 August 1924) was an Austria-Hungarian composer of operas and operettas. Life Heinrich Berté was born in Galgócz, Hungary (now Hlohovec, Slovakia) in a Jewish family. At the b ...

(1858-1924), composer of '' Dreimäderlhaus''. * Peter Burian (b. 1959), diplomat *

Ján Hollý __NOTOC__ Ján Hollý (contemporary orthography: Gán Hollí; 24 March 1785, Bur-Szent-Miklos – 14 April 1849, Jókő) was a Slovak poet and translator. He was the first greater Slovak poet to write exclusively in the newly standardized lite ...

(1785–1849), writer *

Miroslav Karhan Miroslav Karhan (born 21 June 1976) is a Slovak football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Karhan started and finished his career at Spartak Trnava; in between, he played in Spain, Turkey and Germany, where he spent ten seas ...

(b. 1976), footballer *

Ladislav Kuna Ladislav Kuna (3 April 1947 – 1 February 2012) was a Slovak football player and manager, who played as a central midfielder. He played 424 matches and scored 86 goals in the Czechoslovak First League, all for Spartak Trnava. His number of appe ...

(1947–2012), footballer * András Révész (1896–1970), biographer, journalist, and writer * Jozef Seilnacht (1859–1939), altar builder * Richard Müller (b. 1961) singer-songwriter

Twin towns — sister cities

Hlohovec is twinned with: *

De Panne De Panne (; french: La Panne ) is a town and a municipality located on the North Sea coast of the Belgian province of West Flanders. There it borders France, making it the westernmost town in Belgium. It is one of the most popular resort town dest ...

, Belgium * Hranice, Czech Republic *

Slovenske Konjice Slovenske Konjice ( or ; german: Gonobitz, in older sources also ''Gannobitz'') is a town in northeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Slovenske Konjice. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. History and town ...