Veľký Krtíš (before 1927 ''Veľký Krtýš'', ) is a town in middle

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 ...

, situated in the historical

Novohrad Novohrad may refer to: * Nógrád County (former) Nógrád (Hungarian language, Hungarian; , or ', ) was an administrative county (') of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now divided between Hungary and Slovakia. The name ' is still used ...

region. The town's most important economic sectors are mining and agriculture.

Etymology

The name is of Hungarian origin and is probably derived from the word ''kürtös'' which either means a

bugle The bugle is a simple signaling brass instrument with a wide conical bore. It normally has no valves or other pitch-altering devices, and is thus limited to its natural harmonic notes, and pitch is controlled entirely by varying the air a ...

r or, more likely motivated by the

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

''Kürt'' (one of

Magyar tribes The Magyar or Hungarian tribes ( , ) or Hungarian clans were the fundamental political units within whose framework the Hungarians (Magyars) lived, before the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin and the subsequent establishment of the Prin ...

History

The town was first mentioned in the second half of the 13th century, although the name Krtíš first appeared in 1245 under name ''Curtus'' (Latin). Until 1919 it was the part of the Hungarian Kingdom, later Austria-Hungary, part of the Nograd - Novohrad region. It was ruled by

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

between 1554 and 1594 and again between 1596 and 1686 as part of Filek sanjak, its centre was Rimaszombat. Before the establishment of independent

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 ...

in 1918, Veľký Krtíš was part of

Nógrád County Nógrád (, ; ) is a counties of Hungary, county () of Hungary. It sits on the northern edge of Hungary and borders Slovakia. Description Nógrád county lies in northern Hungary. It shares borders with Slovakia and the Hungarian counties Pest ( ...

within 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 ...

. From 1939 to 1945, it was part of the

Slovak Republic 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 ...

, which was allied with Nazi Germany. The village suffered damages in the spring of 1945 when the Soviet army of the 2nd Ukrainian front together with the Romanian army met the Nazi German units. A Romanian military cemetery can be found in the nearby Modry Kamen. The village developed to a town in the 1960s with the opening of the mine for brown coal with massive industrialisation under the Communist Party. It had many industrial plants, Liaz; a large vehicular plant had a large plant in the until the 1990s on the outskirts towards Maly Krtris. The former Liaz plant is now owned by a Turkish investment firm producing luxury vehicle parts for various automobile companies like Aston Martin, Land Rover and Jaguar.

Geography

Veľký Krtíš lies at an altitude of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

and covers an area of . It is situated in the Krupinská planina, at the foothills of Javorie, around north of the Hungarian border and around south of

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 ...

Demographics

In May 2017 the town had 11,657 inhabitants. 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 ...

86.93% 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 ...

, 6.20%

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 ...

, 2.06% Roma and 0.78%

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 ...

. The religious make-up was 54.26%

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 ...

, 21.58% people with no religious affiliation and 16.00%

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 ...

Twin towns — sister cities

Veľký Krtíš is twinned with: *

Písek Písek (; ) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 31,000 inhabitants. The town is known for the oldest bridge in the country. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument z ...

, Czech Republic

References

External links

* * Villages and municipalities in Veľký Krtíš District Cities and towns in Slovakia {{VeľkýKrtíš-geo-stub