Kosice

The ancient Hungarian city

Composition of the city

The city was made of two independent settlements: Lower Košice and Upper Košice

The two parts merged in the 13th century around the long lens-formed ring, of today's Main Street

International connections

The strategic location of the first known town was on an international trade route from Hungary to Poland

Along the city a route passes by connecting the Balkans and the Adriatic and Aegean seas to the Baltic Sea.

Rudimentary Guild regulation

In 1307, the first guild regulations were registered here and were the oldest in the Kingdom of Hungary

Support

As a Hungarian free royal town, Košice reinforced the king's troops in the crucial moment of the bloody Battle of Rozgony in 1312 against the strong aristocratic Palatine Amadé Aba (family).

The first European town to be granted its own coat of arms

In 1347, it became the second city in the hierarchy of the Hungarian free royal towns with the same rights as the capital Buda.

In 1369, it received its own coat of arms from Louis I of Hungary.

The original coat of arms featured only the red and silver stripes and three fleur-de-lis in a blue background.

The Diet (Assembly) convened by Louis I in Košice decided that women could inherit the Hungarian throne in 1374.

The largest medieval city in Europe

During the reign of King Matthias Corvinus the city reached its medieval population peak.

With an estimated 10,000 Hungarian inhabitants, it was among the largest medieval cities in Europe.

Infrastructures

There were three manufacturers and 460 workshops in 1828 .

The first telegram message arrived in 1856

The railway connected the city to Miskolc, Hungary in 1860

Monumental movements

In 1906, Francis II Rákóczi's house of Rodosto was reproduced in Košice

His remains were buried in the St. Elisabeth Cathedral.

Puppet state

On 29 December 1918, the Czechoslovak Legions entered the city, making it part of the newly established Czechoslovakia.

In1919, Košice was occupied again, as part of the Slovak Soviet Republic, a proletarian puppet state of Hungary.

The Czechoslovak troops secured the city in July 1919 which was later upheld under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon in 1920.

TRIANON the Hungarian problem

No other country in recent history has been punished as the Hungarian people by the unfair treaty of trianon in 1920.

After being on the losing side of a war, our historical territory was decimated.

The new Trianon borders were not drawn along linguistic or ethnic boundaries.

Today over 520,500 ethnic Hungarians are living in southern Slovakia.

Jewish excruciation

Košice was ceded to Hungary by the First Vienna Award.

The town was bombarded on 26 June 1941, that was a welcome pretext for the Hungarian government to declare war on the Soviet Union.

The German occupation of Hungary led to the deportation of Košice's entire Jewish population of 12,000 and an additional 2,000 from surrounding areas via cattle cars to the concentration camps.

The temporary capital

The town was captured by the Soviets in January 1945

It became for a short time the capital city of the restored Czechoslovak Republic until the Soviet Red Army reached Prague

After the Communist Party seized power in Czechoslovakia in 1948

Several cultural institutions were founded

Large residential areas were built in the city,

This expansion caused the population to grow.

Before the breakup of Czechoslovakia (1993), it was the fifth largest city in the federation.

Following the Velvet Divorce and creation of the Slovak Republic

Košice became the second largest city in the country

The city is the seat of a constitutional court which has been the seat of the Archdiocese of Košice.