City of Trenčín

The first written sources about the city
The charter of the Prague diocese from 1086 mentions the province of Vag in the middle Považie. Due to the time of the founding of the diocese in the last third of the 10th century, it is probable that Trenčín Castle was already the seat of this province at the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century. However, the oldest written mention of Trenčín Castle can be found in the more precisely undated report in Hungarian gestures. It dates back to 1067, when fighting took place between King Solomon of Hungary and the Czech principality. An indirect proof of the existence of Trenčín is the mention in the so-called Mauro's legend before 1074, dealing with the hermits of St. Benedict and Svorad, who lived in the 11th century on Skalka near Trenčín.

Kozmas's Chronicle of Chekhov mentions that in 1091 the Czech princely son Břetislav fled in front of his father, Prince Wrocław, to the Hungarian countryside to the place of Bán (Bánovce, Bánov) near Trenčín Castle.

The city of Trenčín itself is mentioned in the so-called Zobor documents from the years 1111 and 1113 as a toll and market settlement under Trenčín Castle. It seems that despite the Hungarian occupation, the Slavic nobility in the vicinity of Trenčín has remained its origin. In 1241, the Trenčín mayor Bogomer (Bohumir) is mentioned, who led the defense of Trenčín Castle against the Tatars. The Tatar invasion, which depopulated a large part of Hungary this year and the following year, was directed by one stream from northern Moravia through the Vlára Pass at the end of April to Trenčín. The Podhrad settlement was probably destroyed, but the castle itself, at that time certainly at least partly stone, withstood the attack.

History of a free royal city
In 1412, Emperor and Hungarian King Sigismund of Luxembourg granted Trenčín the status of a free royal city with the rights of Buda and Belgrade. This made him one of the most important cities in the Kingdom of Hungary.

In mid-May 1528, the troops of Ferdinand I of Habsburg, under the command of General Johan Katzianer, besieged Trenčín Castle as the most important fortress of the defiant King Ján Zápoľský. On June 28, the castle capitulated. The city was then burned, looted and ravaged. The city walls were also damaged. After their repair in 1543, the town council modified both town gates. In particular, the Lower "Turkish" gate was reinforced with a semicircular barbican with a smaller tower.

The parish church and chapel (karner) of St. Michala. However, the destroyed Franciscan church behind the walls in the suburbs was no longer repaired, even though its walls stood until 1596. They are also shown by the first known depiction of Trenčín, a view of the city from 1580.

Concerns were not unnecessary, as the year 1599 showed, when the looting hordes of Crimean Tatars in the service of the Ottoman sultan reached Trenčín and ravaged the surrounding area. In 1604, however, fate did not pass through the town and Bočkaj's bastards caused terrible damage in it. They were immediately joined by the tense relations of the city council with the new castle lord Štefan Ilešházi, accompanied by mutual fights and wrongs. The disaster was repeated less than 20 years later, when Trenčín was seized by the looting troops of Gabriel Bethlen. And to make matters worse, the city was hit by a flood in 1625. In the years 1644-1645, Trenčín was again threatened by the insurgent troops of Juraj I. Rákoci. The plague in 1656 killed more than 300 inhabitants. The re-invasion of Ottoman troops affected central Považie in 1663. During the attack on the city on October 2, the Turks did not conquer Trenčín, but they set fire to the suburbs and defended the city more than 300 burghers and soldiers of the castle garrison, dragged others into the area and burned the area. 17 villages. 15 years later (1678-1683) the troops of Imrich Tököli ravaged the surroundings of Trenčín. The last, but the biggest catastrophe affected Trenčín during the uprising of Francis II. Rákociho. The Kuruk troops did not conquer the castle, but on February 14, 1704, they occupied the town below it. Although they were forced to withdraw soon on May 2, the blockade lasted for four years. He raged with famine and disease, and in the wake of May 14, 1708, a catastrophic fire broke out that destroyed or severely damaged 195 houses, the Piarist church, and also the city fortifications, which had not been repaired. The plague epidemic, which broke out in 1710 and killed more than 1,000 people, seemed to inflict a wound of mercy on the city. But as early as 1715, another wave of the plague claimed the lives of another 222 inhabitants of the city. These catastrophes caused damage for more than 460 thousand gold coins and in terms of suffering and losses were unparalleled in the history of Slovak cities.

The second half of the 16th and 17th centuries did not only bring disasters. They also became a period of art and culture for Trenčín. From the second half of the 16th century, the first New Baptists (Habáni) settled in Trenčín, who stimulated the emergence of the later characteristic Trenčín majolica (photo).

After the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War and the defeat of Bielohorská, refugees from the Czech Kingdom and especially Moravia moved to Trenčín and its surroundings. Already in 1637, Jan Václav Vokál from Prague founded the first book printing house in Trenčín. It operated until 1664. In less than three decades, about 250 prints were created here. Later in the 19th century, the traditions of Ganzel's printing house and the company of F. Škarnitlitz continued its traditions.

Suffering, wars and catastrophes were not avoided in Trenčín in the following years. In 1790, a catastrophic fire hit the town, which destroyed almost the entire inner town and severely damaged the Parish Church and the parish. He also gave a definitive point to the glory of Trenčín Castle, of which only ruins remain. The Napoleonic Wars also brought increased burdens and burdens. In 1805, the Russian Tsar Alexander I passed through Trenčín on his way to Slavkov. After losing the battle, he returned here. In 1814, 36,000 men of the Russian army marched through Trenčín, marching on Leipzig.

The biggest flood hit Trenčín in August 1813. It destroyed crops in the fields, damaged many houses and cost the lives of 44 inhabitants of the city. The disaster of the Austrian army in the battle of Sadová (Hradec Králové) on July 3, 1866 indirectly affected our city as well. Part of the defeated Austrian troops moved to Trenčín. The cholera epidemic, which broke out mainly among many wounded soldiers, spread to the civilian population, claiming several dozen lives in August and October. The 71st Trenčín Infantry Regiment, which had been permanently stationed in Trenčín since 1880, also fought in the Austro-Prussian War.

In 1874, Trenčín became a garrison town for the 15th Honvéd (militia) regiment. Both units were supplemented by conscripts from the middle and upper Považie. In particular, the 71st Infantry Regiment became known as the "Wire Regiment".

Austria - The Hungarian settlement also affected Trenčín in an unpleasant way. From a free royal and later a municipal town (legally it was at the level of a county), it dropped from 1867 to the level of a "municipality with a municipality" and was subordinated to the Trenčín county.

Trenčín - an important music center in Slovakia
As is well known, the Jesuits settled in Trenčín in 1649 and began teaching at the school three years later. Trenčín was then a city with a predominance of the Slovak population (there were practically no Germans or other nationalities such as Bratislava, Trnava, etc.), which was almost exclusively evangelical denomination. Thus, the Jesuits began to work in Trenčín in connection with recatholicization and their college soon became one of the most important in the whole of today's Slovakia: in 1655 a novitiate began to operate in Trenčín, in 1657 a new college building was opened, which also included a theater hall. (theatrum), in 1694 a noble boarding school (convictus nobilium) was established. In connection with the rapid development of the Jesuit College in Trenčín, music also developed, but also, for example, theater (musical theater), which was a good tool for influencing the population. Even before the opening of the theater, even then, the Jesuits played theater - school plays with music (with the festive sound of trumpets and timpani) in the square (pompous performances especially on the body of God, on Easter) and these plays left a great influence on the Protestant population. They also collaborated with the musicians of the parish church. A rare document of supra-confessional cooperation has been preserved from this period (from 1658-68) just from Trenčín: the Evangelicals moved their services so that they, resp. the town's musicians (trumpeters) could also perform at the big festivities with the Jesuits. The great patron of the Jesuits of Trenčín was the postmaster M. Lippay from Nové Mesto, thanks to whom, for example, costumes were bought only in Venice. The Jesuits of Trenčín collaborated in the field of musical theater with leading composers who also composed for Jesuit colleges in Austria, for example the music for the play "Vindicta Sancta in Alexandro Hierosolymorum patriarch" (1699) was composed by the later bassist of the Imperial Court Band Lieday in Vienna .

When we started with the theater, resp. musical theater, so let's finish it: the Jesuits of Trenčín played musical theater in the 18th century as well - until the abolition of the order (in 1773). Very valuable sources in this area have been preserved from Trenčín - for example "Musica Theatralis" by Joseph Umstatt (1761), a native of Vienna and a pupil of the Jesuit Jesuit College, as well as the completely musicalized passion play by Josef Schreier in Slovak from 1768 ("Opera a duetto de Amara Passione"). DNJC ”), or several carnival parodies, the most interesting of which is the set-to-music parody of philosophical dispute (“ Syllogismus de ente rationis ”- On the essence or origin of reason), which is attributed to the important Czech composer FX Brixim.

The tradition of Jesuit musical theater was followed by the Piarists, who in 1776 took over the school and the church. One of the most interesting carnival compositions bred in our country is from the Piarist era (which lasted until the barbaric abolition of the religious orders in 1950): it is a composition for the Latin-Slovak text "Requiem as I Drink, I Drink Taj" (we could say a kind of "burial of the bass" in the learned, educated environment of the monastery). Numerous similar compositions have been preserved, especially in the transcript of P. Augustín Šmehlík (he worked as a regenschori and pedagogue in Trenčín in the years from 1800 until his death in 1844), for example, amusing canons about tobacco, frogs, etc. from the piarist P. Norbert Schreier (son of the aforementioned Josef Schreier), one of the most important figures in our church history in the 18th century (not only in terms of music).

The Jesuit era of the college and this church was important not only for the musical theater, where Trenčín is one of the most important places in Slovakia, but also for the music itself. The Jesuits placed great emphasis on music education, so their students often had an excellent music education, but the Jesuits also employed secular (paid) musicians: organists, regenschori, because the Jesuits, a member of the order could rarely devote himself entirely to music. The most famous secular musician from the Jesuit era of the college and church was Ján Ignác Ambro, an organist in the years 1748-1765, who came to Trenčín from Bojnice (his predecessor Jozef Pinkay was even a composer). Ambro enriched the Trenčín collection with many rare music pieces, his repertoire was very rich, modern, including compositions by Italian, South German and Austrian composers, such as JA Hasse (important German opera composer, one of the top representatives of the Neapolitan Opera School), other Neapolitans N. Porpora important pedagogue) and F. Durante, the famous GB Pergolesi, the excellent singer VB Faitelli or the German Benedictine Fr. M. Königsberger, from whom unique symphonies have been preserved in the Trenčín collection (the list would be longer - G. Gonelli, GJ Donberger, JG Zechner and many others). The Jesuits of Trenčín got to know very early not only the current period baroque music, but also the music of a new stylistic direction - classicism.

Trenčín is one of the oldest places of compositions by J. Haydn (1765) and C. Ditters von Dittersdorf, especially the symphonies of these two outstanding masters of musical classicism (they were played in the church at the beginning and during the service in the 1960s). The Piarists continued in these tendencies, ie the excellent knowledge of the period repertoire - after all, the oldest known copies of the works of WA Mozart and L. van Beethoven also come from Trenčín (1787 and 1811, respectively).

In this very brief overview of the music history of Trenčín, one cannot forget the fact that the city had a central position in the middle Považie also in music. Its positive influence on music culture manifested itself in the direction from Nové Mesto nad Váhom to Žilina (Dubnica, Ilava, Považská Bystrica, Púchov, Pruské and other smaller centers). However, the importance of Trenčín as a music center far exceeded the middle Považie. Trenčín used to be one of the most important music centers in Slovakia in the past - and thanks to a rare collection of Jesuits and Piarists.

Development of culture in Trenčín
The establishment of several associations in the second half of the 19th century was of great importance for the development of cultural life in our city. The Trenčín Social Circle was dedicated to organizing cultural events, and in 1873 the Trenčín Singing Association was established.

The Trenčín Women's Association and the Israelite Women's Association took care of the charity, especially for poor children, by organizing cultural and entertainment events. The Voluntary Fire Brigade established in 1873 also played an important role in the cultural life of the town. In 1877, the Natural Society of Trenčín County was founded in Trenčín under the chairmanship of Dr. Karol Brančík, who became the most important cultural association not only of the town but also of the whole county. In 1912, he merged with the newly established Museum Society of Trenčín County and initiated the establishment of a museum, which still operates in the city. Its first director again became Dr. Karol Brančík.

Since 1904, the People's Library has been caring for the education of the wider population, lending books free of charge. Today's Michal Rešetka Public Library continues its traditions.

Trenčín has long been an important school center. In 1437, Rector Ján is mentioned here, which proves the existence of the town school at that time. In 1572, the city council had a new school building built, for a large number of pupils coming from a wide area. At the beginning of the 17th century, the mayor Štefan Ilešházi had another school built for the children of officials and employees. The Piarist grammar school had a long history. Its origin dates back to 1647. The Jesuits founded their own school in Trenčín, which in 1649 was transformed into a dilapidated grammar school. Samuel Timon, the founder of critical Hungarian historiography, and Maximilian Hell, an excellent mathematician and astronomer, studied here. The Trenčín Grammar School, before 1918 called the Higher Royal Catholic Grammar School, followed the older traditions, and after this date the Czechoslovak. state higher real grammar school. The private real grammar school, founded by the Trenčín Jewish religious community, was maintained for only a few years. There was also a burgher school and confessional primary schools, Catholic (girls'), evangelical and Jewish. Before 1848, the Institute for the Education of Noblewomen was established, and in 1877 it was transformed into the State Higher Girls' School, which received a new building in 1907 (today's grammar school). It was at that time the most beautiful and largest building in the whole county. The education of the apprenticeship was taken care of from 1872 by a "continuing school", later transformed into an apprenticeship school.

In the school year 1919/20, the Czechoslovak State Business School was established and in 1927 it was transformed into the State Czechoslovak Business Academy. In 1937 she moved to a new building in Sihota and was named after Dr. M. Hodž.

On the threshold of the present
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, industry came to Trenčín and transport connections with other areas of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy were modernized. In 1883, Trenčín was reached by the Považská Railway, with a connection to the Košice - Bohumín line, which stimulated the emergence of local industry. Trenčín gained connections with Vienna and Budapest, as well as access to Silesian coal. It became an important commercial and industrial center. In addition to clothing, the food and engineering industries also developed. In the 1980s, the Kornhauser distillery was established, to which yeast production was added in 189. In 1905, the First Slivovice and Cognac Factory (later Slovlik) began operating. The production of drills in B. Singer's workshop was the only one in the whole of Hungary. The first Trenčín furniture and woodworking factory was established in 1907 from the older steam-powered furniture factory. In 1906, the inventor of the Titanit industrial explosives, Norbert Czeipek, built a Czeipek security explosives factory outside the city. However, titanite could not compete with dynamite and the factory disappeared after the First World War. The wool processing factory, founded in 1906 by French businessmen, the Thibergion brothers, was much more successful. Although the factory changed its name ("tibergienka", Merina), production continues to this day.

At the beginning of the 20th century, many modern conveniences increasing the quality of life in the city penetrated into Trenčín. In 1905 a telephone was introduced, in 1907 electric lighting of public spaces was put into trial operation, in 1909 the construction of a modern sewerage network began and in 1910 - 11 the city built a public water supply. The advent of a new cultural medium - cinema - was rapid. In 1906, he screened "Elektro-Bioskop" up to four times a day, and Budapest's "Urania" offered a "cultural-enlightenment theater" with the projection of images. The first permanent cinema "Apollo" has been showing since 1907. Since 1912, the Brezina Forest Park, which serves its purpose to this day, has offered Trenčín rest and recuperation.

Sports life in Trenčín began to be organized in the 90s of the 19th century. The Trenčín sports circle dedicated to rowing, fencing, tennis, skating and briefly had a cycling section. A demonstration football match was played in Trenčín in 1904 on the occasion of the visit of Archduke Frederick and Archduke Isabella. However, football was not played regularly until 1908. The Trenčín Physical Education Association, founded in 1904, offered a more massive base of membership. It organized gymnastic exercises, had a fencing and shooting club, as well as tennis courts. Today's TTS Trenčín continues older traditions.

On May 24, 1914, the well-known pilot, the Slovak lowland Andrej Kvasz, performed the first takeoff of an aircraft heavier than air on Považie.

The period of the First World War entered the history of Trenčín with the well-known uprising of soldiers of the 71st Trenčín Regiment in Kragujevac, Serbia, on June 2, 1918. 44 soldiers of the regiment were executed for participating in the uprising.

A new expansion of the economic and industrial base of Trenčín occurred after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. Culture and education continued to develop. Today, there are several secondary schools in Trenčín. Gymnasium Ľ. Štúra, J. Branecký Piarist Grammar School, Business Academy Dr. M. Hodžu, Secondary Medical School, Secondary Industrial School of Clothing, Secondary Industrial School of Civil Engineering of Emil Belluš. From universities, the University of Trenčín Alexander Dubček and the University of Management are based in Trenčín.