The village of Bratislava-Rača

The oldest archeological find found in the area of Rača dates from the Early Stone Age - it is an ax-hammer from about the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC From the time of settlement of the southeastern slopes of the Little Carpathians by the Celts come decorative bronze circles. The finds can be found in the collections of the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava.
The oldest known written document about Rača dates from 1226. It is a deed of gift - “donation of King Andrew II. to the settlements of Churre and Symberg, which he donates to the peasants Ján and Peter, sons of Beňadik, Mikuláš and Štefan's sons Reche ”.
In written sources about the settlement of the Rače area from 1237, the settlement Okol is mentioned. It was located in the area of today's Bratislava-Rača railway station. The name testifies to the original Slavic settlement. The surroundings were the Old Slavic name of a cattle enclosure.
In the record dating from 1274, the sons of the peasants Beňadik and Rača (Racha) are mentioned as peasants from Okola in the Bratislava capital.
In 1287, the settlement Okol was divided into two halves among the descendants of these peasants. Part of the original settlement was given to the descendants of Beňadik and a separate part, located directly at the foot of the Little Carpathians, to the descendants of Rača. According to the family name of the Zemans Racha, the oldest part was named - a settlement, which they also called Račišča.
It also grew rapidly thanks to the settlement of new populations, mostly German, and its influence outgrew the original settlements that were located here.
After the invasion of the Tatars in the 13th century, the country remained completely devastated and depopulated. The ruined country came to be settled mainly by Slavic people from the northern areas. However, the king also invited foreigners to the country.

They were mainly German colonists from neighboring Austrian countries and Bavaria. They brought with them new knowledge, culture and crafts. They settled mainly on the eastern slopes of the Little Carpathians. The area from Bratislava to Modra was almost Germanized. With their arrival, they changed the original way of life and customs of the Slavic population. The presence of the German settlement in Rača is proved by names such as Drgala, Gschweng, Kompauer, Strokhendl, Weng, Wenzl and others. Many German names mentioned in old documents have not been preserved in Rača.
In the Middle Ages, Rača was a relatively large settlement. She had a church and her own mayor for a long time. The oldest written mention of the church is from 1390. The oldest preserved mention of the mayor - named Martin - is from 1358.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, larger estates belonged to the nobility - the Zeman family of Racha, Count Dominik of Uzur, František Farkaš, the family of the Bratislava mayor Jakub and the Hungarian queen. The others belonged only to smaller shares in the area. Landowners changed frequently. The peasants did not own the land. All land was either royal, ecclesiastical, or men's. Men's land was divided into Dominican and Rustic. Dominikál worked directly by the owner himself and the peasant without all the rights. The rustic was rented by the lord to the peasants. In the period before colonization for life and non-hereditary use, after colonization for life-long and hereditary use. The farmer paid his master for this land of rent.
The document dates from 1399, where "King Sygmund gives freedom to Mihalowa's son Dominika and Janow's son Benedika Uzur in the settlement of Račišča Szibenica."
In the middle of the 15th century, Rača belonged to the Devín estate, which was owned by the palatine Mikuláš Garay at that time.

Later, the counts of Svätý Jur and Pezinok took part in the ownership of the property in Rača, as stated in a document from 1465, in which King Matthias issued a statutory mandate for the count of Sv. Jura and Pezinka regarding the manor in Račišč, Cherlov and Uzura. In a document from 1473, King Matthias granted pardon to Paul Rech, who was accused as a bandit, and this letter was published before the Bratislava Chapter. This document is the last written monument from the 15th century concerning Rača.
In 1527, part of the village became the property of the Báthory family, who also owned the Devín estate. In 1583, they gave it as a deposit to the castellan of the Devín castle, Michal Bay, who thus became the owner of a part of the village of Rača.
In the 16th century, the village belonged to two landowners, so it also had two mayors.
One part belonged to Michal Bay and the other to František Farkaš. In a document from 1596 we find the order of King Rudolf that after the death of František Farkaš his property belonged to the royal ficus. The king decided in this way because František Farkaš was still causing disputes over the vineyards.
During the Reformation, other German colonists came to Račišdorf and strengthened their compatriots from the 13th century. The German minority was privileged by the inviting landowners and the Slovak population was pushed to the background.

In 1526, at the Battle of Mohács, the Hungarian army was defeated. This opened the way for the Turks to the interior of Hungary, which was the cause of the eviction of the Croatian and Serbian populations. When the Turks conquered Kostajnica Castle, located on the river Une, which was the border fortress between Bosnia and Croatia, in 1557, the Serbian and Croatian nobility, and with it the population, left the occupied territories. As mentioned in the Račišdorf Commemorative Book, the Jesuit historian Ján Segedy wrote this: "Many settlers moved from Slavonia to Hungary - some due to hunger, others out of fear of the Turk ... Some found refuge in Bratislava." most emigrants came from Croatia. Over time, Croatian families merged with the original population, thus strengthening the Slavic part of the population. Until now, Croatian names with the suffix "ič", such as Benčič, Bednarič, Ďurďovič, Halinkovič, Husarovič, Polakovič, etc., predominate among the original inhabitants of Rača.
Count Siegfried Kolonich (Kolonič), a lord of Račišdorf, a knight of the Golden Promontory, an evangelical magnate, whom King Maximilian I (1564 - 1576) endowed with high offices and power and elected him as his adviser, also had Croatian origin.
In the second half of the 16th century, Rača received several privileges and was promoted to a town.
In 1606, Rača became the property of Ján Keglevič, who came from an old Croatian family, and his wife Zuzana Bayová, daughter of Michal Bay.

In 1635, Rača was also acquired by the Devín estate of the palatins Pálffy from Erdöd. The Törökovci, the Paulines of Mariánka and the Jesuits of Trnava also had property here. The Pálffy family of the Malacca line retained this property until the first land reform. A document from 1637 has been preserved, a citation of Palatine Esterházy to the page of Ján Gyulay against Ján Draškovič for the Zeman portion of Farkašovská in Račišdorf. Another preserved document is the compositional mandate of Ján Drughet from Homanej, the county mayor, for Štefan Schepfel's website for the house of Michal Schepfle in the town of Račišdorf.
From 1647 comes the order of the provincial mayor Ján Pálffy given to the Bratislava Chapter to investigate the palatine of Ján Draškovič, against the inhabitants of Račišdorf, who captured and shouted his cars and farm.
A statutory letter to the website of Juraj Horvath-Kiševič, secretary of the royal chamber, and his wife Františka Rakonická for a coal house (corner house - note LH) in the town of Račišči from František Keglevič, bought with royal permission, was preserved from 1654, but he inherited it after Pavel Pálffy and his wife František Khanin contradicted.
From 1656, there is a documented by Juraj Jaškay, vicar of the Marian priests, for one manor in Račišdorf belonging to the Jezernická family.

In 1698, Rača is mentioned in two documents. In one it is written that the palatine Pavel Esterházy in the settlement of Račišdorf one whole manor of Ján Both and half a manor of Gašpar Csomor, he landed at the rebel Imrich and he took away the second manor Martin Karocsony without offspring and donated it to Ladislav Petrovayi and Ondrejus Alőth, František Egyházy, Anna and Helena Karácsonyová contradicted them, and therefore they are called to court. According to the second document, Rőth and Petrovay lost the dispute in court.
After the end of the uprisings, Rača remained destroyed and plundered. According to the portal census from 1712, there were 131 serf families, sixteen families of jailers with houses and two jailers' families without houses in the territory of Rača. Two settlements were eighth, 81 settlements were sixteenth and 66 settlements were thirty-six. The vineyards were 55 hectares, in 1720 already 75 hectares and fields 20 hectares.
In 1732, one of the most tragic events in the history of Rača took place. In the afternoon of May, a fire broke out at the upper end (Alsterova Street), which spread rapidly in strong winds and within an hour, 93 houses and 7 people fell on fire. The Catholic parish also burned down, and the then pastor Juraj Prukker saved only a bare life. Since then, new registries and a chronicle have been written.

In 1768, Empress Maria Theresa issued an official and generally valid land register. The new land register was put into force in Rača on April 21, 1768. At that time, Rača was the largest of the villages that today belong to Bratislava. She had 229 serf houses. The urbar's census includes a total of 276 taxpayers, which was the highest number at the time.
The Slovak population already prevailed in Rača and demanded that all matters concerning him be dealt with in Slovak at the municipal house. The predominant language of the local population was Slovak.