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Trenčín is a town in western Slovakia and is the natural geographical center of region central Považie. It’s near the Czech border and around 120 km from capital city Bratislava. The flat Trenčín basin, which slopes along the Váh River, is closed in the east by the massifs of the Považský Inovec and Strážovské vrchy mountains, and in the west by the outcrops of the White Carpathians. The town has an area of 81.99 square km and almost 55,000 inhabitants. It has a medieval castle, Trenčín Castle, on a rock above the city.
History
Trenčín, like Nitra and Bratislava, belongs to the three oldest cities in Slovakia, which are mentioned in chronicles as early as the 11th century. Its strategically key location near three Carpathian passes at the crossroads of trade routes has always made it an important support point and the administrative center of the entire region central Považie.
The oldest archaeological finds prove the presence of humans in Trenčín as early as 200,000 years ago. Already in the centuries before the arrival of the Celts, one of the branches of the famous Amber Road led through the territory of Trenčín through the Vlársky Pass and further along the Morava basin, along which Etruscan, Greek and later Roman traders traveled from the Mediterranean region to the Baltics.
At the turn of our era, the Celts were displaced by Germanic tribes coming to the territory of western Slovakia from the north and west. They fought frequent battles with the legions of the Roman Empire. The most significant clash between the two rivals took place during the so-called Markoman Wars, when the victorious II. the auxiliary legion reached the area of Trenčín, where it wintered at the turn of 179-180. This event is commemorated by the famous Roman inscription on the castle rock, which places Trenčín in an exclusive group of European cities with an ancient past.
The oldest written mention of Trenčín Castle can be found in a more precisely undated report in the Hungarian Chronicle (Uhorské Gestá). It is related to the year 1067, when the battles between the Hungarian king Solomon and the Czech principality took place. The city of Trenčín itself is mentioned in the so-called Zoborské documents from 1111 and 1113 as a toll and market settlement under Trenčín Castle.
The town suffered from the Kuruc uprising against the Habsburgs and on 3 August 1708 the Battle of Trenčín took place close to the city. Two years later a plague killed 1,600 inhabitants of the city. In 1790, the city was hit by a catastrophic fire that destroyed almost the entire inner city and severely damaged the Parish Church and rectory. It was also a definitive end of the glory of Trenčia Castle, of which only ruins remain. The castle was restored at the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1867 Trenčín was downgraded from a "free royal town" to a "town with municipal government" and came under the direct control of the chief of Trenčín county.
Trenčín flourished again during the era of the first Czechoslovak republic and became the capital of the Trenčín county again between 1940 and 1945 when the Slovak Republic was in existence.