Trenčín (Trentschin; Trencsén; Latin: Laugaricio) is a town in western Slovakia (close to the Czech border) at the Váh River. It is the seat of a kraj (Trenčín Region) and okres (Trenčín District).

Population

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In 2004, the city had a population of 56,850. The population density was 693/km². According to the 2001 census, the religious makeup was 65.8% Roman Catholics, 22.3% people with no religious affiliation, and 7.1% Lutherans. 95.3% inhabitants were Slovaks and 2.4% Czechs.

History

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The site has been inhabited since time immemorial. A typical medieval fortified castle is situated on a rock above the town. Trenčín is best known for a Roman inscription on the castle rock from 179, stemming from the era of the Marcomannic Wars, a series of wars between the Roman Empire and the Germanic Quadi. It denotes the site as Laugaricio and is the northernmost evidence of the presence of Roman soldiers in central Europe. Under its Greek name Leukaristos, Trenčín was also depicted on the Ptolemy world map (c. 150 CE).
The Trenčín Castle, plausibly founded during the Great Moravian era, became the administrative center of the Trenčín county by the end of the 11th century. As one of the few stone castles in the Kingdom of Hungary, it resisted the disastrous invasion of Mongols in 1241. Between 1302 and 1321, the castle was the seat of the powerful magnate Matthew Csák, who controlled most of present-day Slovakia. Challenging the authority of king Charles Robert, Matthew Csák maintained a large court and pursued his own foreign policy.

Trenčín gained a number of privileges during the Middle Ages: In 1324 the inhabitants were freed of paying tolls and in 1412, King Sigismund promoted town into a free royal town. But the next decades and centuries were in signs of catastrophes and wars, which lasted until the end of the 18th century. During the fights of the Habsburgs against rebels of John Zapolya, the town was captured in 1528 by imperial troops, and in the 17th century the Ottomans were another threat from south, but they failed to conquer the city. The town was then suffering 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 1600 inhabitants of the city. Finally, in 1790, the town, along with the castle, was burned down and the castle is in the ruins since then.

In the 19th century, the town was flourishing, as the railways to Žilina and Bratislava were built and many new enterprises were established, particularly from textile, food and machine industry and the town became the hub of middle Považie region, although in 1867 it was degraded from free royal town to the "town with municipal government" and was under direct control of the chief of Trenčín county. It was flourishing further during the era of the first Czechoslovak republic. It became the capital of the Trenčín county again in the 1940-1945, when the puppet Slovak Republic was...