Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
4. Towns in Slovakia after 1993
Administration as a means of organizing the town network centrated regional, administrative system prevailed up until 1991. The reason for it was not simply the strengthening of political concentration, although this was the main political goal, but also the intention of setting the disintegrated, colourful urban structure to rights, developing three towns into large cities. The intention of giving three cities, Bratislava, Banska Bistrica and Košice, prominence over all the others, and developing them into political, economic and industrial centres (the most important ambition of the age) also meant pushing the other towns and cities into the background. The three cities as the three regional centres of the eastern, Slovak section of the new country (Czechoslovakia) were strengthened for three decades. The obtuse-angled triangle that can be drawn connecting them became the new urban axis of the new Slovakia. The number of the smaller regional units was changed in the same way as towns and cities, i.e. disregarding the past and traditions. Besides promoting political centralization, the reduction of the initial 95 districts to 32 was aimed to strengthen the privileged position of 32 new centres among the many potential towns, which resulted in the new settlement structure of the new Czechoslovak regional system. After the 1989 political change the new settlement structure could not return to the centuries-old tradition; it could not continue the 1918 establishment. The only thing that could be done was to form a settlement structure that was suitable for the new political system on the basis of the forced categorisation. That was why Viktor Nižňanský’s attempt to restore the historical regions was pointless and also harmless in a political sense. The eight administrative regions established in 1996 gave a further five towns the opportunity to benefit from the advantages of belonging to the privileged. The role of an administrative centre grants considerable advantages over other towns concerning development. On the other hand, granting authority to these towns also means the enlargement of the existing Bratislava-Banská Bystrica-Košice axis. As a result of the enlargement, the developing new town system shows a new feature, i.e. the strengthening of the Váh Valley as an industrial and service-providing urban zone (Trnava, Trenčín and Žilina), and that of Nitra as the gravitation pole of the plains to the south. Prešov, as the equivalent of Košice, is granted similar opportunities. The task of these two towns is the development of the backward eastern region, which has been lagging behind the other regions. 107
