Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
4. Towns in Slovakia after 1993
Towns in Slovakia after 1993 4. 3 The connection between transportation and the town system The position a country takes in the area-wide transportation network is decisive from the point of view of its geopolitical situation. Realizing the importance of the eastern-western communication axes that cross the Polish and Hungarian plains, Slovakia intends to stand its ground in this competition by marking out its route between them, i.e. building its motorways from Ostrava through Žilina and Košice to Lvov. This means that the road from Žilina will not run southwards at Košice, but it will take a sharp bend to Uzhhorod-Lvov. In comparison with this axis, and regarding also the international relations, the north-south corridors are of minor importance. Two of these corridors are in use. One of them is the route Katowice-Žilina-Bratislava in the valley of the river Váh, which corresponds to the road of the central region that is to be built to the northeast. This route is of importance mainly within the country, and has minor international importance. The other one is the corridor from the north to the south, from Cracow through Košice to Miskolc, which is much less busy. It is the Slovak section of the road that is important for Slovakia. At the same time, the road Orava-Banská Bystrica-Budapest, which was essential for centuries, is completely missing. A road network enhances the importance of the towns that can be found in the junctions and the planning of roads may encourage towns to have promising future prospects. Therefore transportation is of utmost importance in urban development. The restored bridge between Esztergom and Štúrovo and the consequent planning constraints are a good example for this. Mária Valéria Bridge, which was inaugurated in 2001, symbolizes the end of World War II, because this was the last war-time ruins of a bridge in Europe. In practice, the bridge made actual, everyday relations between the two countries possible. Increased traffic, however, posed new problems. Commercial relations between the towns and smaller or larger regions on both banks of the Danube increased to a degree that the bridge connecting town centres soon proved to be insufficient. This made it necessary to build a larger bridge not far from the town so as to solve the problem of heavy traffic. This demand made by the mayors of the two towns raises issues affecting the whole of Europe: where should the new northern-southern communication corridor be constructed and where should the Helsinki 108
