Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
2. Towns in Felvidék (Upper Hungary) before 1918
Occupational composition of towns in Felvidék (Upper Hungary) was becoming increasingly important as a commercial and financial centre (Gál 1998). Béla Bulla and Tibor Mendöl already wrote after World War II in their joint work, which was published in 1947, that Felvidék towns had lost importance and had been left out of the 19th century modernization process (1999, pp. 257-263). Since the buildings of a town show the signs of the lifestyle and living standard of the age in which they were built, it can be stated that, in the majority of the towns in Felvidék, historic buildings and squares cherish the material and intellectual memories of the ages between the 14th and 18th centuries. The Baroque architectural elements appear only in the southern towns, where, after the Turks had been expelled, there was economic and intellectual prosperity, which was also expressed in the buildings, which met the needs of the age. Bulla and Mendöl classified most Felvidék towns into the category of towns on the downgrade (Szakolca [Skalica], Korpona [Krupina], Holies [Holíč], Miava [Myjava], Kisszeben [Sabinov], and Bártfa [Bardejov]). However, the towns of Szepesség (Késmárk [Kežmarok], Leibic [Ľubica], Szepesbéla [Spišská Belá], Podolin [Podolínec], Lubló [Stará Ľubovňa], Szepesolaszi [Spišské Vlachy], Szepesváralja [Spišské Podhradie], and Lőcse [Levoča]) also belonged there, except for Poprád [Poprad], which, due to its railway junction, began to flourish. None of the many small towns in a small area developed into a prominent centre. Lőcse [Levoča] became more important only because it was also a county town. The prosperity of these towns was mostly due to trade with Silesia (Szakolca, Holies) and Poland. Most mining towns were classified as stagnating (Újbánya [Nová Baňa], Gölnicbánya [Gelnica], Szomolnok [Smolník], Breznóbánya [Brezno], Dobsina [Dobšiná], Körmöcbánya [Kremnica], Rozsnyó [Rožňava] and Igló [Spišská Nová Ves]). Libetbánya [Lubietová] and Bakabánya [Pukanec] reverted to villages. Apart from the exhaustion of ore, another reason for the decline of Selmecbánya [Banská Štiavnica] was also that the academy of mining and forestry was moved to Sopron after the Czechoslovak state had been founded. Only one town, Pöstyén [Piešťany], owed its existence to thermal baths and bathing. The mountain air of the High Tatras called tourist spots and health resorts around Tátrafüred [Starý Smokovec] into being, but no towns. Small centres with a less important historical past and minor architectural relics, such as Liptószentmiklós [Liptovský Mikuláš], Turócszent-35
