Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)

3. The settlement structure of Slovakia

Town planning in (Czecho)Slovakia

the Soviet Union, the largest factories were built along the pipeline. That was why there are oil refineries in Bratislava, Vojany and Nemecká. There are more processing plants in the villages of Cigel’ and Plavecký Štvrtok. The leather industry developed mostly after the war. The five largest factories are in Partizánske, Bošany, Liptovský Mikuláš, Bardejov and Zlaté Moravce. The glass and porcelain industries and potter’s craft were located in Trnava, Nemšová, Bratislava, Nová Baňa and Lednické Rovne. The centres for the non-ferrous metal industry were Žiar nad Hronom (aluminium industry), Krompachy (copper factory), Sered’ (nickel processing), Banská Štiavnica and Kremnica. The development of the steel industry was supported by the countries of Comecon, first of all with the iron ore from the Soviet Union. On this basis the Eastern Slovak Iron Works were established in Košice, which produced 90% of the production value of the sector, and which gave jobs to 55% of those employed in the city. Besides these, there were small factories in Podbrezová, Istebné, Rudňany and Rožňava, too. The cellulose and paper industries were present in villages with the fewest factories. The five largest factories were to be found in Ružomberok, Štúrovo, Slavošovce, Harmanec and Vranov nad Topľou.

All in all, we can state that the favoured locations of industrial investment were the towns. The number of those employed in the industry increased to 778,000 in 1979 from 219,000 in 1948, i.e. in thirty years. This huge crowd of people was employed mainly in the industrial plants of the towns. Examining the year 1980 as the census year most suitable for a summary, we can find 30 towns out of 84 that are centres supported by considerable industrial development and investment, and these made up 35.7% of all towns. Industrial establishments were also located in villages, because, due to the supply of raw materials, transportation routes or other advantages, the settlement form itself had to be disregarded. Consequently, 29 out of the 2,639 villages became more important, but this was only 1.09% of all villages.

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