Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
3. The settlement structure of Slovakia
The settlement structure of Slovakia farther settlements also moved to such villages. This was how the process of gravitation began, but with the administrative changes and enlargement of the administrative boundaries, this phenomenon disappeared and became a population movement within towns. If the names of the 15 largest cities of the particular census years are put next to each other (classified according to the original census data of 1910 and 1930), then it turns out that there are only two towns with unbroken development: Bratislava and Košice were always in the first two places. The order of the other towns was always different (Table 26). Banská Štiavnica and Šamorín were already lagging behind the first 15 by 1930. Komárno fell behind gradually, Lučenec still belonged among them in 1930 and so did Ružomberok in 1950, but then they all dropped out of the top 15. Myjava, Levice, and what is more, Spišská Nová Ves dropped back in the same way. On the other hand, Prešov showed extraordinary development, Nitra gradually obtained the fourth place, and Žilina, which was not even among the first 15 in 1980 was the fifth in 2001. Michalovce joined the first 15 in 2001. Table 26. The 15 largest cities of Felvidék (1910) and Slovakia (1930- 2001) 1910 1930 1950 1980 1991 2001 Bratislava Bratislava Bratislava Bratislava Bratislava Bratislava Kosice Košice Košice Košice Košice Košice Komárno Žilina Žilina Žilina Nitra Prešov Nitra Nitra Nitra Nitra Prešov Nitra Prešov Trnava Trnava Prešov Banská Bystrica Žilina Nové Zámky Prešov Prešov Banská Bystrica Žilina Banská Bystrica Banská Štiavnica Komárno Banská Bystrica Trnava Trnava Trnava Trnava Nové Zámky Martin Trenčín Martin Martin Lučenec Banská Bystrica Trenčín Martin Trenčín Trenčín Ružomberok Martin Nové Zámky Prievidza Prievidza Poprad Šamorín Lučenec Komárno Poprad Poprad Prievidza Banská Bystrica Trenčín Ružomberok Zvolen Nové Zámky Zvolen Spišská Nová Ves Topoľčany Piešťany Nové Zámky Zvolen Považská Bystrica Myjava Ružomberok Topoľčany Komárno Považská Bystrica Nové Zámky Levice Zvolen Zvolen Spišská Nová Ves Spišská Nová Ves Michalovce The changes are due to many different reasons; their typifying will be the task of urban research. It is easier to carry out the classification according to time because, compared to the period till 1918, the two decades between the two World Wars should be regarded as a new period and the decades after the World War II should also be subdivided into a period till 1990 and another one from 1990 until the present. Apparently, the different or simultaneous political, administrative and economic roles of settlements were the decisive factors in the rise or fall of towns. In the period between 1950 and 1991 it was first of all the 84
