Puchov

Púchov (German Puchau , Hungarian Puhó - until 1902 Puchó ) is a city in north-western Slovakia with 17,561 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) and is the seat of an independent Okres in Trenčiansky kraj .

geography

Building of the Matador tire company

The city is located on the middle reaches of the Váh and in the northern part of the Ilavská kotlina basin at the foot of the White Carpathians and Javorníky Mountains and not far from the Strážovské vrchy Mountains to the south . The only major tributary of the Waag in the city is the right-hand Biela voda, in the Nosice district there is the dam of the Nosice reservoir . The city center is located at an altitude of 265 m nm and is about 20 km from the Czech border, 38 km from Trenčín , 50 km from Žilina and 167 km from Bratislava .

Neighboring municipalities are Dolná Mariková and Klieština in the north, Nimnica in the northeast, Považská Bystrica in the east, Dolné Kočkovce in the south, Streženice in the southwest, Horná Breznica in the west and Dohňany in the northwest.

The city is divided into the following 7 municipal parts:

Horné Kočkovce (incorporated in 1926)
Hoštiná (incorporated in 1979)
Hrabovka (incorporated in 1944)
Ihrište (incorporated in 1979)
Nosice (incorporated in 1973)
Púchov (city)
Vieska-Bezdedov (incorporated in 1960)

In addition, the municipalities of Nimnica , Streženice (1979–1990) and Dolné Kočkovce (1980–1990) were once part of the city.

history

Former county house, now the Museum of Puchau Culture

The present urban area was already settled in the Paleolithic and Bronze Ages. Numerous finds from the La Tène and Roman times at the Púchov-Skala location gave the Puchau culture its name.

The city proper was first mentioned in writing as Puch in 1243 after an owner of the same name . One part belonged to the estate of Lednica Castle , the other belonged to the Marczibány family (until the 19th century) and the town received town charter in the 15th century. After the battle of the White Mountain , many Moravian Brethren settled and the town was famous for its drapery products ; In 1768 there were a total of 68 cloth workshops. In 1649 Púchov was given the right to hold fairs. In 1784 there were 166 houses, 222 families and 1134 inhabitants in the town, 73 houses, 104 families and 507 inhabitants in Moravská Street .

The city in Trenčín County belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary until 1918 , after which it came to the newly formed Czechoslovakia, or now Slovakia. In the 1930s, but especially after 1945, there was the development of local industries, from which the clothing company Makyta and the tire manufacturer Matador emerged. Both are still based in the city today.

population

Evangelical Church of Púchov

According to the 2011 census, 18,168 people lived in Púchov, including 16,263 Slovaks , 135 Czechs , 14 Magyars and Moravians , 13 Poles , 12 Russians , seven Germans , five Roma and Russian , two Bulgarians and two Jews and one Ukrainian ; 46 inhabitants were of a different ethnic group. 1,649 residents did not provide any information. 11,540 residents belonged to the Roman Catholic Church , 2,184 residents to the Evangelical Church A. B. , 49 residents to the Greek Catholic Church , 36 residents each to the Evangelical Methodist Church and the Congregational Church , 19 residents to the Orthodox Church , 16 residents to the Apostolic Church and 13 Residents to Jehovah's Witnesses . All other denominations had fewer than 10 believers, in addition 66 residents belonged to another denomination not listed in the statistics. 2,042 residents had no denomination and the denomination of 2,136 residents was not determined.

Extract from the results of the 2011 census (18,833 inhabitants):

By ethnicity:

97.38% Slovaks
1.32% Czechs
0.22% Roma
0.08% Poland
0.05% Magyars

By denomination:

71.37% Roman Catholic
13.84% Protestant
11.28% non-denominational
2.58% no information
0.13% Greek Catholic

Attractions

Roman Catholic church on Námestie slobody square from the 17th century, originally in the Renaissance style, changed to Baroque style in the 18th century, rebuilt and expanded in 1939–1940 according to a project by Milan Michal Harminc

Baroque style statue of John Nepomuk on Námestie slobody square from 1733

Rectory on Moravská street from 1804 with memorial plaques to Johann Amos Comenius and Vladimír Roy

Roman Catholic church in Baroque-Classicist style in the Horné Kočkovce district from 1771

Protestant church on Moravská Street in neo-Gothic style from 1880, houses a Renaissance altar from 1643

Chapel on Trenčianska Street from 1881, not far from the train station

County house in the Baroque-Classicist style from the end of the 18th century, today the seat of the Museum of Puchov Culture ( Múzeum púchovskej kultúry )

Sports

The football club FK Púchov played in the seasons 2000/01 to 2005/06 in the Slovak Corgoň league and won the Slovak Football Cup once . The club is currently playing in III. League and plays its home games in Mestský štadión Púchov (6,000 spectators).

In the city there is also an ice rink, an indoor and outdoor swimming pool and four tennis courts.

traffic

The 1st order road 49 ( Beluša –Púchov – Czech border) and the 2nd order road 507 ( Gabčíkovo –Trenčín – Žilina) pass through the town . The motorway slip road, which is partly dedicated to 1st order road 49A and partly as expressway R6 , provides a connection to the D1 motorway (Bratislava – Žilina, E 50 / E 75 ) eight kilometers away .

Púchov is a railway junction where the two- track Bratislava – Žilina line (part of the Bratislava – Košice main line) is connected to the Púchov – Horní Lideč railway coming from the Czech Republic . The station is located in the Horné Kočkovce district on Trenčianska street ; There are stops in Hrabovka (as Púchov zastávka ), Horné Kočkovce and Nosice.

The company Autobusová doprava Púchov, as operates a public transport network that consists of six bus routes (as of 2013). There are also connections with surrounding communities and cities with regional bus routes.

Town twinning

Púchov lists the following five partner cities :

city	country	since
Babruysk	Belarus Mahiljou, Belarus	2005
Bila Tserkva	Ukraine Kiev, Ukraine	2004
Hlinsko v Čechách	Czech Republic Pardubice Region, Czech Republic	1998
Omsk	Russia Siberia, Russia	1996
Stara Pazova	Serbia Vojvodina, Serbia	2001