Smolník

Smolník (German Schmöllnitz , Hungarian Szomolnok ) is a municipality in eastern Slovakia in the historical region of Spiš . It is located in the valley of the river of the same name, in the Volovské vrchy Mountains , about 24 km from Rožňava , 27 km from Gelnica and 50 km from Košice .

history

View of the place

The first written evidence of the settlement of the banks of the Schmöllnitzer Bach by German miners comes from the 13th century. The area belonged to the mining town of Göllnitz . As early as 1287 there were workrooms for cleaning iron along the Schmöllnitzer Bach. Shortly thereafter, in 1327, the settlement is as Semelnech modeled after the city Schemnitz to Royal Freistadt levied. The miners mainly extracted gold, silver, copper and later iron ore and pyrite. In economic terms, Schmöllnitz was able to overtake the older mountain town of Göllnitz in the course of the 15th century, making the town a leading role in the region. From the 16th and 17th centuries, the city suffered from numerous conflicts in Hungary and plague epidemics, which was accompanied by a long-lasting decline. The German population of the place was forcibly expelled in 1944/1945 as part of the expulsion of the Germans from Czechoslovakia, like most of the Spiš Germans .

From 1884 to 1965 the place was the end point of the Göllnitz Valley Railway from Margecany .

Population development

		Ethnic structure
year	Residents	Slovaks	German	Hungary	Others
1880	2,706	105	2,312	191	98
1890	2,220	100	2.023	90	7th
1900	2,555	216	1,948	328	63
1910	2,345	156	1,615	556	18th
1930	2,421	512	1,685	110	114
2001	1,299	1,197	31	5	66
2011	1,126	996	24	3	103

Web links

Commons : Smolník - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Miroslav Lacko u. Erika Mayerová, The oldest city book of Schmöllnitz 1410–1735 (Limbach 2016), p. 18

[1] Miroslav Lacko u. Erika Mayerová, The oldest city book of Schmöllnitz 1410–1735 (Limbach 2016), p. 18