Ružomberok

Sister cities

• Bački Petrovac
• Hlučín

History

In 1233, King Andrew II of Hungary granted the land Revúca (terra Reuche) to his servant Hudko (Hudkonth, in the deed of confirmation Hudko). Hudko, his son Miloslav (Mylozou), and his offspring cultivated the land where the Slovak village Revúca had been founded in the 13th century. Before the 1320s, Germans founded a new settlement, Rosenberg (possesio Rozumberg), right on the hill near the older village. In 1329, Revúca became a part of Ružomberok and received a new name, Podhora (Sub Monte). In 1340, Charles I of Hungary confirmed the town rights: burgesses and "guests" (German colonists) had the same rights as in Ľupča (now Partizánska Ľupča). The extent of previous rights is not completely clear. Ružomberok allegedly had similar rights since 1318, but the charter preserved only in a copy could be fake. The Germans had had a dominant position probably until 1431 when many rich families left the town under the pressure of the Hussites. The town council was then controlled by Slovaks, and during the 15th century, the town was Slovakised. In the 19th century, the town was one of the centres of the Slovak national movement. It slowly became one of the industrial and financial centres of the Kingdom of Hungary, particularly after the Kassa Oderberg Railway was completed in 1871, when many new factories emerged: paper and pulpwood works, but also brick works (1871) and the textile industry. In 1907, in Černová, which was rather a street than a part of the town, an event known as the Černová tragedy. After the break-up of Austria-Hungary in 1918, Ružomberok became a part of Czechoslovakia. However, when Czechoslovakia was broken up in 1939, it was incorporated into the First Slovak Republic and was the capital of one of the counties, Tatra County (Tatranská župa). On…