History of Trnava

(by the priest Anton Bernolák in 1787) was based on the Slovak dialect used in the region of Trnava. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 Richard Guyon's army fought here with an Austrian army on 14 December, in 1848.

The importance of the town decreased in the early 19th century, when the university was moved to Buda (today: Eötvös Loránd University) and the see of the archbishopric moved back to Esztergom. It increased however partly again after 1844, when Trnava was connected with Bratislava through the first railway line in the Kingdom of Hungary, which was a horse railway (steam engines were used since 1872). The railway connection launched a modernization of the town, which started with the erection of a big sugar factory, a malt-house and of the coburgh’s factory (later referred to as Trnavské automobilové závody, i.e. "Trnava Car Factory"). The St. Adalbert Association (Spolok sv. Vojtecha), founded in 1870 when the Slovak foundation (Matica slovenská) was prohibited by the Hungarian authorities, kept up the Slovak national conscience at a time of strong Magyarisation in Hungary. In the 19th but mainly in the early 20th century the town grew behind its city walls and a part of the wall was demolished in the 19th century, but most of it is still well-preserved.

Until World War II, Trnava was also home to a sizable Jewish minority. Their freedom to move was restricted as early as in 1495 and from 1539 to 1800, and 12 Jews were burned publicly in 1870 during a pogrom.

After the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Trnava was one of the most industrialized cities of