Neutra

Slovak: Nitra

Hungarian: Nyitra, Latin: Nitra

The name is derived from the Indo-European word ‘nid’ (= to flow) and the Gothic word ‘ahwa’ (= water), which together form the word ‘Nitrahwa ’. The name is first mentioned in sources dating from the 9th century.

Neutra is situated at 48° 19' north latitude and 18° 5' east longitude, 92 km north-east of Pressburg/Bratislava.

Neutra is situated on the river of the same name in the Neutra Hills (Nitrianska pahorkatina); in this area, theTribeč Mountains merge into the Danube Lowlands.

Western Slovakia (Slovak: Západné Slovensko), formerly: Upper Hungary (Slovak: Horná Zem, Hungarian: Felvidék, Felső-Magyarország)

Republic of Slovakia. Nitra is the capital of the Nitra Region (Nitriansky kraj) and has been the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese since the 9th century.

The coat of arms of Neutra dates back to the Middle Ages. It depicts an arm clad in armour holding a flag bearing the double cross.

The cathedral church in Neutra/Nitra, dedicated to St Emmeram

[Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Pe-Jo
CC BY-SA 3.0].

After the area had been inhabited by Celts, Dacians and Germanic peoples, Slavs settled there in the 6th century. In the early 9th century, a Slavic principality was established here under Pribina († 860 or 861), who had the first church built in the suburb of Neutra in 828. The Great Moravian prince Mojmír I (d. 846) incorporated Neutra into the Great Moravian state; the settlement remained the seat of a sub-principality. It is possible (though not attested by sources) that the ‘Apostles to the Slavs’, Constantine (d. 869) and Methodius (d. 865), were also active in Neutra. At the end of the 9th century, the town experienced a golden age under Prince Swatopluk (d. 894); a diocese was founded which lasted until the fall of the Great Moravian Empire. At the beginning of the 10th century, Neutra fell to the Magyars. In the early Árpád period (11th–12th centuries), the town was the seat of several Hungarian heirs to the throne. The diocese was re-established in the early 12th century by the Hungarian King Koloman/Kálmán (1095–1116) as part of the reorganisation of the ecclesiastical structures of medieval Hungary. The town served as the seat of the county of the same name. Béla IV (1235–1270) granted the town the status of a royal free town, but this privilege was later severely curtailed by the local bishops. During the High Middle Ages, the town was plundered on several occasions and briefly conquered by Bohemian and Polish kings, as well as by the Hussites.

Following the Battle of Mohács (1526) and the Ottoman conquest of Ofen/Buda (1541), Neutra found itself caught in the crossfire between Habsburg and Ottoman power struggles. The surrounding countryside was plundered on several occasions, and the town itself was occupied by the Ottomans in 1663–64. In 1632, King Ferdinand II (1619–1637) confirmed a number of municipal privileges. The town played an important military role in the first decade of the 18th century, during the uprising led by the Transylvanian Prince Franz II Rákóczi (1676–1735). In 1708, it was besieged and destroyed by imperial troops. In the 18th century, Neutra – particularly the Upper Town and the castle – was rebuilt in the Baroque style; over the course of the 19th century, the suburbs and surrounding villages were incorporated into the town.

In 1918, Neutra became part of the First Czechoslovak Republic. During the interwar period, the town’s development stagnated after it lost its administrative role as a county seat. The Second World War also took a heavy toll on Neutra: many members of the Jewish community fell victim to the Holocaust; in 1945, the town was destroyed by Soviet air raids.

After 1945, intensive socialist development began in Neutra, including industrialisation and mass housing construction. Today, Neutra is the fourth-largest city in Slovakia.

The city is divided into 13 districts. The city council consists of 31 councillors, and the administration is headed by a mayor.

The synagogue in Neutra/Nitra
[Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Pudelek
(Marcin Szala) CC BY-SA 3.0].

In 1785, Neutra had a population of 3,505. The 1869 census recorded 10,683 inhabitants; by the turn of the century, this figure had risen to 14,752 (1900).^[1] In 1930, a population of 21,283 made Neutra the sixth-largest town in Slovakia. A sharp increase in population can be observed after 1945: by 1991, almost 90,000 people were living in the town.^[2] In the mid-19th century, the majority of the population spoke Slovak, whilst the minorities spoke Hungarian, German and Yiddish. The first reliable data on language dates from 1880, when 38.7 per cent of residents stated Slovak, 31.1 per cent German or Yiddish, and 27.5 per cent Hungarian as their mother tongue.^[3] In the decades that followed, a rapid process of Magyarisation can be observed: by 1910, the proportion of Hungarians had risen to 59.41 per cent, compared with 30.02 per cent of Slovaks. 9.96 per cent of the inhabitants stated that German was their mother tongue. 22.38 per cent of the population were Jews, most of whom spoke Hungarian or German.^[4] After the First World War, this process was completely reversed, and the majority of residents identified as (Czech) Slovaks (1930: 87 per cent [Czech] Slovaks, 5 per cent Hungarians, 4 per cent Jews and 3 per cent Germans).^[5] Although the proportion of the Hungarian population declined rapidly, the middle classes during the interwar period remained characterised by a binational, Slovak-Hungarian culture. The changes in the statistical data bear witness not only to the intense pressure of nationalising state policy, but also to a significant degree of national indifference. Since the Second World War, Neutra has been virtually monolingual (1991: 97.2 per cent Slovaks and Czechs, 1.9 per cent Hungarians).^[6]

Until the mid-19th century, Neutra’s economy was characterised by craft trades and agriculture, particularly viticulture. Although the town served as a market centre for the surrounding area, its peripheral location prevented larger companies from establishing themselves there; it was not connected to the main railway lines until 1876. Industrialisation began in the 1870s with the establishment of small factories; however, Neutra did not become a major industrial town (food industry, plastics processing, motor vehicle parts) until after the Second World War.

During the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy (1867–1918), Neutra was a stronghold of the Liberal Party, although the bishops supported the Christian Social movement. During the interwar period, of Slovakia’s major political parties, the Social Democrats and the Christian Socialists played a prominent role in Neutra.

In the 11th century, a Benedictine monastery was founded on Zobor Hill, in the immediate vicinity of the town; its ruins have survived to this day. The monks who lived there, Zoerard and Benedict, were canonised in 1083 and buried in St Emmeram’s Church. The Reformation also spread to the territory of the Diocese of Neutra, though the town remained predominantly Catholic. A prominent figure of the Counter-Reformation, Ferenc Forgách, held the see of Neutra between 1596 and 1607, after which he became Archbishop of Gran. From the 18th century until the Second World War, Neutra’s population was predominantly Catholic (1840: 96.41 per cent; 1880: 77.86 per cent; 1910: 74.46 per cent) and Jews (1840: 3.2 per cent; 1880: 20.26 per cent; 1910: 22.38 per cent), but also by Protestants of the Lutheran or Helvetic faith (1880: 1.24 per cent; 1910: 2.84 per cent).^[7] In 1908, a small Neolog community split off from the Orthodox Jewish community. Since the deportation and murder of the Jews during the Second World War, the town has been predominantly Catholic: in 2001, 74 per cent of the inhabitants described themselves as Catholic and 17 per cent as atheists.^[8]

The Upper Hungarian Magyar Cultural Association (Felvidéki Magyar Közművelődési Egyesület) was founded in 1883 with its headquarters in Neutra (dissolved in 1919). The Neutra Regional Museum (Ponitranske múzeum), founded in 1900, is based on a collection from the Piarist Grammar School. The bishop’s seat houses a significant library.

The education system in Neutra was closely linked to the Catholic Church. In 1702, the Piarists founded a grammar school, and in 1715 the diocese opened a seminary. The beginning of secular higher education was marked in 1952 by the founding of a university of applied sciences for agriculture, which was elevated to university status in 1996 (Slovak University of Agriculture inNitra/Slovenská poľnohospodárska univerzita v Nitre). The university of applied sciences, founded in 1959 with a focus on education, was elevated to university status in 1992 and was named the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre) in 1996.

According to legend, the blacksmith Corgoň used his superhuman strength to deter Turkish besiegers from the town.

The building of the Major Seminary in Neutra/Nitra
[Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Wizzard CC BY-SA 3.0].

The castle took on its present form in the 17th century as a result of construction work carried out by the bishopric. St Emmeram’s Cathedral (last renovated in 1736) is of Romanesque origin. The fortifications were built in the early modern period to provide protection against Ottoman attacks. Significant architectural monuments can also be found in the Upper Town: the Major Seminary, the Canons’ Palace and the Franciscan monastery. The town’s only synagogue dates from 1911.

German (Neutraer Zeitung, Neutra-Trenchiner Zeitung) and Hungarian newspapers had been published since the 1870s. After the First World War, the Slovak press emerged (Nitrianske noviny); alongside this, a number of Hungarian newspapers (Nyitrai Lapok, Nyitramegyei Szemle, Nyitravármegye) were also published until the 1930s.

Theatre performances in Hungarian and German have been staged in Neutra since 1821. The first theatre building opened in 1883, though a permanent company was not established until after 1949. Between 1883 and 1918, only Hungarian-language performances took place; from 1919 onwards, only Slovak-language performances were staged. Following the destruction of the theatre building during the Second World War (a new building was not constructed until 1992), plays were staged at the Cultural Centre (Narodny dom); since 1979, the theatre has borne the name of its former director, Andrej Bagar (Divadlo Andreja Bagara). Two theatre festivals take place in Neutra every year.

The barracks of the 14th Hungarian Landwehr Infantry Regiment, built in 1890, now serves as a market hall.

As part of the Hungarian Millennium celebrations, a monument (an obelisk featuring the totem bird of the pagan Magyars) was erected on Zobor Hill in 1896; it was destroyed in 1921. In 1933, celebrations were held in honour of Prince Pribina. Important monuments are dedicated to the ‘Apostles of the Slavs’ and to Pribina.

The monuments symbolise the contrasting cultures of remembrance held by the Slovaks and the Magyars regarding the city’s past and its cultural development over the centuries. In Slovak national historiography and public discourse, Neutra is portrayed as the oldest Slovak town and even as the ‘cradle of Slovak identity’, an interpretation that was also reflected, for example, in the Pribina celebrations of 1933. Hungarian and some Slovak historians question the continuity between the ancient Slavic settlement and the modern Slovak city.

• Charles R. Bowlus: Nitra: when did it become part of the Moravian realm? Evidence from Frankish sources. In: Early Medieval Europe 17 (2009), no. 3, pp. 311–328.
• Richard Marsina (ed.): Nitra v slovenských dejinách [Nitra in Slovak History]. Martin 2002.
• Juraj Zajonc: Why is Nitra a venerable city? In: Eduard Krekovič, Elena Mannová, Eva Krekovičová (eds.): Mýty naše Slovenské [The Myths of Our Slovakia]. Bratislava 2005, pp. 134–149.
• Ida Zubácka: Nitra za prvej Československej republiky [Neutra in the First Czechoslovak Republic]. Nitra 1997.

• Nitrianske noviny (Neutraer Nachrichten)
• Nitriansky ohlas (Neutraer Antwort)

• www.nitra.sk (the town’s website in Slovak)
• www.nitra.eu (the town’s website in English)
• www.biskupstvo-nitra.sk (Diocese website)
• www.nitra2026.eu/ (Application to become European Capital of Culture 2026)

[1] Ernő Deák: Royal Free Cities – Municipal Cities. Urban Administration in the Lands of the Hungarian Crown (1780–1918). Part 2: Selected Materials on Urban Administration A. Vienna 1989 (Publications of the Commission for Economic, Social and Urban History/Austrian Academy of Sciences 4), p. 542.

[2] adatbank.sk/sl/11/databaza_obci (accessed 5 March 2013).

[3] A magyar korona országaiban az 1881. év elején végrehajtott népszámlálás eredményei [The Hungarian Lands in 1881. The results of the census conducted that year]. Budapest 1882. URL: library.hungaricana.hu/hu/view/NEDA_1881_02/?pg=0&layout=s (accessed 16 August 2021).

[4] Deák: Royal Free Cities (note 1), p. 542.

[5] See adatbank.sk/sl/11/databaza_obci.

[6] See adatbank.sk/sl/11/databaza_obci.

[7] Deák: Royal Free Towns (note 1), p. 542.

[8] See adatbank.sk/sl/11/databaza_obci.

Bálint Varga: Neutra/Nitra. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2013. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/54343.html (as at 12 May 2015).