Trnava

Trnava grew up from a market settlement at the crossroads of the so-called Czech and the Váh River Roads. Privileges granted by Hungarian rulers ensured the settlement´s rise to a trade town. The defensive system, encircled with moats was reinforced against the Turks under the direction of P. Ferrabosco. The town´s gates from the 18^th century were gradually pulled down. Only a part of the fortifications has been preserved in the west of the town. Trnava´s importance grew in the 16^th and 17^th century, when the archbishopric of Esztergom moved here. The St. Nicholas parish church was given the function of an archiepiscopal cathedral, next to which there grew up the archiepiscopal palace. In 1635 the archbishop P. Pazmány founded here the Trnava University, which - together with the University church and the relevant buildings - became the centre of recatholization in Slovakia. Older cloisters, monasteries, convents and churches - old and new baroque ones - ensured to Trnava the attribute "Slovak Rome". Bernolák´s Learned Society propagated here the codification of a Slovak literary language. Burgher houses from the 16^th and 17^th century, the building of the former Town Hall, the town´s hospitals, the tower and the convent of St. Claire´s sisters, which today houses the West-Slovakian Museum, count among the most significant cultural monuments.

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