Šahy (, rarely ) is a town in southern

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

, The town has an ethnic Hungarian majority and its population is 7,238 people (2018), with an average age of 42.5.

Geography

It is located at the eastern reaches of the

Danubian Lowland ::''The Serbian lowland is treated under Danubian Plain (Serbia)'' The Danubian Lowland or Danube Lowland () is the name of the part of Little Alföld (Slovak: ''Malá dunajská kotlina'') situated in Slovakia, located between the Danube, the Litt ...

on the river

Ipeľ The Ipeľ (Slovak language, Slovak; ) or Ipoly (Hungarian language, Hungarian) (German language, German: ''Eipel'', archaic Slovak: ''Jupoľ'', Latin language, Latin: ''Bolia'') is a long river in Slovakia and Hungary, a tributary of the Danube ...

at the Hungarian border, on the E77 road from

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. Besides the main settlement, it also has two "boroughs" of Preseľany nad Ipľom ( west of centre, annexed 1980) and Tešmák ( east of centre, annexed 1986). From 1980 to 1996 it also had now independent village of Hrkovce.

History

The first written mention is from 1237 in a document of King Béla IV under name ''Saag'', when Martin Hont-Pázmány founded a

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular in the Catholic Chur ...

monastery there. It got character of a small town in the 14th century. It was part of

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

between 1541–1595 and 1605–1685 and was known as "Şefradi". It was also sanjak centre in Uyvar eyalet between 1663 and 1685. Before break-up of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

in 1918/1920 and incorporation into

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, it was part of the

Hont County Hont County was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Most of its territory is now part of Slovakia, while a smaller southern portion is part of Hungary. Today, in Slovakia Hont is the i ...

, and was from 1806 its capital. It was part of Hungary from 1938 to 1945 as a result of the

First Vienna Award The First Vienna Award was a treaty signed on 2 November 1938 pursuant to the Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace. The arbitration and award were direct consequences of the previous month's Munich Agreement, whic ...

Demographics

According to the 2014

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, the town had 7,516 inhabitants. In 2001 62.21% of the inhabitants were

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...

, 34.57%

Slovaks The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: ''Slovák'' (historical: ''Sloven'' ), feminine: ''Slovenka'' , plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history ...

, 0.56%

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

and 0.41 Roma. The religious makeup was 84.06%

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, 6.87% people with no religious affiliation, and 3.46%

Lutherans Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

Facilities

The town is home to the Hont Museum and Gallery of Ľudovít Simony.

Twin towns – sister cities

Šahy is twinned with: * Héhalom, Hungary *

Vác Vác (; ; ; ) is a thousand-year old city in Pest county in Hungary with approximately 35,000 inhabitants. The archaic spelling of the name is ''Vácz''. Location Vác is located north of Budapest on the eastern bank of the Danube river, below t ...

, Hungary * Veresegyház, Hungary

Notable people

* Ferdinand Daučík, football player and manager * Branko Kubala, football player *

Ladislav Ballek Ladislav is a Czech, Slovak and Croatian variant of the Slavic name Vladislav. The female form of this name is Ladislava. Folk etymology occasionally links ''Ladislav'' with the Slavic goddess Lada. Spellings and variations In Bulgarian an ...

, writer

References

External links

The official website of Šahy

Tourist-channel.sk
Cities and towns in Slovakia Hungary–Slovakia border crossings Municipalities in Slovakia where Hungarian is an official language {{Nitra-geo-stub