Dobšiná
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Dobšiná (; ;
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
: ''Dobsinium'') is a small
town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
in the
Slovak Ore Mountains The Slovak Ore Mountains ( , , ) are an extensive mountain range within the Carpathian Mountains, located mostly in Slovakia's Spiš and Gemer region, with a small part in northern Hungary. It is the largest mountain range in Slovakia. Geomorph ...
along the
Slaná River Slana may refer to: * Slana, Alaska, a populated place in the Copper River Census Area * Slana River, in Alaska, a tributary of Copper River * Slana, Croatia, a village near Petrinja * Slana concentration camp, existed during World War II on t ...
. For 500 years it was a small but prosperous mining village populated by ethnic
Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...
within the
Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...
; today it is a Slovak town of 6,000 most well known for its
Ice Cave An ice cave is any type of natural cave (most commonly lava tubes or limestone caves) that contains significant amounts of perennial (year-round) ice. At least a portion of the cave must have a temperature below 0 Â°C (32 Â°F) all ye ...
.


Geography

It is situated between the Revúca Highlands and the
Volovec Mountains The Volovec Mountains (, ) is a mountain range ...
in the
Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...
, watered by the river Hnilec and enclosed on all sides by mountains. It lies to the south of the beautiful Stratenska Valley. The town includes the well-known
Dobšiná Ice Cave Dobšiná Ice Cave (; ) is an ice cave in Slovakia, near the mining town of Dobšiná in the Slovak Paradise. Since 2000 it has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list as a part of the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst site, beca ...
, first discovered in 1870.


Etymology

The Slavic name "Dobšiná" could be derived from the nearby Dobšinský brook, which is first recorded in historical sources as "Dupsina fluvius" in 1320 (predating any written references to the town's name). There is also a local legend, documented in 1822, that the town was named by its original German settlers. According to this legend, while cooking around a common fire, one settler suggested that the next word uttered would become the name of the settlement. When the pot began to boil, a passing settler (unaware of the prior discussion) shouted "" look in the pot!" "Topf schaue" sounds very similar to the town's German name, "Dobschau". It is also possible that the German name "Dobschau" derived from the German phrase "" looking at the pot" which could have been in reference to the town's location at the bottom of a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains (and thus appearing to be at the bottom of a pot).


History


Settlement

The earliest written reference to Dobšiná dates to 1326, when the
Bebek family The Bebek family (also Bubek) was an ancient Hungarian noble family. The history of this family is connected with the areas in present-day Slovakia, notably in Gemer region, where they had their dominion. History The first mention of this fa ...
(who had ruled the surrounding territory since 1243) commissioned the hereditary magistrate Mikuláš to settle expert German miners there in the tradition of Krupina law. In exchange, he was awarded one-third of the revenue of the local mines. The settlement was surrounded by mines, some dating back to ancient times, and it developed into a prosperous mining hub for gold, silver, and nickel, and later, for iron, cobalt, copper, mercury, and more. It also developing a thriving iron refining trade.


Growth: 1400–1850

With a favorable position near a river and close to rich natural resources, the
Gömör County Gömör (, , , Latin: ''Gömörinum'') was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. In the 19th century, and in the beginning of the 20th century, it was united with the Kis-Hont County to f ...
settlement grew quickly, receiving a town charter in 1417 from Sigismund of Luxembourg and acquiring the right of sword and the right of fair at that time. It became a major hub for the Hungarian minority of
Carpathian Germans Carpathian Germans (, or ''felvidéki németek'', , , ) are a group of Germans, ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe. The term was coined by the historian :de:Raimund Friedrich Kaindl, Raimund Friederich Kaindl (1866–1930), originally ...
within
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
, with Germans comprising the majority of its residents for the next 450 years. They referred to themselves as "" or ""; to their Hungarian and Slavic neighbors, they were "Buliners". They spoke a distinct dialect known as "
Zipser German Zipser German (German: Zipserisch or Zipserdeutsch; Hungarian: ''szepességi szász nyelv'' or ''cipszer nyelv''; ) is a dialect of the German language which developed in the Upper Zips region (, ) of what is now northeastern Slovakia among ...
". Dobšiná endured a tumultuous period in the latter half of the 16th century: in 1540, the captain of the Murán Castle, Matej Bašo, plundered the town, and it was sacked and plundered again by the Turks of Fiľak on October 14, 1584, with 352 residents dragged into captivity. Although Dobšiná belonged to the Štítnice castle estate, its inhabitants were considered free burghers. The relationship with the landowners was further loosened when the ruling Bebek family line ended in 1594 . After the approval of Maximilian's mining order in 1723, the town was exempted from the land mining tax and enjoyed the rights of a free royal town. In 1756, Mária Terézia Dobšinej confirmed the right to four annual markets, which took place on 22 February, 12 May, 1 August and 8 December.


Decline: 1850–1950

The Rosenau–Dobschin railway line opened in 1874, connecting the town to the rest of the region by rail. But the mining industry had fallen into sharp decline by this point, and the town's residents—especially its German miners—began to emigrate in large numbers to seek opportunity elsewhere (many seeking the booming coal towns of the United States). The town lost about 1/3 of its population during this period, falling to 5,115 inhabitants by 1900 and then 4,681 by 1930. Before the establishment of independent
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''ÄŒesko-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 ...
in 1918, Dobšiná was part of
Gömör and Kishont County Gömör-Kishont (, , ) was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its capital was Rimaszombat (present-day Rimavská Sobota). Most of its territory is now part of Slovakia, while a smaller ...
within the
Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...
. Dobšiná's status as a German enclave endured even through the
Magyarization Magyarization ( , also Hungarianization; ), after "Magyar"—the Hungarian autonym—was an assimilation or acculturation process by which non-Hungarian nationals living in the Kingdom of Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, adop ...
period of 1867–1918, which saw a concerted effort to assimilate all non-Hungarian cultures within the empire. The enduring legacy of the German heritage was on display during a 1927 festival to celebrate the town's 600th anniversary: there ceremony was conducted in both German and Hungarian, as the former was still spoken by a majority of its residents. From 1939 to 1945, DobÅ¡iná was part of the
Slovak Republic 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 ...
. When World War II erupted, much of
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''ÄŒesko-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 ...
's ethnic German population was forcibly expelled from the country, with devastating effects on Dobšiná's remaining population. Tragically, many of these residents were
massacred A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "b ...
on their return to the country at the war's end. Among the most atrocious of these was the Prerau massacre of 18 June 1945, when trains carrying returning German residents were stopped at the Moravian town of Prerov by a unit of the Czech intelligence commanded Karol Pazurndash—himself a native of DobÅ¡iná. At Pazurndash's command, 71 men, 120 women and 74 children were gunned down, and among these, 121 residents from DobÅ¡iná. The German population of DobÅ¡iná never recovered, and Slovaks from other parts of Czechoslovakia were later resettled into the vacant homes. In modern times, many of DobÅ¡iná's residents still have German surnames and can trace parts of their ancestry to its original German settlers, but few if any identify as German rather than Slavic.


Demographics

According to the 2001
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 4,896 inhabitants, of whom 88.58 percent were
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 ...
, 9.01 percent
Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...
, 0.63 percent
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 ...
and 0.27 percent
Czechs The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common Bohemia ...
. The religious structure was 35.23 percent
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 ...
, 33.58 percent people without religious affiliation, 25.25 percent
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 ...
and 0.47 percent
Greek Catholics Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite: ** The Albanian Greek Catholic Church ** The Belarusian Gre ...
.


Twin towns — sister cities

Dobšiná is twinned with: *
Å ternberk Å ternberk (; ) is a town in Olomouc District in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 13,000 inhabitants. It is known for the Å ternberk Castle. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zo ...
, Czech Republic (1997) *
Teistungen Teistungen is a municipality in the district of Eichsfeld in Thuringia, Germany. Teistungen was first mentioned in 1090 as the site of Teistungenburg monastery, a filiation of Beuren monastery. The old monastery buildings were demolished in 197 ...
, Germany (1999) *
Sajószentpéter Sajószentpéter (; ) is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Northern Hungary. It lies in the Miskolc–Kazincbarcika agglomeration, 10 kilometres away from the county capital. History The town was mentioned first in 1281 as ''Szentpéter'' ...
, Hungary (2000) *
Kobiór Kobiór () is a village in Pszczyna County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Kobiór. It lies approximately north of Pszczyna and south of the regional capital Katowice ...
, Poland (2007) *
Rudabánya Rudabánya is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Hungary. The town territory was the location of the discovery of a hominid from 12 million years ago, '' Dryopithecus brancoi'' (1969). International relations Rudabánya is twinned with: ...
, Hungary (2011)


See also

*
List of municipalities and towns in Slovakia This is an alphabetical list of the 2,891 (singular , "municipality") in Slovakia. They are grouped into 79 Districts of Slovakia, districts (, singular ), in turn grouped into 8 Regions of Slovakia, regions (, singular ); articles on individu ...


References


Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Banska Bystrica, Kosice, Slovakia" *Roman Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1746–1923 (parish A) *Greek Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1818–1895 (parish B) *Lutheran church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1626–1944 (parish A)


External links


Official website


{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobsina Cities and towns in Slovakia Gemer (region) Mining communities in the Slovak Republic