The first step to becoming an urban centre? Move the cattle market outside of town

From Šahy the village to provincial centre.

The extraordinary advancement of Šahy can be seen in this postcard from 1950.The extraordinary advancement of Šahy can be seen in this postcard from 1950.

In the progression of bigger Slovak villages into small towns and bigger towns into cities, it seems that apart from natural development, there must have been a moment when the residents decided they will not be a village anymore, but rather a town or city.

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One example of this is the Small-Carpathian town of Modra. Town privileges were granted to Modra in 1607 from the king, but this seems not to have been sufficient to make it a town. It took a local council’s decree to tear down thatched roofs and for geese, ducks and goats to disappear from the streets. Thus, on an order, the miraculous transformation of Modra happened.

In the town of Šahy, in southern Slovakia along the border with Hungary, this moment happened later – after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. An organisation with the descriptive name “Fellowship for the Uplifting and Aesthetic Looks of Town” was founded, which started its progressive activities with such vigour that within two decades, Šahy changed from a sleepy small town, resembling a village, into a proud provincial centre.

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Final point of change

The first and fundamental step was to order the cattle markets outside the main square to a less frequented place, as the resulting excrement and dirt were left in the square for days afterwards. The market hall and post office – with its barns and carriage room – also disappeared from the square. The chair of the “Fellowship”, Ľudovít Pongrácz, then secured public lighting and paving in the centre, paid for money collected by inhabitants.

The final point of change was the sale of ugly and often dilapidated houses flanking the main square. Wealthier people bought them from poor owners and built much more pretentious constructions there. By the end of the 19th century, two banks stood here, a burghers’ school, the so-called Financial Palace, a new town house, the Pannonia Hotel, and three printing houses.

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This extraordinary advancement of Šahy can be seen in this postcard from 1950; in the middle, there is the Art-Nouveau house that originally belonged to the wealthy Šalkovský family. However, it can be observed that communist nationalisation had already taken place here, as the “Clothing” and “Grocery” shops were already placed in the showy residence of local notables.


This article was originally published by The Slovak Spectator on October 20, 2014. It has been updated to be relevant today.

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