Prievidza

Prievidza
City
Catholic St. Bartholomew's Church in Prievidza
Coat of arms
Country	Slovakia
Region	Trenčín
District	Prievidza
Tourism region	Horná Nitra
River	Nitra, Handlovka
Elevation	280 m (919 ft)
Coordinates	48°46′16″N 18°37′18″E / 48.77111°N 18.62167°E / 48.77111; 18.62167Coordinates: 48°46′16″N 18°37′18″E / 48.77111°N 18.62167°E / 48.77111; 18.62167
Area	43.063 km2 (16.627 sq mi)
Population	49,387 (2012-01-01)
Density	1,147/km2 (2,971/sq mi)
First mentioned	1113
Mayor	Katarína Macháčková
Timezone	CET (UTC+1)
- summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	971 01
Area code	+421-46
Car plate	PD
Location in Slovakia
Location in the Trenčín Region
Statistics: MOŠ/MIS
Website: www.prievidza.sk

Prievidza ( pronunciation ; Hungarian: Privigye, German: Priwitz) is a city in the central-western Slovakia. With 49,400 inhabitants it is the second biggest municipality in the Trenčín Region.

The name is probably deduced from a personal name Previd with possessive sufix -ja (Previd's village). An alternative and less probable is a derivation from vid- (Slovak: vidieť - to see, "previdieť" - to see through), thus "the village which can be seen from all directions", "the village in the thin stand".

Prievidza is a centre for many institutions of regional importance - governmental as well as commercial. It is commonly called the "green city". The most prominent sporting clubs include the BC Prievidza (basketball; last champion of Czechoslovakia before separation and later champion of Slovakia); of certain notoriety are also Prievidza Football Club and the ice hockey Club, both of which compete in the appropriate second national leagues.

Prievidza has 6 boroughs: Staré mesto (Old Town in English), Píly, Necpaly, Kopanice, Zápotôčky and Žabník and there are three adjoining villages that are an administrative part of Prievidza: Hradec, Malá Lehôtka and Veľká Lehôtka.

The city was first mentioned in 1113 as Preuigan. It was promoted to a royal free town in 1383. Since the 16th century, craftsmanship was developing in Prievidza. From the 16th to the first third of the 17th century, the Thurzó family controlled the town. Ottomans approached Prievidza from the south and burned it in 1599, along with other towns in the upper Nitra river valley. During the Kuruc uprising in 1673, Prievidza was burned down again, with fire burning a part of town's archives. In 1870, it had 2,719 inhabitants. Since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, industry started to grow, as the railways to Prievidza were constructed. During World War II, the city was one of the centres of partisans. On 4 April 1945, Prievidza was captured by troops of the Soviet 40th Army. Since the end of the war, the population has grown enormously from 5,000 inhabitants to around 53,000 inhabitants, as industry grew. Prievidza became the home of many miners and workers that found employment in the coal mines, the power station and the chemical factory in the nearby town of Nováky.