Žilina is a centre of northeast Slovakia and one of the largest towns of the Slovak Republic.Is one of the eight regions of Slovak Republic, with the area of 6,788 sq. km, and with the population of 692 582 (1 January, 2000).

The region of žilina involves 4 different historical regions:Kysuce, Liptov, Orava and Turiec, this region consists of the following districts: Bytča, Čadca, Dolný Kubín, Kysucké Nové Mesto, Liptovský Mikuláš, Martin, Námestovo, Ružomerok, Turčianske Teplice, Tvrdošín and Žilina.

Now something about the district of žilina.
Its area covers 815sq. km and its population is about 156,921 included 50 villages and 3 towns, žilina, Rajec an Rajecké Teplice.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 49°15´ of Northern Latitude, 18°45´ of Eastern Longitude. The distance from Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic is 200 km. Žilina is the largest town situated on the river Váh.

THE AREA OF ŽILINA :Itś about 80.03 sq. km.

LOCATION: The city of Žilina is situated in the Váh River Valley, in Žilina Basin, at the confluence of Váh River with the rivers Kysuca and Rajčianka. In Žilina Basin there are 5 terrace grades. The whole basin is situated among the mountain ranges Malá Fatra, Strážovské vrchy, Súľovské vrchy, Javorníky and Kysucká vrchovina.

ELEVATION: 333 m a.s.l. - the Square of Virgin Mary.

CLIMATE:the tempriture in July is 18°C and the tempriture in January is –4°C but sometimes the tempritures inJuly are higher and the tempritures in January are more lower. The snow cover lasts 60-80 days per year.

In the first photo there is a view of Žilina from a plane,on the second one is a view from the skycentrum Martinky to Low Fatra.

**THE SEAL, FLAG & BANNER OF Žilina**

The coat of arms of Žilina belongs to the oldest heraldic symbols not only in Slovakia. It was first used on the certificate in the 8th of March of 1379.
The double-armed cross is from the Byzantian origin
Based on the Cristian Cyril-Methodean tradition.The cross and the stars are gold(yellow)and the background is olive-green. The flag and banner of the City of Žilina consists of two equally wide stripes - the upper one is of golden (yellow) colour and the lower one is olive-green. In the upper part is the coat-of-arms of Žilina. The seal of Žilina is of round shape with the coat of arms in the center and at the periphery of the circle is an inscription reading SIGILLUM, CIVIUM. DE.

ZILINA.
The colours of the city are olive-green and gold(yellow).
The sister towns of Žilina are the following:
Bielsko-Biała (Poland), Corby (Great Britain), Ferrara (Italy), ChangChun (China), Majkop (Russian Federation), Nanterre (a Paris quarter, France), Koper (Slovenia).

Privilegium Pro Slavis when the Žilina’s seal was used the 1st time.

**TOURISM, MONUMENTS & SPORT IN Žilina**

tourism & monuments

Žilina offers many opportunities for tourists.They can be accomodated in many several hotels, motels and campings in the center or around the capital city of the region.Almost the most typical food for Žilina is ’’ bryndzove halusky’’(pasta with soft sheep cheese) and dairy products made of sheep cheese: "korbáčiky", "parenica" and "oštiepok". *Generally the most typical symbol for Žilina is the Fars church. The view of the two towers seen from Andrej Hlinka's Square, appear often on Zilina's postcards, pictures etc. The church was built around the year of 1400. The Zilina castle was assumed to be already there as early as the 13th century. The three naves of the church was originally in Gothic character, but after construction it was styled to renaissance character. The altar pictures are especially valuable. The church tower is around 51 metres high.

*The center of the city is Marianske square,where the tourists can find many historical and interesting monuments in a form of gothic churches, monuments, galleries and gothic nice buildings but no only monuments,the tourists can find many comfortable restaurants,bars,pubs, cinemas and more. Marianske Square, forms the heart of the town's monument preservation and was established in 1987. This town square's area measures out to exactly 100 x 100 metres, and there are nine narrow streets that form as an exit from this area. The characteristics of Marianske Square is its houses with shifted floors which form the arcades called ''LAUBNE'' by the local people.
In the middle of the square is the statue of Immaculata erected in 1738 in honour of recatholization. The statue is placed on a pedestal with the relief of St. Florian, the patron of firemen. Within the reconstruction of the square also the two historical wells have been reconstructed with water surface in the depth of about 12 m. There we can see the statue in the center of the square.

*In a small town near Žilina called Budatin is situed one of the most important monuments of the city,it’s a castle with the same name as the town,is the castle Budatin. Now it a museum and gallery of Slovak people in the past.
Budatin Castle, is located at the confluence of the Vah and Kysuca Rivers. It was built in the 13th century and served as a guard / watch castle. The oldest part of the castle is the cylinder tower, it is 20 metres high with a diameter of 12 metres and its walls are 2 metres thick. Today, the castle is the seat of the Museum of Povazie, specialized for the history and archeology of Zilina.

*Near Žilina in the same region there is a town called Rajec and many other villages with the same name like Rajecke Teplice or Rajecka Lesna.All the people whhich have been sometimes in Slovak Republic knows the famous thermal water baths in the region of Rajec and Rajecke Teplice but there are many monuments and historical churches to see. No church but an other type of handwork is very visited in Rajecka Lesna. Very unique piece of art is a wonderfull betlehem made only from wood and called typically Slovensky Betlehem in which are depicted no only the figures from Biblia but all Slovak monuments and Slovak typical work in each region.
The betlehem is large 8 metres and tall 2 metres and there are many pices in movement. Because Rajecka Lesna is situed in the region of Žilina there is a symbol for Žilina,the tower of the Fars church.
The name of a man which construyed the belehem is Jozef Pekara. *The last monument in this project is the most famous castle from Žilina,Strecno Castle,it’s situed on a top of a mount in the village Strecno,which is a village between Žilina and Martin.The road from Žilina to Martin goes above it.The castle was fonded in the 14th century. In the 17th century the castle was in fire and destroyed.Than it was repared during about 15 years and in 1993 it becames to be a very attractive centre for foregain tourists.Now there is situed a museum of Povazie,there is a wonderfull view from the tallest tower to the village Strecno and the road and to the mount onLow Fatra. A bit of distance hereafter in front the road we can see the Old castle Strecno which is totally destroyed but it’s the end of many tourism travels. Under it is the river Vah across which the cars can be trasspased by ’’kompa’’.
This is the old castle of Strecno.
In the region of Žilina there are many more monuments to visit like churches,caves,museums, and castles.It’s a center of slovakia which offers many attractive options of tourism as in winter as in all the year. Wonderfull nature offers a wonderfull experience.

Sport
The people in Žilina love sports so they make many different options to practise it.For a people whose like walks through the city pleasant are the walks through pedestrian zone that is one of the longest in Slovakia. It starts at the Railway Station by the Národná ulica (National Street), continues with the Square of Andrej Hlinka and Parish Steps to the Square of Virgin Mary, through Bottova St. to the Square of Ľudovít Štúr and Bernolákova St. On the top of the Straník Hill (769 m a.s.l.) are two ski tows, and it has the best conditions for paragliding in Slovakia with frequent competitions held in this place. In western part of the town is the Hill Veľké Hradisko (641 m a.s.l). Opportunities for cross-country skiing are also in the outskirts of the town.

In Budatín is the horse club where the people can ride in the horses, can have a courses of riding and the club makes sometimes competitions in riding. In a little village near Žilina called Bytcica is a very young construction of automotodrome where the people can drive the motocars,it’s very attractive and popular diversion between tha young people.

Currently the most successful sports in Žilina are: volleyball (men ŠK Stavbár, women VK Slávia Žilina Universtiy), basketball (men BK Váhostav Žilina, women BK Lokomotíva), football (City Sport Club), also women (ŠKF VIX), body building (Sportcentrum). Excellent results on world level achieve sportsmen of TJ Sokol Žilina on wild water (Jaroslav Slúčik and Vladimír Vala).

Generally people from Žilina like to go to the swimming pools,there are many in the region but the most popular are Veronika in Rajecke Teplice, Tatralandia which was constuyed the last year with the thermal water, Besenova which is open in winter too because the hot thermal water and finally the swimming pool in Žilina,with swimming pools out and in the building.

***Žilina IN THE PAST***

The towns territory was settled already in the Ice Age around Zavodie, 20 000 years B.C. The town was inhabited also in Bronze Age, Iron Age and in Roman era. Our predecessors settled in the town's territory in the 5th century. The oldest discovered Slavonian settlement from that time is situated at towns quarter Frambor. From the 9th century originates settlement at Bôrik, and burial places at Bánová. . First written document about the town's territory was dated in 1208 and was mentioned under the name terra de Selinan. In 1297 the name Žilina appears in writings. According to the written documents dated 12 July 1321 Žilina was already a town. The King Charles I Robert of Anjou during his royal visit to our town on 12 July 1321 granted privileges of a free town to Žilina which then were confirmed also by Sigismund I of Luxembourg (1397) and by Vladislaw II Jagello (1497). A significant legal and language document of European importance is the Book of Žilina the origin of which reaches back to 1378 when Mikuláš of Luková made for our town a German copy of the Law of Magdeburg town respected by the town Csesin. The first entry in Slovak language originates from 1451. The last written entries are from the year 1561. The Book is treasured at the State District Archives in Žilina.

This is the book of Žilina.
In the following centuries Žilina was an important centre of craftsman manufactures, trade and education.
An important event of Slovak history were the victories won over the Hungarian guards by the Slovak volunteers fighting for the rights of Slovaks at the turn of the years 1848/1849 (the Battles at Budatín).When the batle finished Ludovit Stur and Jozef Miloslav Hurban delivered their languages to the Marianske square and because that important event now is there a memorial tablet.

Very big importance for the future development of the town had the construction of railway trails at the end of 19th century. The Košice-Bohumín Railway was completed in 1872 and the Považská Railway to Bratislava in 1883. In 1899 first railway to Rajec was opened. Žilina became an important railway junction.
In 1945 the population of Žilina was 18,000 inhabitants. In 1960, the School of Transportation (university level) - the current Žilina University was moved to Žilina. The school plays an important role in the city's life. In 1959 there were construyed news city’s quarters like Hliny, Vlčince and Solinky and now there is constuying a new quarter called Hajik.
Since 1990 the town has started a important progress. A complete reconstruction of the historical part of the city is continuing, as well as of many streets and squares.

The city from its own resources builds ecological trolley bus transportation. An important place occupies also the building of Žilina Dam, which started in October 1994, and the first turbine started working in December 1997. The most important and oldest architectural relics on the town's territory are: the Church of St. Stephen the King from 1200-1250, the tower of Budatín Castle from the 13th century, the Square of Virgin Mary which started its existence before 1300 and the Church of the Holiest Trinity (Parish Church) from about 1400. The last writing in The book of Žilina about the present and the past was in 1997.

The Mayor of the city

The Mayor of Žilina is Ing. Jan Slota

I think Žilina is really a wonderfull city with a wonderfull people,I like the live in it. I am happy to know more about the history and about all the city thanks this project.

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