Vištuk
Encyclopedia
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
and municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
in western Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
in Pezinok District
Pezinok District
Pezinok District is a district inthe Bratislava Region of western Slovakia. Until 1918, the district was part of the Hungarian county of Pressburg.-Municipalities:*Báhoň*Budmerice*Častá*Doľany*Dubová*Jablonec*Limbach...
in the Bratislava region
Bratislava Region
The Bratislava Region is one of the administrative regions of Slovakia. Its capital is Bratislava. It is the smallest of the eight regions of Slovakia.-Geography:...
. The town is located north of Senec
Senec, Slovakia
Senec is a town in the Bratislava Region of south-western Slovakia. It is a well known summer tourism and recreation center. The town is attractive not only because of the proximity of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, but also because of the healthy environment and summer resort "Slnečné...
and east of Modra
Modra
Modra is a city and municipality in the Bratislava Region in Slovakia. It has a population of 8,704 as of 2005. It nestles in the foothills of the Malé Karpaty and is an excellent centre of hiking.Modra is famous for its pottery industry...
.
History
Archeologists found remains of settlements from roughly 5000 BC. The modern history of the village begins in 1244, when it is first mentioned under the name Vyscha. At that time the village was very new. The entire region was decimated during the 1241-42 Mongol invasionBattle of Mohi
The Battle of Mohi , or Battle of the Sajó River, was the main battle between the Mongol Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary during the Mongol invasion of Europe. It took place at Muhi, Southwest of the Sajó River. After the invasion, Hungary lay in ruins. Nearly half of the inhabited places had...
, and subsequently resettled by German winemakers.
After another decline in the first half of the 16th century, the town experienced significant growth, largely due to an influx of Croatian settlers in 1540. Vištuk is situated at the merger of three creeks and once had several water reservoirs, the largest of which still exists today. By the end of the 16th Century, the village was one of the largest in the Červený Kameň
Cervený Kamen
Červený Kameň is a village and municipality in Ilava District in the Trenčín Region of north-western Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an altitude of 361 metres and covers an area of 32.584 km². It has a population of about 757 people....
county. In 1573 the town built its Roman Catholic church of Holy Trinity, in the place of an older, Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
church. Roughly at the same time, a smaller church was built, later rebuilt into a chapel.
The village's golden age took a sharp turn in 1705, when it was burned to the ground during the Battle of Budmerice
Budmerice
Budmerice is a village and municipality in western Slovakia in Pezinok District in the Bratislava region....
, during the 1703-11 Hungarian independence war led by Francis II Rákóczi
Francis II Rákóczi
Francis II Rákóczi Hungarian aristocrat, he was the leader of the Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs in 1703-11 as the prince of the Estates Confederated for Liberty of the Kingdom of Hungary. He was also Prince of Transylvania, an Imperial Prince, and a member of the Order of the Golden...
. The town was rebuilt, only to be burned down three more times in the 18th century. During that time, Anton Benčič, a Catholic priest, translator and one of the first proponents of the Slovak language, was born in Vištuk in 1745.
In the 19th and 20th century the village grew somewhat, mainly thanks to its vineyards. In 1920, the current name, Vištuk, was codified.
Infrastructure and Industry
Vištuk has centralized water and gas distribution, but not a sewage system. The village lies outside of main roads, and is thus only serviced by local intercity buses. It does not have direct access to a railway.There is a school and a medical doctor in the village, the latter being present twice per week for adults and once per week for children.
The village has shifted its focus from small businesses to tourism. It sits on the so-called "Low Carpathian Mountains Wine Route", which connects all major wine producing towns in the area. The town's Muller Thurgau wines are considered to be of above average quality. The town's annual farmer's market ties into the wine making, and has been drawing many visitors to the village every year.
In addition, the village has created a natural area, including a unique nesting place for swallow
Swallow
The swallows and martins are a group of passerine birds in the family Hirundinidae which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding...
s. It consists of a sandstone wall with hundreds of holes that the swallows use for nesting in the spring.
Culture and Entertainment
The village has its own folk band, Vištučanka, established in 1990. The band's managers have aggressively worked to develop the band up to par with much more established bands from neighboring villages. In addition, the town has a library and a movie theater, which has one to two showings every month.The town's soccer club, established in 1931, is playing in Slovakia's lowest, sixth division soccer league. The soccer field is being occasionally used for other sporting events, such as a recent soccer tournament promoting ethnic tolerance.