Orava (county)
Orava (-
Slovak,
Latin:
Arva,
Hungarian:
Árva,
German:
Arwa,
Polish:
Orawa) is the name of a historic administrative county (
comitatus) of the
Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in northern
Slovakia and southern
Poland. Today, Orava is only an informal designation of the corresponding territory.
Orava county shared borders with the
Austrian land
Galicia and the Hungarian counties
Trencsén (Trenčín),
Turóc (Turiec) and
Liptó (Liptov). The county's territory was situated along the
Orava River between
Zázrivá and the
Tatra Mountains. Its area was 2,019
km² around
1910.
The capital of the county was the
Orava Castle, then Veličná and since the late
17th century Dolný Kubín.
Orava county as a Hungarian
comitatus arose before the
15th century. In
1918 (confirmed by the
Treaty of Trianon 1920), Orava county became part of newly formed
Czechoslovakia. After a border dispute (treated in detail under
Spiš county) several villages in the north-east of Orava county were exchanged between
Poland and
Czechoslovakia.
During
World War II, when
Czechoslovakia was split temporarily, Orava was part of independent
Slovakia. After
World War II Orava county was in
Czechoslovakia again. In
1993,
Czechoslovakia was split and Orava became part of
Slovakia.
Population by language (1910 census):
*Slovak = 59,096
*Hungarian = 2,000
*German = 1,518
*Other (mostly Polish) = 16,131
In the early
20th century, the districts and their capitals were:
* http://www.orava.sk
