Bratislava county is a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in western Slovakia. Its name was changing with the name of Bratislava. The names around 1900 were Pozsony vármegye in Hungarian, Prešpurská župa in Slovak and Preßburger Gespanschaft in German.

Geography

Bratislava county shared borders with the Austrian land Lower Austria and the Hungarian counties Nyitra (Nitra), Komárom, Gyõr and Moson. It was situated between the river Morava in the west, the river Danube in the south, and the river Váh in the east. Its area was 4370 km² around 1910.

Capitals

The capitals of Bratislava county were the Bratislava Castle and Šamorín, and from the 18th cenury onwards the town of Bratislava.

History

A kind of predecessor of the Bratislava county existed as early as in the 9th century at the time of Great Moravia. After Bratislava had become part of the Kingdom of Hungary, the Hungarian comitatus of Bratislava was created around 1000 or even earlier. It was one of the first counties created in the Kingdom Hungary. Its territory roughly corresponded to the present-day Bratislava region and Czechoslovakia in 1919 (confirmed by the Treaty of Trianon Hungary and joined Gyõr-Moson-Pozsony county.

When Slovakia became independent temporarily between 1939 and 1945, the Bratislava county (Bratislavská župa) was created again in 1940, but the southern half of its old territory became part of Hungary through the First Vienna Award. The part south of the Little Danube joined Komárom county, a strip of land north of the Little Danube merged with the occupied part of Nitra county to form Nyitra-Pozsony county, with capital Nové Zámky (Hungarian: Érsekújvár).

After World War II, Bratislava county was part of Czechoslovakia again. In 1993, Czechoslovakia was split and Bratislava became part of Slovakia. The name "Bratislava county" is also used erroneously to designate the Bratislava region (Bratislavský kraj) which was created in 1948.

Districts

In the early 20th century, the districts and their capitals were:

• Bratislava (Hungarian: Pozsony)
• Šamorín (Hungarian: Somorja)
• Dunajská Streda (Hungarian: Dunaszerdahely)
• Galanta (Hungarian: Galánta)
• Malacky (Hungarian: Malacka)
• Trnava (Hungarian: Nagyszombat)
• Senec (Hungarian: Szenc)

Urban county:

• Bratislava (Hungarian: Pozsony)

Urban districts:

• Trnava (Hungarian: Nagyszombat)
• Modra (Hungarian: Modor)
• Pezinok (Hungarian: Bazin)
• Svätý Jur (Hungarian: Szentgyörgy)