Nitra (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of about 78,353, it is the fifth largest city in Slovakia. Nitra is also one of the oldest cities in Slovakia; it was the political center of the Principality of Nitra. Today, it is a seat of a kraj (Nitra Region), and an okres (Nitra District).
Etymology
The first mention of Nitra dates back to the 9th century. The name of the city is derived from the Nitra River. The name is Indo-European, but the question of its pre-Slavic or Slavic origin has not been satisfactorily answered. Nitra might be derived from the old Indo-European root neit-, nit- 'to cut' or 'to burn' using the derivational element -r- (see also slash-and-burn agricultural technique). The same root is still present in the Slovak verb nietiť 'to make a fire', but also in other Indo-European languages like Latin nitere 'to burn' or in German schneiden 'to cut'. Another view to the origin of the name is related to Latin Novi-iter or Neui-iter 'new territory behind the limes'. The hypothetical Latin name could have been adopted by the Quadi and later by the Slavs.
The first written records also contain the suffix -ava (Nitrava). Particularly in older literature, the suffix is interpreted as deriving from the Proto-Germanic root *ahwa 'water'. However, the suffix -ava can be found also in numerous toponyms with a clearly Slavic origin and without any relationship to rivers. The existence of hydronym Nitrava remains hypothetical and all versions with the suffix are related to a location, not a river. Thus, the form Nitrava can refer to a larger property or territory around the Nitra River. Both forms were probably used concurrently and were already recorded in the 9th century (Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum: in loco vocata Nitraua, but in 880 ecclesie Nitrensis).
The name in different languages includes , (), and and .
History
Before the 5th century
The oldest archaeological findings in Nitra are dated to around 25,000-30,000 years ago. The locality has been inhabited in all historical periods in the last 5,000-7,000 years. Several European archaeological cultures and groups were named after important archaeological discoveries in Nitra or near surroundings - Nitra culture, Brodzany-Nitra group or Lužianky group of Lengyel culture.
The people of Madarovce culture had built the first fortification on Castle Hill by around 1,600 BCE. In the Iron Age, a large hillfort was built on Zobor Hill and additional smaller hillforts on the Lupka Hill and in Dražovce (700-500 BCE). Several Celtic settlements are known from the 5th-1st centuries. The Celts minted silver tetradrachms known as coins of Nitra type and probably also built a hillfort in the locality Na Vŕšku. In the Roman period (1st-4th centuries CE), the Germanic tribe of Quadi settled in the area, which is also mentioned as their possible capital (396 CE). The largest Germanic settlement from the migration period in Slovakia was unearthed in Nitra-Párovské Háje.
5th to 10th centuries
The first Slavs arrived to Slovakia at the end of the 5th and early 6th century. The early Slavs settled mainly in the lowlands near the water flows, the highest density of their settlements is documented just in the area of Nitra. As the Avars expanded to the territory of Slovakia in the later half of the 7th century and early 8th century, the border between Slavic and Slavo-Avaric territory moved toward Nitra. A biritual cemetery in Nitra-Dolné Krškany lay on the northern border of mixed settlement area.
The importance of Nitra for the Slavs began to grow in the 8th century and thereafter it evolved to administrative centre of the wider region. Nitra became the center of the Principality of Nitra. Three of the eleven extant copies of the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum contains a reference to a church consecrated for Pribina in his domain called Nitrava. The problem of Pribina's church and the dating of this event was addressed by numerous scholars, most of them have no doubt about reliability of information and associates this event with Nitra. In 833, Pribina was ousted by the Moravian prince Mojmír I and both regions were united into the early medieval empire of Great Moravia.