HLOHOVEC / Galgóc / Freistadtl. Around the turn of the 12th and 13th century the fortified site of Hlohovec was mentioned as Colgoucy by the so-called 'Anonymous,' a notary of King Béla III (or II) of Hungary, in his Gesta Hungarorum. It had been the seat of a royal castle district (Hung. várispánság; Lat. comitatus castri) until the early 1300s, when it was acquired by the oligarch Máté Csák. After his death in 1321, the castle and its appurtenances were escheated to the Crown again. As a border marker the castle had a strategic function during the Turkish occupation of central Hungary (1541-1686). Taken by Turkish troops in 1663, it was recuperated for the Hungarian Crown by the Treaty of Vasvár in 1664. In the 16th century, the town of Hlohovec had a secondary school and a Protestant printing house; Bálint Mantskovit was a typographer here between 1585-1588. In the 1850s, the majority of the burghers were Slovaks - mainly agricultural labourers and wood-workers. Owing to its role as a port of rafters, the town was also a busy trade junction.

Bibliography: Benczur 1846, Ernst Teréz, Kelecsényi, Krickel, Kristó, Lovcsányi, Luppa, Marosi, Mednyánszky 1844, Mednyánszky 1981, Pechány, Rupp