BYTČA / Nagybiccse is a MARKET TOWN in Trenčín County on the right bank of the Váh. It is first mentioned in a charter of 1248, when King Béla IV of Hungary (1235-1270) granted it to ban Füle. (Hung. bán > Avar bajan or Slav. pan = lord, royally appointed governor.) It was later owned by the bishops of Nitra. In 1560 Bytča and its appurtenances were granted to Ferenc Thurzó, who had a splendid mansion built on the site of the old castle. In the Thurzó era the town became an important centre of the Protestants and for some time the seat of their superintendents. In the 17th century, the Thurzós founded a Lutheran secondary school in Bytča, which was closed down by the 19th century, when the majority of the burghers were already Catholics. The histories of Bytča and its castle have always been intricately intertwined. In the 1850s, the town had 3000 inhabitants, mostly Slovak potters and timber traders.

Bibliography: Kerekes, Krickel, Lovcsányi, Mednyánszky 1844, Mednyánszky 1981, Pechány

The stone-walled BYTČA / Nagybiccse CASTLE was built on the site of a Gothic fossed earthwork. Its history can be traced back to 1248, when it is first mentioned in a charter. Later it had been owned by the bishops of Nitra, before the Esterházys acquired it through marriage. In the middle of the 19th century, the castle was purchased from Duke Antal Pál Esterházy by the timber wholesaler Leopold Popper, who had a plank factory and a warehouse built behind it. The castle is one of the most important 16th-century historic edifices of Upper Hungary. Its Tuscan-style courtyard is surrounded by arcades and is protected by a wall with four corner turrets. The rear of the first-floor arcade is decorated with sgrafitto-like portrays of historical figures. Another important monument is the so-called Wedding House, which was built at György Thurzó's expense for his daughters' wedding in 1601.

Bibliography: Lovcsányi, Mednyánszky 1844, Mednyánszky 1981, Rados, Sthymmel

VÁH / Vág / Waag. A left-side tributary of the Danube, the Váh has two headstreams. The Biely Váh (White Váh) rises in the Zelené pleso Kriváňske in the High Tatras and takes on the waters of the Mlynica stream; the Čierny Váh (Black Váh) takes its source in the Nízke Tatry at Král'ova hol'a. The united headstreams become the Váh and are joined by the Belá river at Liptovský Hrádok. The river then describes arcs to the west in the Liptovská kotlina and takes on the Orava, then flows through the gorge at Kral'ovany, the Turčianska kotlina, the Malá Fatra gorge, and the breathtaking Strečno gorge to reach Žilina. There it bends southwest, and reaches the plains at Trenčín, to bend southwards again. It enters the Little Danube, and is then named Váh-Danube, takes on the Nitra river, and finally enters the Danube at Komárno. The Váh stretches over 375 km. It has always been an important natural transportation route. Its lower course is navigable but its rapid and steeply falling upper course was also used for flotage and rafting. Although there had been plans for the regulation of its course, work on it began only in the late 19th century. Since then numerous training banks and storage lakes have been constructed always with an eye to the needs of agriculture, flood-prevention, navigation and industrial energy production. It is worth noting that the look of the Váh valley has been changed to a great extent since the time it was depicted by Thomas Ender.

Bibliography: Bolgár, Konkoly, Lovcsányi, Pechány