PREŠOV / Eperjes / Preschau (Lat. Fragopolis) town lies on the Torysa / Tarca river, north of Košice. The history of the town began in the mid-12th century, when King Géza II of Hungary (1141-1162) settled German immigrants in the area. The settlement was granted urban privileges by King Charles Robert I of Anjou in 1324; the town walls were erected in the same period. Prešov was given the status of a free royal town by King Louis I the Great in 1374. By the early 16th century, it was an important centre of trade and industry. The Reformation struck root early here - the Lutheran community came into existence in 1530 and a Lutheran school was founded as early as 1540. John Bocatius was a famous headmaster of this school. There was a short-lived printing office in Prešov in 1573; another printing office was founded in 1656. Soon after the failure of the anti-Habsburg insurrection of 1687, the royal commissioner of Prešov, General Caraffa, had several rich Protestant burghers mercilessly tortured, executed, and their property confiscated. The growth of the town, which began in the 18th century, could not have been checked by the great fire that ravaged Prešov in 1788. During the Napoleonic wars and owing to the maritime blockade against England, Prešov became one of the most important centres of trade.

In the 1860s, Prešov was one of the tidiest towns in Hungary. Its centre comprised three long streets; the main street was one of the most beautiful in the country. An important historic building of the town, the late-Gothic hall church of St. Nicholas was begun in the mid-13th century and finished in 1515. The old Lutheran church was built in 1647 and the building of the Lutheran college was finished in 1666. The Pulszky house is another noted edifice of the town. The politician and archaeologist Ferenc Pulszky (1814-1897) was born in the house, which had accommodated the invaluable art and archaeological collection of Pulszky's uncle, Gábor Fejérváry, until 1848, when it was relocated to England.

Prešov, deservedly called "the Athens on the Torysa," was a town with many schools. It had a Latin secondary school as early as 1550 and its Lutheran college opened in 1667. The Lutheran college had faculties of theology and law, a lycée, and trained teachers as well. Famous former graduates of the school included Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894), Gábor Kazinczy (1818-1864), Ferenc Pulszky, and Imre Henszlmann (1813-1888). Prešov was a free royal town with 7600 inhabitants, Hungarians, Slovaks, and Germans, in the early 1850s.

Bibliography: Divald, Egervári, Eperjes, Iványi, Kósa, Petőfi 1976, Pulszky, Szutórisz, Zombory 1865