History
Košice received its city coat of arms in 1369 and became an eastern stronghold and manufacturing centre in the Hungarian Empire. Transylvanian prince Ferenc Rákóczi II had his headquarters in Košice during the Hungarian War of Independence against the Hapsburgs (1703–11), which failed. He was shipped off to Turkey and reburied here only in 1905. To this day Košice has a strong Hungarian accent and the Magyar language can often be heard on the street.
The town became part of Czechoslovakia in 1918 but was occupied by Hungary from 1938 to 1945. On 5 April 1945 the Košice Government Program – which made communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia a virtual certainty – was announced here. Subsequently, the communists built a large steelworks on the outskirts of the city. You can’t miss US Steel’s influence today – from the stacks at the steelworks to the new ice hockey stadium it sponsored.
Košice
Things to do
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