Košice
Authors: Votrubec Ctibor 
Published: February 2024

In March, 1961 the town of Košice - the centre of Eastern Slovakia - had 79 581 inhabitants. Consequently, it is the sixth largest town in Czechoslovakia. It plays an important role in the development of the least industrial and least urbanized area in Czechoslovakia, as well as in the construction of the East-Slovakian Iron and Steel Works. In the present Košice shows an upward trend in the growth of its population approximately 3,0 per cent a year. Another evidence of growth is an ever-increasing housing and cultural construction as well as considerable structural and morphological changes. Originally, a not industrial market town, it has been developing in an important industrial and cultural centre, controlling the urbanization of its wide environments. The town is situated favourably on the margin of a depression - which is part of a large tectonic depression of European importance - an on a fault line. Geographical development of the town. In 14th up to 17th Century, Košice were the second most important town of Hungary. Later, in the period of centralization, it was owing to its out-of-the way position in the state, that it got overtaken by other towns. The present paper follows the economic development of the town as well as its ground plan since 1249 up to the present. In spite of a certain growth in the number of population between 1918 and 1948, the number of people working in industrial plants was still in 1954 lower than in 1910. The present situation. The extent of the economic regression after 1918 was such that even after the construction of the East-Slovakian Machine Works the number of workers in 1954 kept still at an lower level than the one of 1910. At that time the town had less industrial plants than Jihlava which has 2 1/2 times less inhabitants. The construction of the East-Slovakian Iron and Steel Works helped the town of Košice to become the very metropolis of Eastern Slovakia. At the present, in spite of the fact that the Iron Works have not start working so far, approximately 10 000 people are already engaged in industry. The analysis of industry in the Košice area revealed that in 1954, the machine and food industry participated with equal shares in its structure. The present score is 3:2, the machine industry having taken the lead. An intensive construction of housing estates was started in northern and western part of the town. The old, close town has been changing into more spacious town, differentiated in accordance with its functions. There is a stricking difference between the old town and the new quarters in the height of houses and the quality of flats. In 1950 the stage coefficient was 1,29; in the new construction it reads 5,5. The facilities of the town are compared with other regional towns in ČSSR and their cultural and local importance is discussed. Future prospects. The new Iron and Steel Works (16 km south-west of Košice) will work the iron ore from the USSR. They will use coal from the Ostrava Basin. The work will be started in 1963. Their construction is planned to be completed in 1967. Consequently, they will be the largest industrial plant in Eastern Slovakia. They will, no doubt, deeply influence the normal course of live of the town as well as the town's structure. The present centre of the town is to keep its historic form as well as its function. Traffic is going, however, to be excluded from the central parts of the town. A large portion of population inhabiting the over-crowded centre will be moved to modern tenement blocks in the out-skirts. In connection with the construction of the Iron Works the problem of transport and reloading of the substrates imported from the USSR as well as of coal from the Ostrava Basin must be solved together with the problem of the development of the chemical industry in the area of Prešov-Humenné which is supposed to work coke gases from the Iron Works. By 1970 some 30 000 new flats will have to have been built in the Košice area. There are problems of man-power, of transport of labourers to their work, of moving part of the population from the country nearer to the town, of securing smooth supply of water and electric power to the Iron Works themselves and their growing neighbourhood (in 1975 the population is to reach about 160 000) and, at the same time, of preserving the natural milieu - as much as possible.