Welcome to the official tourist portal of Žilina
5th – 6th century
| Slavonic settlement in the district. |
13th - 14th century
| 1208 | The district of today’s Žilina was first mentioned in a bill of the head of Nitra county, Thomas, under the name "terra de Selinan" (Land Žiliňany). |
| 1312 |
The first mention of Žilina as a town.
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| 1321 |
The King Charles I. Robert of Anjou granted the town trade privileges.
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| 1357 |
The King Ludovic I. the Great granted the town a right to the annual markets.
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| 1378 |
The Žilina Book started to be written (1378 – 1561).
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| 1381 |
The King Ludovic I. the Great issued the document "Privilegium pro Slavis Solnensis".
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| 1384 |
The Queen Mary issued a privilege on the basis of which Krupina became the appeal court authority of Žilina. At the same time Žilina became the appeal place for the villages operating under Žilina’s law.
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15th - 16th century
| Craftsmen began to organise guilds. | |
| 1405 | The King Sigismund I. of Luxembourg granted the town the privilege of building its own walls. |
| 1451 | The first inscription written in the Slovak language in the Žilina Book. |
| 1509 | The burghers of Žilina (as the only town in Slovakia) redeemed themselves from a feudal relationship using their own resources. |
17th -18th century
| 1610 | The Žilina Synod, the most important event of Reformation in the territory of Slovakia, was held in the Church of the Holy Trinity. |
| 1691 | The town had to conclude an unfair contract with Paul Esterházy that prefigured economic stagnation in the town. |
| Repeated recatholisation in Žilina – the advent of Jesuits | |
19th century
| 1833 |
The Nitra Bishop Jozef Vurum founded an orphanage for children of victims of cholera in the former Monastery of Capuchins. Up to this day the building has been called "sirotár" (orphanage).
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| 1849 |
In the Žilina market place, Ľudovít Štúr and Jozef Miloslav Hurban, members of the first Slovak National Council, called for the people to fight for the national interests of the Slovaks.
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| 1870 |
The first test train from Tešín arrived in Žilina (Košice – Bohumín railway).
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| 1891 |
Operation of a new cloth factory that significantly affected the town’s economy.
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| late 19th century |
Žilina became an important railway junction, first manufacturing plants sprang up (Hungarian Wool, Military Cloth and Carpet factories; Hungaria – chemical plant producing artificial fertilisers).
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20th century
| 1903 | The Industrial Exhibition of Upper Hungary was held and influenced the future development of the entire Upper Váh Region (Horné Považie). |
| 1911 | Žilina becomes a city with an established magistrate. |
| 12nd December 1918 - 2nd February 1919 | The Ministry for the Administration of Slovakia was seated in Žilina. Žilina became the first seat of Slovak government and the capital of Slovakia. |
| 6th October 1938 | The convention of seven political parties in Žilina resulting in the Declaration of Independence of Slovakia. |
| 30th April 1945 | World War II. ends in Žilina. |
| 1960 | Žilina ceased to be the seat of the region. Žilina Region ceased to exist and was incorporated into the Banská Bystrica Region. |
| 1960 | In September, the University of Transportation was moved from Prague to Žilina. It was established in 1953 in Prague as a Railway college. In Žilina it had originally two faculties (Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transportation and Faculty of Mechanical-Electrical Engineering). In 1979 it was renamed the University of Transportation and Communications and in 1996 the University of Žilina. Moving the university to Žilina meant an important step in the education field. The school started to educate not only students but also their teachers. Many leading personalities of science and technology studied here. Its activity has considerably contributed to the development of the town and the region. |
