Trnava

Trnava lies on a fertile plain northeast of Bratislava. A free royal town from 1238, it developed within walls and gates built to protect its inhabitants and their property. Churches and the residences of ecclesiastical dignitaries gave it an especially prominent place in the religious life of the Kingdom of Hungary.

When the Ottoman advance displaced the chapter of Esztergom, leading churchmen settled in Trnava in 1543. Archbishop Mikuláš Oláh invited the Jesuits in 1561 and opened a seminary five years later. In 1635 Archbishop Péter Pázmány founded a university, which educated students from across the kingdom and made the town a centre of learning. The university remained here until Maria Theresa ordered its transfer to Buda in 1777. The return of the archbishopric to Esztergom also diminished Trnava's former prominence.