Murska Sobota
Encyclopedia
Murska Sobota ' onMouseout='HidePop("92315")' href="/topics/Prekmurje_dialect">Prekmurje dialect
Prekmurje dialect
Prekmurian, also known as the Pannonian-Slovene, East-Slovene, or Wendish , is the easternmost separate dialect of Slovene, spoken in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia and by the Hungarian Slovenes in Vas county in western Hungary...

: Mürska Subouta) is a city in northeastern Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

. It is located in the eponymous municipality near the Mura River in the region of Prekmurje
Prekmurje
Prekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...

 and is the regional capital.

Name

Officially, the city is known as Murska Sobota, although informally it is usually simply referred as Sobota. The traditional German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 name of the city is Olsnitz, which is derived from the old Slovene name Olšnica. The modern Slovene name is a translation of the Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

 name Muraszombat, which was the official name of the city until 1919. In Hungarian, szombat means 'Saturday', referring to the city's practice of holding fairs every week on that day. Murska Sobota was a district city of Vas County
Vas (former county)
Vas was the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in western Hungary, eastern Austria and eastern Slovenia . The capital of the county was Szombathely.-Geography:...

 in the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

 until 1918. It was occupied by Hungary again during World War II, from 1941 to 1944. Between 1944 and 1945 it was under Nazi German occupation and it was liberated by Soviet troops in May 1945. It was also part of the Balatin
Beltinci
Beltinci is a settlement and a municipality in the Prekmurje region of northeastern Slovenia. The municipality has 8,256 inhabitants...

 Sanjak
Sanjak
Sanjaks were administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire. Sanjak, and the variant spellings sandjak, sanjaq, and sinjaq, are English transliterations of the Turkish word sancak, meaning district, banner, or flag...

, which belonged at first to the Budin Eyalet
Budin Province, Ottoman Empire
Budin Eyalet was an administrative unit of the Ottoman Empire in Central Europe and the Balkans...

, later the Kanije Eyaleti
Kanije Province, Ottoman Empire
The Kanije Eyalet was an administrative unit of the Ottoman Empire formed in 1600 and existing until the collapse of Ottoman rule in Central Europe after 1686 .-History:...

, before the Treaty of Karlowitz
Treaty of Karlowitz
The Treaty of Karlowitz was signed on 26 January 1699 in Sremski Karlovci , concluding the Austro-Ottoman War of 1683–1697 in which the Ottoman side had been defeated at the Battle of Zenta...

.

Features

Murska Sobota used to be Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

's northernmost city, and throughout history it has shifted across borders between Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

, and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. Hungarians still represent a 3,000-person minority. In 1919, the Republic of Prekmurje
Republic of Prekmurje
The Republic of Prekmurje or Mura Republica was an unrecognized state in Prekmurje, an area traditionally known in Hungarian as Vendvidék ...

 was declared here and the city was the capital of the new state. In 1991, during the Ten-Day War
Ten-Day War
The Ten-Day War or the Slovenian Independence War was a military conflict between the Slovenian Territorial Defence and the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991 following Slovenia's declaration of independence.-Background:...

 between Slovenia and the Yugoslav Federal Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...

, Murska Sobota was bombed from the air, with no casualties or visible damage. Today, it is a quiet city with an economy based on regional administration, light industry, commerce, and spa tourism. In April 2006, the city became the see of the newly created Roman Catholic Diocese of Murska Sobota, which is a suffragan to the archdiocese of Maribor
Maribor
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....

.

Jewish community of Murska Sobota

The once significant Jewish community of Murska Sobota was eliminated by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

. Before the World War II, a synagogue built by Lipót Baumhorn
Lipót Baumhorn
Lipót Baumhorn was a Hungarian architect.- Career :Baumhorn studied in Vienna under Freiherr von Ferstel, who was the designer of the Votive Church there. He set up a practice after further study under Ödön Lechner. His style ranged from historicism to those inspired by the rising nationalism of...

 stood in Murska Sobota. It was consecrated on 31 August 1908 and demolished in 1954 by the local communist
Socialist Republic of Slovenia
The Socialist Republic of Slovenia was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1943 until 1990...

 authorities after they purchasing the building from a decimated Jewish community. The last rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

 in Murska Sobota was Lazar Roth. He was murdered at Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

.

On 26 April 1944, all of the Jews were ordered to gather in the Murska Sobota synagogue, with hand luggage only. There, they were locked up overnight without food or water, and the next morning all the Jews of Murska Sobota were transferred to Čakovec
Cakovec
Čakovec is a city in northern Croatia, located around 90 kilometres north of Zagreb, the Croatian capital. Čakovec is both the county seat and largest city of Međimurje County, the northernmost, smallest and most densely populated Croatian county.-Population:...

 and then to Nagykanizsa, the main concentration camp before their final destination of Auschwitz.

On 29 January 2010, the first Holocaust memorial in Slovenia was unveiled at the Murska Sobota railway station
Murska Sobota railway station
Murska Sobota railway station serves the municipality of Murska Sobota, Slovenia. It was opened in 1924.On 29 January 2010, the first Holocaust memorial in Slovenia was unveiled at the station. It is dedicated to the exile of Jews from the Prekmurje region.- External links :*...

. It is dedicated to the exile of Jews from the Prekmurje region.

Twin towns — Sister cities

Murska Sobota is twinned
Town twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...

 with: Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 (Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

) Bethlehem (PA), USA (Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

) Paraćin
Paracin
Paraćin is a town and municipality in Serbia, located in the valley of the Velika Morava river, north of Kruševac and southeast of Kragujevac. In 2011 the town has total population of 24,573 and it has a civil airport, also known as Davidovac Airport....

, SRB
SRB
SRB may refer to:Places* Serbia, a country in Central/Southeastern Europe * Union of Russia and Belarus, a supranational entity* Srb, a village in CroatiaPeople and organizations...

 (Pomoravlje
Pomoravlje
Pomoravlje may refer to:* Pomoravlje , a geographical area around the Morava river, Serbia* Pomoravlje District, a district in Serbia...

)

External links

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