Prešov

also Eperiesinum

Slovak Republic. Town and conservation area on the Torys river, where the northern extension of the Košice Basin meets the Spišsko-Šarišský vale.

The area around Prešov was sporadically settled from the Palaeolithic onwards, with permanent Slavic settlement known from the 8^th and 9^th centuries. The earliest written documents date to the years 1233 and 1247. Prešov obtained its charter as a town in 1299, and in 1374 became a royal free borough and a centre for trade and craftsmanship. The town suffered considerably from the Estates` Revolts of the 17^th and early 18^th centuries. Economic improvement came in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, when Prešov became the seat of the Šariš zupa (administrative district). In the revolutionary years 1848-1849 the town was occupied in turn by Imperial and Hungarian forces. In 1849 it was captured by Slovak volunteers. After the First World War, on June 16^th 1919, a Slovak Republic was declared here by the council. 

On his journeys between Leszno and Sárospatak, Comenius visited Prešov on three occasions: on May 10^th 1650, May 20^th 1652 and in June 1654.