Tornaľa

In the valley of the Slaná river, in the eastern part of the Rimavská hollow is situated Tornaľa - town with more than 8 000 inhabitants. One of the oldest settlements of this region. From the district town Revúca and Rožňava is 40km away and from Rimavská Sobota 30km.
Area where is located, had been settled down during the Bronze Age of which many rich archeological finds of cultures of Kyjatice and Pilina give evidence. The first written mentions of settlements come from the 13th century - 1245 Kövi; 1291 Tornalya. Tornaľa was always the central village of the middle Slaná (the former Šajava) and from 1853 to 1960 seat of district.

In the days of October (5-6), 2000 the Tornaľas remember the 755th anniversary of the first written mention of their town by grandiose feasts.

Town is situated on moderate downs surrounded by fields, meadows, grazing lands and forests. During centuries to these days it has been preserving its agricultural character. Industry had become deeply rooted in this town at the end of the 19th century.
First of all there was a factory producing bricks (the present-day Ipeľské tehelne), distilleries and in the second half of the 20th century, concrete in the year 1965 Ozeta, a part of Ozeta, a.s. Trenčín, began to write its history. Nowadays Ozeta employs more than 900 mainly women producing man's ready-made clothes. Some years later in the year 1975 there was put down a foundation stone of a new engineering company on an area of the former Kovohron.
In the present-day Unicorn, s.r.o. Tornaľa employs more than 300 specialists producing of forming machines.
On the territory of town exists a wide range of small firms and operations.

Tornaľa has an important position not only from the economical viewpoint, also from tourism. It is a crossroad of important roads in the direction of Zvolen, Košice and Miskolc in Hungary. In addition to this through town passes the so-called South arterial railway of the Slovak railway and a lot of long-distance busses.
In the radius of 30km from Tornaľa there are well-known caves Domica - Aggtelek, Gombasecká kvapľová (stalactite) cave and Ochtinská aragonitová cave and to the south there is a famous spa town Číž. Only 12km away is a frontier-crossing and Customs Kráľ.

From cultural-historical monuments is the most well-known the castle Krásna Hôrka with a mausoleum of the Andrássys and also the national-historical monument the manor-house in Betliar.
Tornaľa has several extraordinary historical objects. For example the Gothic church from the 15th century and manorial curies from the 17th and 19th centuries. The Baroque statue of St John Nepomucký in the local part Králik is noteworthy. There is a beachfront swimming pool spread on the area of almost 2ha. The parts of the area of swimming pool are a swimming pool, playgrounds, boarding houses, buffets, services, hotel, autocamping and drinkable springs of mineral water.

Tornaľa had reached many positive results in resort of education, culture and sport. There are two elementary schools attended by more than 1500 pupils, four kindergartens, two special schools and a high school (Gymnasium), a wide range of catering and boarding houses, a new municipal culture centre with a fitness centre and a library.
Health and other services (these are provided of highest level by reconstruncted post, too) are always secured.

Dominant of the sports is football - team of adults plays in the third league and teams of the young and pupils in the country competitions. To the fourth league have advanced table-tennists and in the last years there have been developing tourism, horseback riding, dances and aerobic.

By Vincent Székesi, editor in chief of the "Tornaľa a okolie".