Čachtice

From Wikinfo

Čachtice is a village in western Slovakia with a population of 3,611 (1991).

The village is situated between the Danubian Lowland and Little Carpathians. It is best known for the ruins of the nearby Čachtice Castle, home of the world's most prolific female serial killer [[Elizabeth B�thory]]. The castle stands on a hill featuring rare plants, which has been declared the National Nature Reserve "Čachtick� hradn� vrch" (Čachtice Castle Mountain) for this reason.

Settlements from the neolithic, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Hallstatt period, [[La T�ne period]], Roman period and early Slavic period have been found here.

The first written reference to the settlement dates from 1263. Since 1392 ?achtice has been a town. In 1847 the parsonage was the meeting place of the first Slovak national and cultural society [[Tatr�n]], at which the definitive decision to use the central Slovak dialects as basis for the new standard of the Slovak language was adopted.

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Čachtice" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Čachtice, used under the GNU Free Documentation License