Žilina

Žilina was first written down in 1208, as terra de Selinan, and grew into a town around 1300, with German colonists from the Duchy of Teschen laying out a market square that is today's Mariánske námestie. King Charles I made it a free royal town in 1321, and in 1381 King Louis I issued the Privilegium pro Slavis, giving the town's Slavs half the seats on the council alongside the Germans. The Hussites burned the town in 1431. In 1610 a synod held in Žilina completed the organisation of the Lutheran church in Slovakia, and in the 17th century the town became a centre of manufacturing, trade and education, adding monasteries, churches and the Baroque rebuilding of Budatín Castle.

The railways transformed it. The Košice–Bohumín line was completed in 1872 and the line to Bratislava in 1883, and textile and chemical factories followed in the 1890s. After the First World War Žilina was briefly the seat of the Slovak government, until March 1919, and on 6 October 1938, just after the Munich Agreement, Slovak autonomy within Czechoslovakia was declared in the town's Catholic House.

During the Holocaust tens of thousands of Jews were deported from Žilina. Czechoslovak and Soviet troops took the town on 30 April 1945. Communist-era factories, schools and the large housing estates of Hliny, Vlčince and Solinky followed, and the university was founded in 1953. Since 1990 the historic centre has been largely restored, the Kia car plant opened in 2007, and Žilina is now the third most important industrial centre in Slovakia.

The city's symbol, a golden double cross with roots and two stars, has been used since 1378 and is one of the oldest municipal coats of arms in Europe. Its two central squares are the stage for civic life: Hlinka Square below, overlooked by the cathedral and Burian's Tower, and the arcaded Mariánske námestie above. Both squares host the city's main cultural and civic events, among them the Old Town Festival, first held in 1997.

Žilina is also known for its interwar functionalist architecture, from Peter Behrens's New Synagogue to the Lutheran church of 1935–36 by Milan Michal Harminc, the market hall and the railway station. The first Slovak feature film, Jánošík, had its premiere in 1921 at the Grand Bio Universum, now the Fatra House of Art and home of the Slovak Sinfonietta. An independent arts scene grew up around Stanica, a cultural centre in a working railway halt, and the city holds Fest Anča, an international festival of animated film. The city also has a puppet theatre, a city theatre and a gallery of contemporary art.

Sport matters a great deal. MŠK Žilina won five league titles in the 2000s and reached the Champions League group stage in 2010–11, and the city has a top-flight ice hockey club. The cyclist Peter Sagan, born in Žilina in 1990, won the Tour de France points classification five years running and became a world champion. Folk traditions are strongest in the villages around, above all in Terchová, whose music is listed by UNESCO.

About 80,000 people lived in Žilina at the end of 2025, making it the fourth-largest city in Slovakia and the seat of the Žilina Region. Most of them live in flats on the housing estates built between the 1950s and the 1980s — Vlčince, the largest, alone has about 17,500 residents — while older family houses fill the outlying villages that have been joined to the city.

The economy is industrial. Kia is by far the largest employer, and many Korean staff have settled in the city; the construction company Váhostav, a paper mill, chemical works and an engineering centre of Siemens Mobility add to it. The University of Žilina, with about 12,400 students in seven faculties, fills the city in term time, and the station makes it a commuter and transfer hub for the whole north-west.

The day follows the Slovak rhythm of early starts and a cooked lunch, often the restaurant set menu. Evenings and weekends go to the squares, the reservoir path, the hills and the cottage. Traffic is the city's best-known complaint: the motorway links to the east and north have been under construction for years, and the roads into town are often jammed.

Žilina eats the food of the northern mountains, where sheep's cheese comes first. Bryndza, a soft sheep's cheese, is eaten on fresh bread and in bryndzové halušky, potato dumplings with bryndza, while strapačky swap the cheese for sauerkraut. Korbáčiky, a traditional hand-made cheese from the nearby Orava region, and smoked oštiepok are sold in the cheese shops of the centre.

Lunch is the main meal, and most restaurants offer a denné menu at midday — a set meal that often includes soup, with meat and potatoes or cabbage, or pasta with cheese. Kapustnica, a soup of sauerkraut, often with sausage, mushrooms and meat, is a winter staple. Garlic soup is often served in a bread bowl.

Beer is cheap, and the centre has plenty of pubs. Kofola, a cola-style soft drink made from a syrup of herbal and fruit extracts, is drunk everywhere. The Korean community brought with the Kia plant has given the city several Korean restaurants and Korean shelves in larger supermarkets.