Utcanévváltozások Pozsony példáján

Absztrakt

Changes of street names through the example of Pozsony [Bratislava]

In the introduction, the authors briefly outline the history of Bratislava, focusing especially on the momentous events of the 20th century. As a starting point, characteristic groups of 1905 street names are observed concerning motivation, components and semantic background (cf. Ortvay, Pozsony város utcái és terei [Streets and squares in the city of Bratislava]). Special attention is given to street names that can be connected to Hungarian history and culture. The discussion of street name changes in Bratislava is based on the ortvay.eu database; street name changes between the 1920s and the 2010s are examined according to frequency, motivation and time period. Both frequency and motivation are closely related to the above mentioned momentous events, such as repeated fundamental changes in politics and constitutional laws. As a result, they are connected to virtual space occupation; although several streets and squares of the town were renamed not only around regime changes, but within politically coherent time periods. Finally, the authors explore how well the history of the city is represented in the present-day names of streets and squares in Bratislava, and propose similar contrastive studies of the history of street names in towns of other regions.