Slovenes in Hungary
The Slovenes had settled down in the Western parts of the Carpathian-basin long before the Hungarian take-over. They had arrived with the Avar tribe in the second half of the 6. century in the area of the Raab and the Drava.
It was the Hungarian king, Béla III. who founded the Cistercian Abbey in Szentgotthárd in 1183. The monks needed a workforce to cultivate their lands. This workforce consisted of Slovenes living in Hungary and coming form the Prekmurje region
(Slovenia) and the Slovene part of Styria (Austria). They were the ones who established settlements near the fields of the abbey of Szentgotthárd, which still can be found today. After World War I, these villages remained part of Hungary.
The Slovene-Porabje region has an area of 94 km². Remnants of traditional Slovene culture can still be traced down in these villages due to peripheral geographical conditions and the seclusion having lasted as long as 1980.
In Hungary there are now approximately 5.000 Slovene people, the vast majority of them, around 3.500, live in Szentgotthárd and in the villages surrounding the town. The Hungarian Slovene Association, founded in 1990, and the National Slovene Municipality, founded 1995, are the organs responsible for representing the interests of the Slovene living in Hungary.
The Slovene Cultural and Information Centre has been operating in Szentgotthárd since 1998, providing spaces for the Slovene Radio Szentgotthárd and the Porabje newspaper.