Something about Murska Sobota
Officially, the town is known as Murska Sobota, although in the local Prekmurian dialect it is usually referred symply as Sobota. The traditional German name of the town is Olsnitz, which derives from the old Slovene Olšnica. The modern Slovene name is a translation of the Hungarian denomination Muraszombat, which was the official name of the town until 1919. Murska Sobota was a district (Hungarian: járás) town of Vas in the Kingdom of Hungary until 1918. It was occupied by Hungary again during World War II , from 1941 to 1944. Between 1944 and 1945 it was under Nazi German occupation and it was liberated by Soviet troops in May 1945. It was also part of Balatin sanjak which belonged at first Budin Eyalet, later Kanije Eyaleti before Treaty of Carlowitz.
It used to be Yugoslavia's northernmost town, and throughout history it has shifted across borders between Slovenia, Yugoslavia and Hungary. Hungarians still represent a 3,000 people minority. In 1919 here was declared the Republic of Prekmurje and the town was capital the of the new state. In 1991, during Slovenia's Ten-Day War against the Yugoslav Federal Army, Murska Sobota was bombed by air, with no casualties or visible damage. Today, it is a quiet town that lives around the regional authorities' activities, light industry, commerce and spa tourism. In April 2006 the city became the see of the newly created Roman Catholic Diocese of Murska Sobota, which is a suffragan to the archdiocese of Maribor.
