Michalovce (; , , Romani: Mihalya, Yiddish: Mikhaylovets or Mykhaylovyts; ) is a town on the Laborec river in eastern Slovakia. Originally named after the Archangel St Michael, it is the second-largest city in the Košice Region and the seat of the Michalovce District. The city is located on the shore of Lake Sirava, approximately east of the capital Bratislava and immediately adjacent to the border with Ukraine. Michalovce is mostly recognized for its adjacent lakes and volcanic mountains, which generates tourism, and for agriculture as well as the passing Druzhba pipeline. According to the latest census, the population of the town stood at 40,255, with a metropolitan population of 109,121, which ranks it among the largest population centers in eastern Slovakia. History Early history The city of present-day Michalovce along with the adjacent lowlands was settled in from the Palaeolithic era. Archaeologists have found prehistoric Homo sapiens skeletons in the region, as well as numerous objects and vestiges by the foot of the Vihorlat mountains, dating from the Neolithic. During the Late Bronze Age, which meant the period of processing bronze as the main metal, the surrounding area was an important cultural and trading center within the Carpathian Basin and, together with the area of the southern Tisa River Basin, played an important part forging relations with areas outside of the Carpathians. The history of Michalovce was significantly influenced by presence of Celtic tribes, starting from the Gallic expansions in the 4th century BC, and later by the Romans. Slovak historians claim that Slavs arrived in the area in the fifth century, first being a part of the empire of the Avars. Although there is no evidence, Slovak historians claim that the area was part of the Great Moravian empire in the ninth century. It is probably unlikely. The town of Michalovce is the place where the legendary Prince Laborec died and was buried according to legends. From the tenth century onwards, the region was part of Hungary. However, when the Magyar tribes arrived in the late 800s, the entire region was sparsely populated and there were few actual settlements. Much of Slovak history is based on conjecture, legends and nationalism. After the Ottoman conquest in south central Hungary in the sixteenth century, Hungary was divided, and present-day Michalovce became part of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom, and later Royal Hungary. The town grew significantly in the eighteenth and nineteenth