When Czechoslovakia was declared in 1918 Tlmače was still what the charter of 1075 implied: a farming settlement strung along the river in the district of Levice. The valley road and the railway up the Hron already ran past it, which would come to matter far more than anyone then could guess. In its first eight and a half centuries in the written record the village stands out for nothing at all. That is worth saying plainly, because what happened next was completely out of proportion to it.Keď v roku 1918 vzniklo Československo, boli Tlmače stále tým, čo naznačovala listina z roku 1075 — roľníckou obcou roztiahnutou pozdĺž rieky v levickom okrese. Popri nej už viedla cesta dolinou aj železnica hore Hronom, čo malo neskôr znamenať oveľa viac, než vtedy niekto tušil. Za prvých osem a pol storočia v písomných prameňoch obec ničím nevyčnievala. Hovoríme to naschvál priamo, lebo to, čo prišlo potom, bolo s tým celkom neúmerné.
