The oldest surviving map of the Kingdom of Hungary, and therefore also the oldest map of Slovakia, dates from the period when the Middle Ages was on the cusp of turning into the early modern age. This diagram, known as Lazar's Map, after the author who was secretary to the archbishop of Esztergom, was printed in 1528 in Ingolstadt in Bavaria under the title Tabula Hungariae. Lazar's Map also provides evidence that the territory that today corresponds to contemporary Slovakia was one of the most urbanised regions of the Kingdom of Hungary, and that it was an important economic and cultural base.

Lazar's Map identified sixteen free royal towns, twelve larger towns and eighty-three small towns, according to their political and economic importance, legal status and function. A total of 289 settlements form the residential network of Slovakia shown on the map, but this constitutes only about 8 per cent of the total number of settlements in Slovakia at the end of the Middle Ages.

The origin and development of towns

By establishing a network of towns, the kings of Hungary were pursuing two main aims: an economic goal and a defensive one. The first was part of the overall European developmental trend; the second resulted from the painful experience of the devastating Tatar (Mongol) invasion of 1241–1242. As a result of this incursion, it is estimated that at least a third of the population died directly from famine and indirectly from epidemics.