Public services expanded in the 19th century with the foundation of a permanent municipal hospital (1820), a municipal theater (1841), and a municipal museum (1889). The railway reached the town from Zvolen in 1873. After Austria-Hungary lost the first world war, Banská Bystrica along with the entire northern part of Hungary was given to Czechoslovakia by the peace treaty of Trianon in 1920. During World War II, Banská Bystrica became the center of anti-Nazi opposition in Slovakia when the Slovak National Uprising, one of the largest anti-Nazi resistance events in Europe, was launched from the city on 29 August 1944. The insurgents were defeated on 27 October, and Banská Bystrica was briefly occupied by the German forces before it was liberated by Soviet and Romanian troops on 26 March 1945. After the war, Banská Bystrica became the administrative, economic, and cultural hub of central Slovakia. It has been a university town since the 1950s. Its largest Matej Bel University was founded in 1992. Banská Bystrica lies at an altitude of above sea level and covers an area of . It is about halfway between Slovakia's two largest cities, north-east from Slovakia's capital Bratislava and west of Košice. A chain of discrete suburbs and villages connects it with Zvolen, another major town to the south. Banská Bystrica is situated in the Hron River valley (). The Hron River curves through the city from the east to the south. The city nests among three mountain chains: the Low Tatras to the north-east, the Veľká Fatra to the north-west, and the Kremnica Mountains to the west. All three are protected areas because of their environmental value. Banská Bystrica hosts the headquarters of the Low Tatra National Park. Despite the proximity of these mountain ranges, the local landscape is dominated by the much lower Urpín Mountain, , which is a popular place of recreation. Banská Bystrica lies in the north temperate zone and has a continental climate with four distinct seasons. It is characterized by a significant variation between hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2013, the city had a total population of 79,368, making it the 6th-largest municipality in Slovakia in 2005. The population density was 790 per square kilometer in 2005. The population was spread out with 13.2% under the age of 15, 68.2% in the so-called productive age (15–54 years for women and 15–59 years for men), and 18.6% in the so-called post-productive age (over 54 years for women and over 59 years for men).