sivo writes: It all started with an offer to write another book. I am also a member of a non-governmental organization, the literary group Prave orechove which is concerned with gathering old legends and interesting truths and stories from the past. These we gather from the older folk in the Slovak villages and then literally work them into story form. We were approached by the non-governmental organization People and Water to collect old stories from the Levocske Vrchy (highlands north of the town of Levoca) region in Slovakia where there is a minority of Ruthenians. The book is to come out in the summer of 2005. we agreed to go to the terrain so to speak in august 2004. Although I never actually left my own country, just entering the area I had the feeling it was a place whose uniqueness was somehow unrelated to the Slovak average.
For me Slovakia seems to be a sufficiently well-known country. Well, I have been living here for almost forty years anyway. At least in Slovakia for 11 years, because what used to be Czechoslovakia changed on Jan 1st, 1993 into the The Czech Republic and Slovakia, two independent states. I have to say though, the break up of the old republic was not based on any kind of hatred. If that serious historical step had been taken through a referendum and the politicians had actually asked the people what they wanted, I am convinced that the country would still be as one today, for at that time they really did not have the support of the citizens. Relations between the Czech republic and Slovakia are still today above standard, I visit Prague once or twice per year and still feel at home there.
For the people for whom Slovakia is not a `sufficiently well known` country, it is probably worthwhile to present a few facts.
This is my country
Slovakia is found in the middle of Europe, in fact the middle of Slovakia is the geographic center of Europe.
Slovakia is bordering the states The Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria and The Ukraine.
The land has a moderate climate, but the differences between individual regions can be quite surprising at times. The warmest is the lowland situated along the Danube river in the southwest. The coldest area would be The High Tatras, often called the smallest great mountain range in the world.
Temperature variations can be attributed to the mountainous character of the country, almost forty per cent of the country is covered by forest. Mountain forests are made up of mainly spruce, abies, and fir trees. As for animals you can encounter herds of deer, mouflon, chamois, as well as bears, foxes, wolves, lynxs, badgers and many others.
Of course within the state there are the big cities along with the small historical towns with their many memorials and historical sites. But I was focusing more on nature, for this trip took place in the most natural of surroundings.
As for the other basic facts, like the population (5.4 million), area (49 000 km square), and the like, more detailed information is to be found on the pages of The Slovak Republic Government Office, or The World Factbook - where I have run across a few discrepancies with the official Slovak statistics.
Levoca and environs
As mentioned in the introduction, I received an offer to put together a book of stories with my friends, legends along with real stories which have taken place within the Ruthenian population of the villages just north of Levoca. Without hesitation we set out. It was the beginning of August and we set out from my Home town of Kosice to Levoca, less than 100 kilometers away. This is a small and very historical town with something more than 14 000 inhabitants. It rests to the north of the Slovak Paradise National Park in the region known as Spis.
The Levoca of today is a historical town reservation. It has been known of since the Middle-Ages, the first written mention of it has been preserved after the Tartar invasion from the middle of the 13th century. The town became the cultural and trade center of the region, and from 1271 was the administrative seat for 24 Spis towns. The wealth of the town has been documented in its Gothic and renaissance structures. The most noteworthy being St. Jacob´s Church and the renaissance town hall. There are many more historical landmarks here, the town center is still surrounded by ramparts from the Middle-Ages and the town square has more than fifty Gothic, renaissance, and baroque residence houses.
In front of the town hall sits the cage of shame from thew year 1600. This is a real rarity, not only that it has been preserved, but for the original intention for its use. It was enough to slander someone, get drunk, or (God forbid) steal, and the punishment would be getting yourself placed in the cage in the town square for a certain period of time. Then the other residents could feel free to spit, throw garbage and generally make fun of you. Of course those were the Middle Ages and not now. Besides, there wouldn`t be enough room in the cage, because the people also used to get locked up for adultery. But then these were some of the lesser punishments... Rememeber, the Middle Ages were famous for people getting their hands cut off for theft.
The upswing in the Levoca tourism industry is plainly seen in the number of hotels which increases by the year. Not only for the picturesque town itself, but also as an advantageous place to set off for trips to the nearby Slovak Paradise, and the Levoca highlands. Those mountains are much less known, and next to the Slovak Paradise are practically going extinct. In spite of all that, it remains quite beautiful, and so do its villages, as if time has stood still. And at one time it did stop indeed.
The time was during the communistic government of Czechoslovakia, and within the Levoca highlands there emerged the largest military zone in the country, and this is where the Czechoslovak and Russian forces had their training grounds for battle. For the local citizens it was tragic, they weren`t allowed to go to the forests, the fields, and it was not even pleasant to got to their villages. Any unfamiliar face was greeted by the police or soldiers and asked to show their identification papers and give some reason for being in the area at all.
The villages just around the military zone survived, luckily. And those, which we were to visit, were called Nizne Repase, Olsavica, Torysky, and Tichy Potok. The nearby military zone still exists, and although not run by the army itself, certain areas still have No Trespassing signs everywhere. When we left Levoca and traveled to Nizne repase, we stood in amazement. Even if I think I know Slovakia well, I was still surprised to find the large number of wooden houses typical of the village architecture from the Middle Ages all the way to the 19th century. The village even has a memorial zone of folk architecture. it was in this place that the non-governmental organization began their project of regional development.
We were accommodated in one perfect wooden house, the current home of the community center. And we went directly after the mayor and after the people who would recall times from the past along with the local legends.
Nizne Repase
Mister Molcan, mayor of Nizne Repase immediately invited us in and listened to what we had to say. The book is to come out in the summer of 2005 and contain 12 stories, 3 from each of the villages mentioned. It is to be published in both English and Slovak. The area was chosen because it rests on the boundary of the Spis and Saris regions, where their is a minority of Ruthenians. The book will be presented at the international youth assembly which is to take place in the region.
The mayor quickly took the initiative and got us in contact with the right people, those who would remember the most, and perhaps even know the stories of centuries past. Our job was to visit the people, ask for their tales, record them, and then ask more to get the individual stories down as faithfully as possible.
The first story told to us was by a Mister Lison, it took place at the end of the Second World War. at that time, Germans lived in all of the villages. One famous feature of the region is that it is the source of the Torysa river and was home to seven lumber mills. The Germnas had them make wooden boards from which they would then create underground defense bunkers. There were hundreds of partisans in the surrounding forest who would attack the Germans. Mister Lison was always jealous of the partisans as a boy and wanted to join them, it tasted of adventure. The problem was that he was only twelve. His father warned him to not do anything stupid and be very careful what he says around other people, especially the German soldiers. as an example, he pointed to a Jewish doctor Jan Janke who had vanished from the village.
When the Czechoslovak and Russian soldiers arrived at the village in January 1945 they met up on one street with the German forces, but there was no shooting, and they let the Germans out to the field between Nizne Repase and Torysky. There the fighting started up with mortars being launched, and grenades along with the firing of machine guns. That is when young Lison learned the cruelty of war, as the corpses were strewn across the fields.
Upon the battlefield he later found a grenade, and he wanted to take it apart. He removed the detonator but it then exploded in his hands, to this day he still carries his `reminder` in the form of damaged fingers. Because there was a lot of bleeding, his mother carried from the mountains down to Levoca where he was admitted to hospital. All around him was misery and suffering. The doctor who stitched his hand was none other than the `lost` Jan Janke. He told him that when the Germans had entered town he had to flee to the mountains and hide within one of the numerous caves. He ran further into the mountains and finally got to the Czechoslovak liberation forces, whom he battled with, until arriving back in Levoca. He remained in the hospital to help with the injured, in the end he survived the war.
This would be a brief snapshot of one of the stories we uncovered in Nizne Repase. It was fine to listen to people and really get to hear how life used to be. How much of the village was destroyed by fire in 1938, along with the other stories which will find their way into the book. we all got a good feeling from the whole thing.
Walking through the village and the surrounding area also interested us from the first moment. Large forestry complexes, the rolling hills and their meadows where the cows, sheep and goats were grazing. People here still live from farming. Almost every family has two cows, two pigs, and some hens. At one time the dairy used to purchase milk from them. I am not quite sure why they don`t seem to be doing that anymore. When you see that a family gets 40 liters of milk per day, the picture begins to get a little unusual. Like when i visited one family and saw how they were feeding their pigs buckets of cream.
Nizne Repase is otherwise a very old village, the first written account of it going back to the 13th century. There is also a church from the start of the 14th century. Of course, as often is the case with Ruthenians, it is a church of the Eastern Orthodox type, and the liturgy here is in the Rusin or Ruthenian language, something closer to Russian than to Slovak, and they even use the Cyrillic alphabet. Even schools here were run in the Ruthenian language until the 20th century. The church has a bell from the 17th century. The people were very kind, when we asked to see the bell, the church was quickly opened and we were even allowed up to the spire.
Another interesting feature of the village is the fact of it having more houses than inhabitants. As mentioned, military presence and isolation did not do much to help employment opportunities. So it has been the case that the people leave for work and a place to live in the towns. A good amount of the village architecture, amazing countryside, and the pleasant people whom we encountered, actually made the place quite attractive for me, and I will certainly be returning. But it was not just Nizne Repase alone which charmed me, but more about that next time...
...continue...
Slavomír Szabó
Also take a look at:
SLOVAKIA: With your head in the clouds above Kosice
SLOVAKIA: Balloon festival U.S. Steel Balloon Cup Kosice 2004
SLOVAKIA: Close to the Polish border
SLOVAKIA: Cold water geyser Herlany – world attraction without basic services
SLOVAKIA: Going Spis
SLOVAKIA: Slovensky Raj (Slovak Paradise) - tourism on ladders
SLOVAKIA: Spis is a place just waiting to be discovered
SLOVAKIA; A journey to the geographical center of Europe, which sits in hills full of gold
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