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SUMMARY OF THE
FALL ISSUE
Volume 13, No. 3, Fall 2005
Slovak
Heritage Live
A quarterly newsletter
published by Vladimir Linder
Winter issue was published in
June 2005 and it was mailed to 1200 recipients world wide.
FROM THE EDITOR
Our
web pages are doing great and I am getting email and phone requests on
every imaginable topic that I try to answer as my time allows. It is
great. I haven’t mentioned recently that I also do genealogical research
in Slovakia and I did some work in Poland as well. In Poland I have done
several researches in the territory, right north of High Tatra Mountains,
that once belonged to the Austro Hungarian Empire and during the first
Czechoslovak Republic it belonged to Czechoslovakia, then it was exchanged
for some coal properties with Poland. During the WWII it belonged to
Slovakia and after the war it was given back to Poland, but the Slovak
spirit is alive and well in this part of Poland. They have Slovak
elementary schools, Slovak churches and the older people are fluent in
Slovak, they have Slovak cultural organizations, organize Slovak cultural
happenings, folklore performances and fairs. I also do ancestral village
photography, where I travel to your ancestral village and take pictures of
the village, its surroundings, church etc. and I also do ancestral village
videos where your ancestral village is videotaped and narrated in English.
You can find information about my services on my web pages:
http://www.slovakheritage.org/Shopping/Genrsrch/genealogical_research.htm
http://www.slovakheritage.org/Shopping/Videos/ancestral_videos.htm
http://www.slovakheritage.org/Shopping/Videos/ancestral_photography.htm
As
you are reading this newsletter, I am still in Slovakia until August 10
and if you have any requests or needs and feel that I can be of help,
please do not hesitate to contact me by email at: vlinder49@hotmail.com
or by calling me on my cell: 011-421-907-297-508.
I
will try to publish the winter issue this year early so you will have
plenty of time for your orders before Christmas.
Vladimir
FROM THE MAIL BAG
Vladimir,
Sorry – a little late!
Please: 2 more years of Slovak Heritage Live, $25.00 per year, 2
years-$50.00 from April 2005 to April 2007 and a small donation of $25.00.
Keep them coming! Take Care! Happy traveling!
Andrew
Redovian
7975 58th Ave N. #108
St. Petersburg, FL 33709
Dear
Vladimir,
Enclosed is my subscription renewal for the year 2005-2006 in the amount
of $125.00. We are all grateful to you for your wonderful publication with
its historical and personal stories of Slovakia and the photographs.
Thank you also for the genealogical work you have done for me which I have
filtered to my relatives.
Best wishes and continued success,
Paul Berish
813 Flatbush Road
Kingston NY 12401
FROM
THE HISTORY OF MARY’S HILL
By:
Mons. Prof. ThDr. ICDr. František
Dlugoš, Ph.D.
The
oldest pilgrimage place in eastern Slovakia is Levoča, where the
roots of the Mary’s cult date back to the 13th century. The first
mention about this pilgrimage place and the gathering of Mary’s
worshippers appear at those times. In 1247, the first chapel was built on
Olivet hill. Probably it was built as manifestation of thankfulness to the
Mother of God for rescuing numerous lives during the invasion of the
Mongols, who marauded our territory and the town of Levoča as well.
In 1311, the Franciscans came to Levoča and they established the
feast of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary. In 1322, the Levoča
parish priest Henrich renovated the first church on Mary’s Hill. In the
second half of the 15th century, the size of the church on Mary’s Hill
was already insufficient. Besides this fact, the state of the church was
such that it was close to its collapse. In 1470, the parish priest Servác
enlarged and partially rebuilt the church and shortly after that the
church got the gracious Gothic statue of the Virgin Mary which has been
preserved to the present.
Pilgrimages
to the Mary’s Hill continued even during the Reformation. In addition,
the local Lutherans kept up the feast of the Visitation of the Virgin
Mary.
However, the
revival of pilgrimages came into being only after the Counter Reformation,
the first deed of which was a big procession and pilgrimage to the Hill
on July 2, 1671. In 1673, the Holy Father granted the indulgence privilege
to Mary’s Hill. The church was rebuilt and extended several times. In
1698, the parish priest Štefan Györffy built the second church on
Mary’s Hill. In 1819, Ján Ehrnspenger, the Levoča parish priest,
built the third church on Mary’s Hill, which was consecrated by the Spiš
bishop Michal Brigido, a former Levoča parish priest, in 1820. In
1847, Roman Catholic parish priest Jozef Dulovič built a wooden
chapel for the Eastern Byzantine worshippers. In 1906, Celestín Kompanyik
began to build the present shrine from the thank‑offerings of
worshippers, which, after his death, was completed and furnished by the
new parish priest jozef Krššál. On July 2, 1922, the new Spiš bishop Ján
Vojtaššák, nowadays‑a candidate for beatification, solemnly
consecrated the new and spacious church.
In
1947, the Levoča parish priest Jozef Vojtas, who worked in Levoča
after the second world war, prepared imposing plans for Mary’s Hill
(to build a pilgrim, religious and spiritual retreat house). However, the
political situation in the 50’s prevented their realization. The present
parish priest Mons Doc. ThDr. ICLic. František
Dlugoš, Ph.D., realized his plans only after the fall of communism,
after the year of 1989...
120TH
ANNIVERSARY OF SLOVAKS IN CANADA
Ondrej
Miháľ
The
year 2005-2006 marks the 120th
Anniversary of the arrival of the first Slovaks in Canada. In
1884, “Count” Paul Esterhazy established the First Hungarian American
Colonization Project in the United States. He then contracted with the
Canadian government in 1885 to resettle Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians and
Hungarians from Central Europe (as well as from the mining towns in the
United States) in the undeveloped Canadian territories that had recently
opened up due to the completion of the trans-Canada railway. In
Esterhazy’s written response to the question of whether the Magyars as a
class can be looked upon as a desirable acquisition to the Canadian
North-West he described the future immigrants in this way:
“The moral sentiments of the Magyar are of the highest order. He is too
proud to be dishonest, low or mean. He is governed by at all times by a
high sense of what is right and just. As a master he is careful, kind and
generous. As a subject he is fixed, resolute, unyielding to what is wrong.
If rich, he is profuse in his expenses, elevated in his tastes, liberal in
his charities. If poor, his pride will not suffer him to complain, while
his general demeanor cannot be distinguished from the wealthiest baron in
the land. In all the relations of domestic life, as a husband, father,
brother, son, he is unimpeachable in his conduct or follows every
aberration with dignified regret. His hospitality is unbounded; whether
rich or poor he receives his visitors with joy and dismisses them with
unwillingness. In religion he is sincere, devout, but never contentious or
fanatical. The liberty, which in all things he demands for himself, he
freely accords to all others. Freedom indeed is the word which
concentrates in itself the whole life and being of the Magyar.”
Such
a glowing description must have found a favorable reception because the
“Esterhaz Colony” was
founded in the month of June, 1886; the first settlers, about 35 Hungarian
families-150 souls-having taken possession of homesteads selected in the
year 1885.”...
KAPUŠANY
CASTLE
One
day back in summer of 1997 we decided with my friend Jaroslav Biros (alias
Bohumile Onasisse) to go to the ruins of Kapušany Castle. He felt that
there is a road from village north of the castle called Fulianka. We took
every road leading from the village only to come to a dead end each time.
We asked numerous passers by for directions to the castle. Finally one
gentleman has given us directions, which we followed only to run to
another dead end above village Kapušany. So I asked an owner of a house
at the dead end for permission to park, partially blocking her entrance.
She was very kind and gave us directions for the climb. Of course we
missed the green mark for the trail and continued the wrong way. We run
into a group of young people having a beer and making fire for frying
bacon on the sticks...
THE
CORRIDOR OF TOLERANCE
AT MOJMÍROVCE MANOR HOUSE
Latest addition to the Mojmírovce
Manor House decorations is the hall of tolerance with which they are
trying to accentuate the real meaning of the word tolerance, which means
for today and for the future the basic meaning for preservation of the
civilization in the world. In this corridor they are inviting the visitors
to try to find through the art and religion contiguous points that are
bringing people together. Spectres that the artist depicts in their
paintings of half round shapes are visions or symbols of different
religions. We can see two paintings depicting Indian Hinduism by Táňa
Zitanová, two paintings depicting Greek mythology-winged Daidalos and
Ikaros and typical figure of ancient Egypt by Jana Sabíková-Farmanová.
We also can see paintings depicitg Taoism, seven intelectuals and
Confucius by chinese painter living in Bratislava Paolo Zhang. We
can also find well known sitting Buddha by Soňa Heréniová.
Following we can see paintings depicting Christianism-Old and New
Testament by young artist Rasťo Podoba. Last two paintings are
depicting Islam by Blažej Mikuš.
All paintings are full of symbols; each motif is certain exactly catched
authentic spectre of that or other religion. Beautiful crystal chandeliers
light up the corridor and they are giving it historic atmosphere. They are
made by well-known artist from Brno, Lea Raisová.
The half round shaped paintings are hanged immediately under the ceiling
of the corridor and the space under the paintings will be used to display
portraits of important religious personalities from the history of man
kind. First two paintings are finished-portrait of the reformer of
Catholic church Martin Luther by Ingrid Zámecníková and portrait of
Mahatma Ghandi, who himself is the symbol of tolerance, by Táňa
Zitanová. All authors are well known Slovak painters.
THE
OCHTINSKÁ ARAGONITE CAVE
NATIONAL
NATURE MONUMENT
UNESCO
WORLD HERITAGE SITE
Cadastral
areal: Ochtiná
District:
Rožňava
Region: Košice
It
is situated in the Ochtinský cryptokarst on the north western slope of Hrádok
Hill in the Revúcka Highland, between Jelšava and Štítnik. Access to
the cave is through the 145-meter gallery that opens to the cave spaces at
642 meters above the sea level. It was formed in a lens of Palaeozoic crystalline limestone (Lower Devonian Upper Silurian) in
Devonian phyllites. A part of the limestones was in the Mesozoic Period in
the Upper Cretaceous hydro terminally transformed into ankerites and
siderites. The atmospheric water seeping along the tectonic faults caused
their weathering and the creation of ochres that were later flowed away.
Overall length of the cave is 300 meters. Rich aragonite filling was
formed under specific hydro chemical and climatic conditions in closed
underground spaces. It occurs in kidney shaped, needle shaped and spiral
forms. The cave was discovered in 1954 by chance, when driving a new
geologic exploratory gallery, by M. Cangár and J. Prošek. It was open to
the public in 1972 in the length of 230 meters.
ČERVENÝ
KAMEŇ CASTLE
This
is a huge, well preserved castle situated on a hill above
village Píla in Small Carpathians. Originally there was a King’s castle
of which the first written records date back to middle of 13th century. It
belonged to a series of medieval border castles that were built in 13th
century for defense of western border of Hungarian Empire. At the
beginning of 16th century it belonged to Thurzo family and from 1535 to
Fuggers, well known and rich entrepreneurs, that belonged to one of the
richest families in Europe magnates and financiers. Their richness came
from their copper and other precious metals mines and from trading. Anton
Fugger a builder of great name started to build a new castle on the
foundations of the old gothic castle with huge storage warehousing areas
in the basement and fortification system. As a medieval fortification, it
is one of the best-preserved structures in Slovakia.
KAROL
PLICKA
ČESKOSLOVENSKO
This
book contains sepia photographs of Prague, Slovakia, Slovak folklore, some
never published before.
He
bas born in a family of Czech businessman on October
14, 1894 Vienna. He lived his childhood in Vienna and Česká Třebová.
Already in 1899-1900 he was a member of choir Wiener Sängerknaben.
When he was ten years old, he started to be interested in photography
and constructed a photographic instrument out of an old cigar box. Later
on he purchased a photo camera and after 1919 started his collector’s
and photographic studies of Slovak folklore.
Until
1918 he was a member of army band and a singer in the choir of
opera in Vienna. 1919-1923 member of Singers association of Prague’s
teachers. He was a co-founder and conductor of the choir of Czech
Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1909-1913 he studied at the Teachers institute in Hradec Králové,
1914 he studied violin under Prof. Mařák in Prague.
In 1927-1923 he absolved extra ordinary study of musical
science and history of art at Philosophical faculty of University of Ján
Amos Komenský in Bratislava...
COST
US$119.95
plus US$10.95 shipping and handling
TOTAL US$130.90
Please mail personal check to:
Vladimir Linder
3804 Yale Street
Burnaby
BC V5C 1P6
CANADA
MUSEUM
OF THE ORAVA VILLAGE
This
open-air museum is located on mountain meadow Poľana
at the foot of Roháče in the West Tatra Mountains. The Studený
brook runs through the whole village. The Museum of the Orava Village is a
model of mountain village developed over the centuries, with a historical
core, cottars’ houses on the periphery and seasonal buildings on pasture
lands, a cemetery and church on ancient cultic sites on the highest
elevation point near the village, and with mills at spots where the stream
leaves the village. The museum has following parts: The Lower Orava region
marketplace, the part near a stream contains a watermill, a sawmill, and a
building for producing fabric. Zamagura Street, Highlanders’ village
represents the poorest part of Orava situated in the southeast of the
Orava Mountains and the Beskydy solitary estates or hamlets...
TESTIMONY
OF HISTORIC POSTCARDS
BRATISLAVA
SVEDECTVO
HISTORICKÝCH POHĽADNÍC
This
is a fantastic hard cover large format book 10 x 13 3/8 inches containing
574 historical postcards and photographs with many views of the city from
the days gone by. It goes back to 1839 and the beginning of photography in
Bratislava. It shows the first known picture of Bratislava by J. Deutsch
from 1840-41.
The book is written in Slovak, German, and Hungarian languages. At the end
of the book the complete text is in English.
It starts with a chapter: From the History of Picture Postcards. Followed
by: Views of the City: Franciscan Square, Main Square,Clarisine Lane,
Lawrence Lane, St. Michalel’s Lane, Lords Lane, Primate Square,
Fishermen’s Gate, Ventura Street, American Square, Danube Lane, Gorki
Street, Deep Road, Hodža Square, Hurban Square, Hviezdoslav Square,
Jacob’s Square, Field Hospital Street, Factory Street, Jesenský Street,
Kollár Square, Goats Lane, Cross Lane, Ľ. Štúr Square, Commerce Lane,
The Palisades, Virgin Lane, Radlinský Street, Fish Square, Freedom
Square, Square of the Slovak National Uprising, Dry Toll, Šarárik Square
Rampart Streer, Hospital Lane, Štefánik Street, Štefanovič Lane, Windy
Lane, High Street, Zoch Lane, Castle Street, Jewish Lane, District Square,
Capucin Lane, The Daube Embankment, The Castle Surroundings, The Castle,
Transpor, Church Buildings, The Fire Brigade, Culture and Education,
Aerial Views, Bridges, Parks, Greenery, Foresters‘ Lodges, Catering,
Recreation, Sport, Industry, Factories, Wine Growing and Wine Bars, The
Military, Health Service and Welfare, Floods, The Fire in 1913,
Exhibitions and Fairs, The Visit of Francis Joseph I in 1908, The Visit of
Emperor Charles in 1918, The Incorporation of Bratislava into
Czechoslovakia, The Last Farewell to Milan Rastislav Štefánik, The Bomb
Attack on March 13, 1939, The
Bombing Raid on June 16, 1944.
I lived in Bratislava for the first 19 years of my life from 1950 until
1969 and I still remember many scenes of Bratislava captured on these
postcards. It has brought back many memories and I would certainly
recommend it and especially to people that used to live in Bratislava.
COST
US$119.95
plus US$10.95 shipping and handling
TOTAL US$130.90
Please mail personal check to:
Vladimir Linder
3804 Yale Street
Burnaby
BC V5C 1P6
CANADA
For FREE sample issue of
The Slovak Heritage Live Newsletter
please send in or email your postal address to:
Vladimir
Linder
3804 Yale Street
Burnaby, BC,
Canada, V5C 1P6
Phone/Fax:
1-604-291-8065
This limited time offer is good
only in North America
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TO SLOVAK HERITAGE LIVE MAIN PAGE
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Copyright © Vladimir Linder 2005
3804 Yale
Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5C 1P6
The above article and photographs may not be copied, reproduced,
republished, or redistributed by any means including electronic, without
the express written permission of Vladimir
Linder. All rights
reserved.
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