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OUR SUMMER
1996 TRIP TO
SLOVAKIA
PART THREE
Next day I took Lenka to
photograph wooden churches. We went North East of Presov to a village
called Kozany where a Greek Catholic Church of the Meeting of God with
Simeone from second half of the 18th century is located. All ceilings in
the church are painted with bible scenes. Next stop was Potoky and the
Church of St. Paraskiev from 1773. We continued on through Svidnik to Semetkovce to the Church of St. Michael from 1752 and then on to
Ladomirova near by to the Church of St. Michael from 1742, only to find
that the main iconostas is in Bratislava for restoration, now for several
years. We went to Krajne Cierno and the Church of St. Basil the
Great from 18th Century. Continued to Mirola near by and the Church of
Virgin Mary from 1720, and then on to Prikra and the Church of St.
Michael from 1777. The last stop of the day was Bodruzal and the Church
of St. Nicholas from 1658. In this church the walls are painted also with
scenes from Bible. Most significant being the Last Judgment and the
crucifixion of Jesus.
Next day I was on the way
to the 31st Folk Festival under Polana, Detva
and since our Slovak correspondent Dana Hodulova has written a story
about the festival, I will not write about it. All I can say that I really
enjoyed every minute of it.
After Detva I returned to
Bratislava as Mathew has returned from Spain on Friday, only to find that
he wants to stay for another day with his friends. So I picked him up on
Tuesday morning and we went to Rusovce a village near by Bratislava to see
the unearthed remains of old Roman Fort-Gerulata from first Century BC.
On Friday, Mathew and I
went to Vienna, Austria. First we went to the market and then to the
amusement park "Prater." Mathew went on few fantastic rides and
early afternoon we went to Swechat airport as our daughter Julia was
arriving from Canada, via Amsterdam, all alone. She arrived safely. Short
time later we were in Bratislava and Mathew went with friends to a cottage
in Latky, a village near Detva and Hrinova in central Slovakia.
Julia and I went immediately to Borsky Peter to a summer cottage of my
cousin. Borsky Peter is near Sastin in Western Slovakia.
Saturday morning we
traveled to the Czech republic to festival in Velka nad Velickou in
Moravske Slovacko. Funny thing happened to us. I had shown Mathew’s
passport to the border guard and Julia was let out of the country on
Mathew’s passport. This was discovered by the custom officer at the
Czech republic’s side. Julia effectively visited five countries in 24
hours. Watched the parade of costumes, listened to some great Slovacko
folk music, had fantastic Ice-cream and went back to Bure.
Sunday Morning we
traveled through, pretty well, all Slovakia to Vitaz, picked Lucka
and Lenka and went to village called Okruzna near Presov to a
performance of folk ensemble Sarisan. In
Presov I was caught speeding again by photo radar. When I explained that
I was going to a performance in Okruzna, we discovered that the police
officer was from Okruzna also and he canceled the ticket completely. Sarisan's performance at
Okruzna was truly memorable experience as
we were able to be really close to the dancers and singers. Sarisan did
perform at this year's Detva festival. From here we went through Poprad
to Telgart and visited our friends there. Maria Demcak and her grand
mother were visiting there from Vancouver and here we learned of a very
sad news that few days ago our bellowed father Lacko, the former priest of
our Sts. Cyril and Methodius parish in New Westminster had passed away. We
did stay only for a short while and continued on to Banska Bystrica where
we did visit my friend and journalist Alena Kosturikova in her new place
of employment as an editor of new magazine "Enviro" a magazine
of Environment, Creation and Protection.
We arrived at the cottage
in Latky later on in the evening. The kids had couple lap tops computers
there, so they weren't bored. The weather wasn’t great, so we just
bummed around for few days.
As usual I couldn't
stay I in one place, so I took my friend Mira to visit Tibor
Koblicek in Turicky near Poltar to make arrangements
for my upcoming two hour digital video about him, his son and their work
producing folk musical instruments and objects of folk art that you can
play music on and of course Tibor playing on his instruments.
Next morning the kids and
I went East through Kokava nad Rimavicou to a village called Chyzne.
There is a tiny Gothic Roman Catholic Church there with the main altar by
Master Pavol from Levoca and I wanted to photograph it again. Later
on we went to Ochtinska Aragonite Cave, now under the protection of UN as
a World Heritage Site. When I was in Vitaz I phoned the Slovak Cave
Authority in Liptovsky Mikulas and arranged for a permit to photograph
all Slovak Caves open to the public.
On Friday morning we
traveled to Prievidza, Bojnice and finally to
Vysehradne again to see my friend Rasto
and his family. Early Saturday we went to see the Bojnice's
Castle, performances of sword duel and later on falconers. In the
afternoon we took a horse and carriage ride through Bojnice and since the
weather was great we went swimming in the famous Bojnice's outdoor pool Cajka. Later on in the afternoon we all had craving for McDonalds
hamburgers so we sat in the car and went across the Kremnica mountains and
Harmanec to Banska Bystrica, some 70 Km away as this was the closest
McDonalds. We returned to Bojnice through Ziar nad Hronom and went to
Cultural Summer concert at the castle that was organized by my friend Elza
Dadikova. After the concert we went to the evening tour of the castle
with ghosts. This was fun for kids of all ages, including myself. Here we
met my friend and member of parliament of the Slovak Republic, and former
mayor of Bratislava Ing. Hofbauer, who just became married and was staying
at the castle. The biggest surprise for all were ghosts coming out of
closets, from behind doors, they were everywhere. We were served really
good wine in the golden ceiling room.
Early Sunday morning we
were on the way through Turiec Valley and Martin, Liptovsky Mikulas,
Pribylina to Vazec where the people of Vazec were holding their annual
festival of song and dance. We made stop at the open air folk museum, Skanzen
in Pribylina. As every year on this weekend, it was: "Sunday
of natives," from the villages flooded by the building of
hydroelectric dam at Liptovská Mara. There were folk dancers, singers and
craftsmen from Liptovska Teplicka. In
Vazec, they had really colorful parade through the town ending at the
main square’s stage. Weather wasn’t cooperating and a performance of
one of the best Slovak folk singers Jan Ambroz was canceled. As we had
little bit of time we went to the Vazec cave. They did find remains of a
cave bears there. Later on we went to Smrecany a small village North
of Liptovsky Mikulas. There is a Gothic Roman Catholic Church here that
still has original painted wooden ceilings from 15th century
and many great frescoes on its walls.
Monday morning we left Vysehradne
and were on the way to Eastern Slovakia again and our friends in Vitaz.
We made stop in Okolicne, now part of Liptovsky Mikulas where I
photographed the Catholic Church that has a side altar believed to be the
work of Master Pavol from Levoca or one of his students. Soon we were
in Levoca. Gone to see my friends the
lecturers, made movie about the famous main altar in the Church of St.
James and the altar of Birth, both by master Pavol and later on I went to
see Monsignor Dlugos to find if this perhaps may be my lucky day. It wasn't,
as monsignor Dlugos was away. I still had hopes that I will be able to
see the Chapel of St. George soon. We went to Spisska
Kapitula to pay a visit to my friend, nun, Sister Laura, she opened
the Cathedral for us and later on took us to the crypts where all the
bishops of Spisska Kapitula are resting. From here we continued to Vitaz
again.
Next morning with Lucka
and Lenka Stasikova we went on a trip to the most Northeastern part of
Slovakia, through Bardejov. It was our
intention to find a hotel in the Bardejov spa and then continue further in
the morning. To our surprise all the hotels were full. We continued North
towards Polish border to a hotel off the main road. We came to a field and
we couldn’t believe that we have seen over a 100 of storks, numerous
hawks and eagles so close. The hotel was just a run down cottage, so we
decided to continue on to Svidnik. Here we found a reasonably priced
hotel right down town, or as they say: "in the Centrum." Since
it was still early afternoon we drove all the way to Dukla. At Dukla there
is a treacherous mountain pass that witnessed some of the most fearful
fighting during the World War II against the Germans in Slovakia. There is
a big monument and cemetery there. I remember as a young boy we came here
on numerous occasions with school to pay our respects for the fallen
soldiers. This used to be a busy place. Now, our car was the only one in
the parking lot and the place was deserted. We were the only visitors. I
wanted to show my children that this was the turning point in the WW II in
Slovakia. The cemetery is still being kept nicely and we did notice that
the red stars that were decorating the grave stones of the soldiers were
changed for crosses. We also went to the Valley of Death that witnessed
some of the greatest tank battles and the German defeat.
Lenka and I departed
early next morning, to photograph the wooden churches in the area. The
kids were still sleeping, and were to stay with Lucka at the hotel. We
went all the way to Vysny Komarnik, at the Polish border, only to find
that the altar and iconostas are fairly young. We continued to Nizny
Komarnik and found the same. The Church of Virgin Mary was built in 1938.
In Hunkovce, the wooden church of Virgin Mary from end of 18th
Century is being rebuilt and is currently empty. We stopped at The Church
of Virgin Mary in Korejovce built in 1764 and continued to Dobroslava and
The Church of St. Paraskiev built in 1705. Here the frames around each
icon on the main iconostas are from carved and painted wood.
GO
TO PART FOUR
GO
BACK TO TRAVEL
Published in the Slovak Heritage Live
newsletter Volume 4, No. 3, Fall 1996
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1999
804 Yale
Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5C 1P6
The above article 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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