Spiš

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kristian Slimak (talk | contribs) at 11:37, 3 October 2004 (→Geography). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Jump to navigation Jump to search
File:Szepes.jpg
Map of Spis county in 1910

Spiš (in Latin: Scepusium, in Polish: Spisz, in German: Zips, in Hungarian: Szepes) is the name of a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in north-eastern Slovakia and south-eastern Poland.

Today it is an informal designation of the corresponding territory (like Burgundy or Basque in France), but also one of official 21 tourism regions of Slovakia.

Geography

Spiš county shared borders with the Austrian land Galicia and the Hungarian counties Liptov (Liptó), Gemer-Malohont (Gömör-Kishont), Abov-Turňa (Abaúj-Torna) and Šariš (Sáros). Spiš was situated between the High Tatras and the Dunajec river in the north, the springs of the Váh river in the west, the Slovenské rudohorie mountains and Hnilec river in the south, and the line (including) town of Stará Ľubovňa - Branisko Mountain (with 4822m long Slovakia's longest tunnel) - town of Margecany in the east. Its area was 3668 km² in 1910.

Capitals

The capitals of the Spiš county were the Spiš Castle and then from the 16th century Levoča (in Hungarian: Lőcse).

History

The southern part of the territory was conquered by the Kingdom of Hungary at the end of the 11th century and the county Spiš was created in the 2nd half of the 12th century.

After Tatar´s raids in the 12th century the territory, like other regions of Kingdom, was rarely populated. King Belo IV. invited Germans to colonize Spiš and other regions of Slovakia, Hungary and Transylvania (Romania). Until WW II Spiš had a large German population.

In 1412 King Sigmund borrowed 36000 heaps of the Czech groschens of the Polish King for the war against Venice. In accordance with the law being in force of that time the debtor did not pay interests only creditor had in his possession a part of the debtor property as a kind of an advance. King Sigmund gave the Polish King 13 Spiš towns (Ľubica, Poprad, Matejovce, Spišská Sobota, Stráže pod Tatrami, Veľká, Ruskinovce, Spišská Belá, Spišská Nová Ves, Spišské Podhradie, Spišské Vlachy, Tvarožná a Vrbov) and 2 castles (Stará Ľubovňa with Hniezdne and Podolínec) as and advance for his loan. After repaying of the debt, the advance was given to the original proprietor. Unfortunately, this took 360 years, from 1412 to 1772. These 16 towns was still an integral part of the Kingdom of Hungary, not of Poland. In 1773, after returning of the 16 towns,Maria Theresa of Austria,Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, founded The Province of XVI Spiš´s towns which was incorporated in the Spiš´s county in 1876. The capital of Province was Spišská Nová Ves.

In 1918 (confirmed by the Treaty of Trianon 1920), the county became part of newly formed Czechoslovakia. As treated in detail below, 195 km² of the county were annexed by Poland.

During World War II, when Czechoslovakia was split temporarily, Spiš was part of independent Slovakia. After World War II Spiš county was in Czechoslovakia again. In 1993, Czechoslovakia was split and Spiš became part of Slovakia.

The county is now part of the Kosice region and of the Presov region. Nowadays, the historical Spiš is approximately covered by the following six administrative districts: Poprad, Kežmarok, Stará Ľubovňa, Spišská Nová Ves, Levoča and Gelnica, except for the eastern half of the Stará Ľubovňa District and three villages of the Poprad district.

Border dispute with Poland

A tiny part of the territory (situated in today's Poland below the Rysy) became part of Austria (at that time the western part of Austria-Hungary) as early as in 1902. In 1918, when Austria-Hungary ceased to exist, the territory thus "automatically" became part of Poland.

When Czechoslovakia arose in 1918, Poland wanted to annex the prosperous Spiš region and Polish troops occupied Spiš on November 6 1918. But after a defeat at Kežmarok on December 7, 1918, the Poles were forced to leave the territory. In June 1919, however, the Poles occupied again northern Spiš and in addition northern Orava. In Spiš they demanded the whole northern half of the region down to Poprad. Although the Polish government promised to carry out plebiscites in villages in northern Spiš and northeastern Orava about whether those people want to live in Poland or in Czechoslovakia, there weren´t any (this situation reocurred after WWII in 1945 , when this region was again ceded to Poland by president Benes). At the Paris Peace Conference (1920) they reduced their demands to the northwesternmost Spiš (including the region around Javorina). Almost the present-day border line was set by a conference of ambassadors held at Spa (Belgium) on July 28, 1920: Edvard Benes agreed to cease to Poland 13 villages (especially Nowa Biala, Jurgów and Niedzica; 195 km²; pop. 8747) in northwestern Spiš and 12 villages in northeastern Orava (around Jablonka; 389 km²; pop. 16133). Poland however still demanded further territories, especially those around Javorina and Ždiar (both in the Tatras). The conflict was only resolved by the Council of the League of Nations (International Court of Justice) on March 12 1924, which decided that Czechoslovakia can keep the territory of Javorina and Ždiar and which entailed (in the same year) an additional exchange of territories in Orava (the territory around Nižná Lipnica went to Poland, the territory around Suchá Hora and Hladovka went to Czechoslovakia). The new frontiers were confirmed by a Czechoslovak-Polish Treaty on April 24 1925 and are identical with present-day borders. Poland however remained unsatisfied.

In October 1938, on the eve of World War II, Poland occupied some northern parts of Slovakia and - as a result of the Munich Agreement (see also First Vienna Award)- Poland received from Czechoslovakia the above mentioned territories around Suchá Hora and Hladovka, around Javorina, and in addition the territory around Lesnica in the attractive Pieniny Mountains, a small territory around Skalité and some other very small border regions (they officially received the territories on November 1 1938). The newly formed (on March 14 1939) independent Slovakia, however, received back both the territories lost in 1938 and the territories "lost" in 1920-1924. The reannexation happened in October 1939 (officially confirmed on November 24 1939). The reason for this was that Slovakia participated in fascist Germany's attack on Poland in September 1939 (although the Slovak participation was rather symbolic in reality due to the small size of the country's army).

In 1945, however, pre-WWII borders between Czechoslovakia (Slovakia ceased to exist again) and Poland were restored. After World War II, about 6,000 people (25% of local population) left Orava and Spiš villages in Poland. Slovaks from the Polish part of Spiš settled in the newly created town of Svit near Poprad, and in Kežmarok, Poprad, and German villages near Kežmarok. Slovaks from the Polish part of Orava settled in Czech Silesia, and in German villages in the Czech lands.

Modern Characteristics

Though a prosperous region throughout its history, many parts of Spiš are poor regions today. But the territory features many sights, prosperous touristic activities and industry. It is one of the most attractive regions of Slovakia with beautiful mountains - the national parks High Tatras in the northwest, Pieniny at the Slovak-Polish border, the Slovak Paradise (Slovenský raj) in the southwest, and the ancient castles Spiš Castle and Stará Ľubovňa Castle.

Nation(alitie)s

According to censuses performed in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1869 (1900, 1910) the population of Spiš included the following nationalities: Slovaks 50.4%, (58.2%, 58%), Germans 35% (25%, 25%), Ruthenians/Ukrainians 13.8 %(8.4%, 8%) and 0.7% (6%, 6%) Magyars (Hungarians). Almost no Hungarians had been living in the territory throughout the centuries of the existence of the Kingdom of Hungary. The sudden increase after 1869 is due to statistical manipulations ("most frequently used language" as criterion) and extensive Magyarisation which entailed assimilation especially of Germans.

There is a very small minority of so-called Gorals (Slovak: Gorali; literally: Highlanders) speaking a specific dialect closely related to both Slovak and Polish (a negligible number in censuses). They also live in Poland. Poland has considered even the Slovak Gorals Poles, as the Polish government in 1918 said: ,,They are Polish". In reality, the Gorals in Slovakia have been considered Slovaks already since the 18th century.

Districts

In the early 20th century, the districts and their capitals were:

Urban districts:

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spiš&oldid=6309364"