Museum of photography and cinematography in Slovakia

We had a great chance to visit the Jozef Maximilian Petzval Museum in Spisska Bela. Andrzej is a photographer so we were laughing that it was a must-see for him ;) I also enjoyed it realy much.

Petzval inventions

Jozef Petzval was a mathematician, physicist and inventor who became famous for his work in optics. His achievements are used today in cinematography and astronomy. Among his inventions are the portrait lens and wide-angle lens. He also invented the opera glasses. You can see everything in the museum.

Museum is located in the center of Spisska Bela in the house of Jozef Petzval – the place where he was born and lived several years. The number of exhibits gathered there made an impression on us. You will find there not only the memorabilia of the inventor - the exhibition includes more than 600 exhibits documenting the history of photographic equipment. Beside the vast range of cameras and lenses visitors have also a chance to see how camera obscura and darkroom works or what stereoscopy (3D imaging) is. A part of exhibition is devoted to the beginnings of cinematography.

Read more: http://www.stm-ke.sk/index.php/en/detached-expositions/j-m-petzval-s-museum-in-spisska-bela

Visiting the museum with a digital guide. 

We highly recommend!

Contact:Petzvalova 30, 059 01 Spišská Belá

Phone: + 421 (0)52/459 13 07, +421(0)918 965 699,

E-mail: muzeum.petzval@stm-ke.sk, stmke@stm-ke.sk

Opening hours:

Monday - Saturday - 10:00 to 16:30 hrs.
Sunday - closed

Admission:
adults € 1.50
discounted € 1.00
making photos € 1.00
Providing discounts on the basis of the discount coupons EBC - European Club Benefit

Nordic walking - a way to discover new places

I would like to share with you my way of discovering new places. It matches exploration with a healthy lifestyle and gives lot's of satisfaction. It is Nordic walking.

After work...
...I just take my walking poles, do a quick warm up and go exploring fields and forests in the neighbouring area. Podhale (the Tatra Mountains foothills) is a beautiful region - there are many options for a walk, most of them with a beautiful view of the Tatras. Sometimes my husband takes me for a walk and shows me new trails, then I take there other people. An hour every day - it is enough to keep fit.
                                                       

                                                         Few hours - enough to explore the unknown

But there are also many intersting spots to see a bit further - distant parts of the Podhale region, Orava and Spis. All of them no more than half an hour by car from Zakopane. I look at the map, think up a destination, look for some fellows and go. We use field roads, hiking or cycling trails.

Mountain tours
Finally it is our way of visiting mountain ranges for the first time. Very often those are not very high mountains in Poland and Slovakia. Why not traditional hiking? Nordic walking is a kind of variety and facility. It brings also more benefits for health.

We take Nordic walking poles whenever we visit another part of the Carpathians. Nordic walking poles and proper technique - those are the only things you have to take with you. That is why it is so convinient ;)

Some people use Nordic walking for sightseeing. For example it is a good way of visiting Zakopane.

Think about it :) You can start Nordic walking in any time of the year, at any part of your life.

Monika

Nordic Walking Instructor

Traditional food and beverages from southern Poland

Hm… I made up a title and right after that noticed that it is almost impossible to write about all traditional dishes even only from southern Poland. To face this problem I decided to divide Polish Carpathians into smaller regions and write about several dishes from each region. I had a chance to taste all of them :)

PODHALE, ORAWA, SPISZ – AROUND THE TATRAS

Moskol

It is a potato pancake made on a griddle. It is around 1 cm thick, made of mashed potatoes, flower and water. Moskols are served warm and with butter (even garlick butter!), sometimes also with bryndza and bacon. It used to be a very popular dish in Podhale region thanks to its simplicity and availability of cheap ingredients from which it is made of. Nowadays it is not so popular because in many houses are modern kitchens without the traditional griddle. But you can taste it in Zakopane and around in some guesthouses or restaurants e.g. Kraczma Sabala in Zakopane. 

Oscypek

Oscypek is a sheep's milk yellow cheese made in Podhale. It is firm, smoked and salty. Oscypek is also known as a shepherds cheese. You can buy it in many places in Zakopane and surroundings, in shops, on stands along the road. It is so popular that you will also find it in shops all over the country but the best is from its land of origin. Hiking in the Tatra, Pieniny and other Carpathian mountains in Poland you have a chance to visit traditional shepherds huts where the cheese is produced. I like to eat it warmed up (grilled) and with cranberry jam. Maybe it is not traditional way of eating but tasty ;)

Ice cream from Nowy Targ

Mhhmm…jummy. This is ice cream for patient people – sometimes the queue in front of the ice cream parlor is so long… but it is worth waiting. The ice cream has homemade taste and shape and is being sold by weight. You can buy it on a market square in Nowy Targ or on Krupowki street in Zakopane. The name of the shop is Zarneccy. 

Bryndza

It is the traditional white cheese made from mainly sheep’s but also cow’s milk. It is made in Podhale region and Beskid Mountains. Bryndza has salty, slightly sour and spicy taste. It is perfect together with bread or moskols but often it is used as an ingredient for preparing other dishes. In order to produce bryndza you need to pass through 10 stages of production.

Bread backed on cabbage leaf

Delicious! Especially when it is fresh, eaten with butter ;) It is springy, with crispy crust and it has gentle flavor of cabbage. It is an traditional dish from Orava (close to Babia Gora mountain).

WESTERN BESKIDY

Sliwowica Lacka

It is the traditional drink from Lacko with alcohol content more than 70%. “Sliwowica” means that it is made of plums. Lacko is famous for arboriculture.

Kolocz from Cieszyn area

Delicious cake – I use to buy it whenever I am visiting the Silesian Beskids. Bottom and top of kołocz is a baked yeast dough. Inside there is a poppy seed, cheese or apple filling. Top of kołocz is adorned with crumble sometimes sprinkled with powdered sugar.

 

BIESZCZADY and BESKID NISKI

Proziaki

These are pancakes made on a griddle. They consist of wheat flour or wheat-rye flour, eggs, sour cream, water, salt, sugar and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Proziaki are very typical for Subcarpathian region (south-eastern Poland). They taste delicious with fresh butter, cool milk or sweet cream.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Jewish cemeteries close to Tatra Mountains

I felt like a real explorer. Looking through a guidebook I came across an information about a Jewish cemetery in PODWILK in Orava region. Perfect destination for a short trip! Together with Andrzej we decided to find it. Comparing instructions from a guidebook with a map we finally got it. It wasn't so easy - the cemetery is run down and overgrown with bushes.

Jewish cemetery in Podwilk, photo by Andrzej Śliwińśki

The cemetery was founded in the 2^nd half of 19^thcentury. It served the community of Polish Orava. As we read in a book it contains 62 matzevas but it is hard to count them. The oldest matzeva is from 1880. Tombstone inscriptions were made ​​in Hebrew, there are also epitaphs in German and Hungarian. Matzevas are covered with typical Jewish sepulchral art carvings.

Many of the tombstones is covered with ivy and moss what creates an aura of mystery but at the same time leads to destruction of the gravestones. Several years the cemetery was under the restorations - some matzevas were set vertically, garbage was taken away. Nowadays nobody is taking care of the cemetery.

Matzeva, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

Matzeva, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

The cemetery is located high above the village on the slopes of Kuligowa Góra. Coming from Chyżne turn right (before passing the chuch). Then turn right next to the small chapel. The cemetery is hidden in woods.

The remains of other Jewish cemetery you can find also on BACHLEDZKI WIERCH in ZAKOPANE, north-east from the station in Zakopane. You can get there from Zakopianka road - leave car near Luk Oil petrol station, cross the rails and take one road (south-east). After around 300-500 m you will see a fence of the cemetery. The cemetery originated in 1931. In 1941-1942 it was destroyed by Nazis. Nowadays there are no matzevas, only contemporary monument dedicated the Holocaust victims. 

More about Jews in Zakopane you can read here.

   The Jewish cemetery on Bachledzki Wierch.

Another Jewish cemetery is located in CZARNY DUNAJEC. Unfortunately it is also almost completely ruined. You will find there few matzevas, all in very bad condition, and a piece of wall. I have read that after the World Wad II some of the matzevas were used to pave the streets in Czarny Dunajec.  
The cemetery was founded probably in the second half of 19^th century. It is located north from the village, on the way to Rabka, on the right side of the road.

The first mention of Jews living in Czarny Dunajec comes from the end of 18^th century. In 19^th century Jews constituted 14% of the inhabitants of the village. During World War II was built here a labor camp for Jews from all over the Podhale region.

In Czarny Dunajec there is also a synagogue from the 2^nd half of 19^th century. The building is nowadays abandoned.

Jewish cemetery in Czarny Dunajec, photo by Monika Sliwinska

Other Jewish cemeteries are also in Nowy Targ and Łapsze Niżne.

The first panorama of the Tatras - wooden church in Trybsz

St. Elizabeth's Church in Trybsz, photo by eM

St. Elizabeth's Church in Trybsz is a part of the Wooden Architecture Route in Małopolska Region (Lesser Poland). It probably arose in 1567 funded by the local peasants or a head of a rural subdivision. The church was built using log construction with the walls, as well as the roof, covered by a wooden shingle. 

The most important and characteristic feature of the church is late-baroque polychrome from 1647. It covers walls and ceiling with a paintings presenting biblical and Marian themes. They originated due to reintroduction of the Catholicism in Spiš. 

The ceiling is covered with two scenes: the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and the Last Judgement. A background of the first one is the panoramic view of the Pieniny Mountains and of the second one - the Tatra Mountains. This is the first known representation of those mountains in Poland.

The Pieniny Mountains in St. Elizabeth's Church, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

The Tatra Mountains in St. Elizabeth's Church, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

The elements of the furnishings are also: fragment of the altar (XVI), a pulpit decorated with paintings and a wooden baptismal font.

Trybsz is a small village located 12 km south-east of Nowy Targ, 25 km north-east of Zakopane. The best way to get there is by car. You can also use a local transport - buses run from Nowy Targ (timetable). In order avoid a situation that you are standing in front of the church's closed door, you can visit it on sunday - after a mass in a nearby new St. Elizabeth's Church ask a priest for opening the old church.

  The altar in St. Elizabeth's Church, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

The painted pulpit in St. Elizabeth's Church, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

Gypsy music underneath the Tatra Mountains

Finally I had a chance to listen Teresa Mirga and her band Kale Bala live. The concert had place in one of the wooden ins in Zakopane and gathered band's family, friends and some people spending holidays in the Tatras. Kale Bala played songs full of energy, rythm and very melodic so that the audience couldn't sit still. Tentative at first, people starte dancing...first couple, second couple, children...in a moment the room was full of dancers. However it is hard to keep up with the music, one must have a good condition ;)

Teresa Mirga (playing a guitar) and Kale Bala, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

Teresa Mirga is a Gypsy poet who composes both in Polish and Gypsy language. Together with Kale Bala band she plays and sings her own compositions as well as traditional Gypsy melodies sung for the centuries by the Gypsies between the Carpathians and the Balkans. Teresa comes from Bergitka Roma (Highlander Gypsies) - a Roma ethnic sub-group, living mostly in Poland (in Czarna Góra, a village in the Polish Spiš region). They are also called Carpathian Roma due to their settled existence since generations, what differs them from all the other nomadic groups of Roma.

Teresa Mirga, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

Teresa's  rich and rotund voice is unforgetable. Her songs, beside the vibrant rythms, are full of nostalgia. The first one which once captivated me was the short one:

 AJ ROMALE, SHAVALE - click and listen

BAŚAW MANGE BAŚAW - click and listen

You can also meet with the Gypsy family.