Polana Mountains - the geological curio

Did you know that the biggest extinct volcano is located in Slovakia? For me it was a great surprise, that there is something so unusual and interesting close to my home. Nowadays the name of this volcano is Polana.

Slopes of the Polana Mountains, Slovakia

The Polana are medium-high mountains with forests, clearings, fields and lovely hamlets. The highest peak is Polana at 1458 m ASL. We named this place Slovak Tuscany ;) You can hike here (lot's of marked trails!), do some cycling trips or simply stay in one place and enjoy tranquility. Maps of the region you can buy in bigger towns or cities like Banska Bystrica.

The Polana Mountains are a geological curiosity. They used to be over 2500 m ASL high stratovolcano which finaly exploded and destroyed thyself. Nowadays we can find there interesting rocks (andesite or tuff - consolidated volcanic ash) and extraordinary rock formations. The mountain range is protected by Polana Protected Landscape Area. 

Waterfall Bystre

At the foothills of the Polana lies a town of Detva known for its folklore. Detva is a manufacturing center of famous Slovak music instrument fujara - shepherd's overtone fipple flute. It has really unique shape. You can see it in Detva museum or during one of the folk festivals which are held here. Some of them are even the international events. 

Detva is also known for its carved and painted wooden crosses which are the decoration of tombstones at local cemetery. They also stand as a roadside chapels. 

Man playing the fujara at folk festival in Detva.

There is (at least!) one more interesting place situated in the vincinity of the Polana. It is the wooden Protestant church from 1726 located in village Hronsek. Its wooden construction with severe interior can hold up 1100 worshippers. The site was enetered onto the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List.

I highly recommend this lovely and little known region!

Farm stay, Slovakia, The Polana Mountains. 

Wiktorówki - a magic place

Wiktorówki – a place in the Tatra Mountains which attract many people: hikers, alpinists, pilgrims, those who search answers, hope, peace, meeting with the past, talk, or… ? Wiktorówki is not only a small wooden church in the middle of  the woods in the Tatras...

HISTORY. Wiktorówki is the Mother of God who takes care of the place and the people visiting Her. In 1860, Our Lady appeared to the call of a young girl being in need named Mary - shepherdess had lost her sheep in the fog. Thanks to the Mother of God the herd was found. Mary also listened to the warning and prophecy for the Highlanders. 

Mountaineers herding sheep and woodcutters working at felling of trees started coming to pray at the place pointed by Mary. A holy image painted on glass was hung on the tree. Then, the glass painted image was replaced by the bas-relief. At the end of the century, an unknown artist made ​​a small chapel and statue of Our Lady Queen of the Tatras. This is the same figure that is the part of the main altar nowadays. The old chapel itself is hanging on the outside wall of the sanctuary. In 1902 a bigger chapel was built but soon burned down. The Figure’s right hand is still charred as a sign of fire. The present sanctuary building dates from 1936 but was rebuilt several times.

PEOPLE. Wiktorówki is the people. The atmosphere of the place create both its residents and the newcomers. The place is in a custody of the Dominicans. They are lovely people who warmly welcome every person who comes to Wiktorówki. Their door is wide open at all time. In the summer sanctuary is packed full of pilgrims. However, if you want more peace and quiet, visit Wiktorówki in the late afternoon or at any other time of the year. 

MEMORY. Wiktorówki is the memory of those who passed away. Around the church is located one of the several symbolic cemeteries in the Tatras. This is the place where commemorative plaques of those who died in the mountains or tied up their lives with the mountains have been placed.  

ON A TRAIL.

Wiktorówki is located in the Polish Tatra Mountains. You can get there in a few different ways. The most popular are two routes. Blue trail leads from Zazadnia. This is the place on the way to the popular Lysa Polana. You can get to Zazadnia taking mini-bus from Zakopane or with your own car. The second trail is the green one and starts at Wierch Poroniec, also on the way to Lysa Polana. The trail leads through the famous Polana Rusinowa with stunning views of the High Tatras. After visiting Wiktorówki you can go for a short hiking trip climbing up the nearest peak - Gesia Szyja (Goose Neck) 1489 m a.s.l.

Polana Rusinowa 

Wiktorowki

The dwellers of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Jaworzyna, Queen of the Tatra at Wiktorówki: Reb and Stefan.

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 Merry Cemetery in Sapanta

...in Romanian called Cimitirul Vesel. It is an unusual place in the small village of Săpânţa in Maramureş county in Romania. The cemetery enchants by its colors, subtle lacy carvings, multiplicity of similar (but different!) wooden tombstones with detailed paintings.

It hypnotizes. You enter it and you come into another world...

The Merry Cemetery, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

...the world of those who passed away.

Each tombstone is covered by a painting and a short description showing the life of buried person. From the other side the painting reveals a reason of a person’s death. Going farther and farther you are more and more familiar with the life-stories and at the same time you feel more and more close-knit with those people. 

 

The gardener's story, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

You meet lawyers, mothers, doctors, peasants, gardeners, housewives, children, musicians, craftsmen...and many others. Those were people like you and me, with their own lives, habits, hobbies. The painter is often cruelly honest - he shows virtues and happiness as well as weaknesses, sorrow and problems. If someone was a drunker - he tells about it, if there was a girl tempting men - it is also not left unsaid. You can see who was cheerful, who liked to smoke, who died in an accident or on a war. It is a kind of local society chronicle.

The Merry Cemetery, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

The cemetery is mainly a work of one man named Stan Ioan Pătraş. After his death in 1977 the idea is continued by other sculptor. Pătraş was a local artist who sculpted the first tombstone crosses. He started his work in 1935 creating the first tombstone - because the locals liked it, he decided to continue. The artist's work consists of approximatly 700 tombstones.

The Merry Cemetery, photo by Andrzej Śliwiński

Cimitirul Vesel invites us to consider our thinking about death, provokes the reflections. You leave it with a feeling that those buried people, not anonymous anymore, are still somehow alive. Alive not only in our memories, but in another world. You are accompanied by a thought that death is something tamable, a part of our life, its stage. 

I recommend to visit the Merry Cemetery in the evening before dusk, when there is few people, calm and quiet and the light favors photographers.