A TRIP ROUTE

INTERESTING FACTS

When I was visiting the castle in Stara Lubovna, the guide did not even mention that this place belonged to Poland for almost 360 years on the basis of the so-called The Spiš pledge. In 1412, an alliance was concluded between the Hungarian and German king Sigismund of Luxemburg, and the Polish king Władysław Jagiełło. In the Treaty of Lubowel, the parties also agreed on the terms of a loan for a Luxembourger who needed money for a dispute over Dalmatia with the Republic of Venice. The amount borrowed was 37,000 kopecks of Praga grosze, that is approximately 7.5 tonnes of pure silver. The pledge of the Spiš towns was a security for the repayment of the loan, which was to be returned in the same amount and in the same place where it was paid, i.e. at the Hungarian castle in Niedzica at that time. The pledge included: Lubowla with the castle, Podoliniec and Nests as well as 13 Spiš towns with their territories. From the pledged territories, the Spiš starosty with its seat in the Lubowlański Castle was created, which, however, was not territorially compact and consisted of 5 enclaves. As Hungary did not repay the loan, by the verdict of the papal court of 1489, the cities of Spiš remained with Poland until 1769, when Austrian troops entered the area.

IT IS WORTH KNOWING

The territory of today's Slovakia was included in the Kingdom of Hungary from the 11th century as the so-called Upper Hungary. As we know, relations with our southern neighbor, and thus also with Slovakia, were very friendly for many years, which was even reflected in the popular saying "Pole, Hungarian, two nephews". The situation changed during the existence of the Czechoslovak state, when Slovakia took part in the attack on Poland in 1939 as an ally of the Third Reich. On September 1, 1939, Prime Minister Father Josef Tiso ordered his troops to attack Poland without declaring war, which was motivated by the alleged threat to Slovakia by the Polish army. The Slovak army under the command of Ferdinand Čatloš attacked Poland with the force of three divisions in the directions of Podhale, Nowosądecki and Bieszczady. After the collapse of our country, Slovakia was awarded a dozen or so villages in Spisz and Orava. The Slovak army also took part in the German aggression against the Soviet Union in June 1941. When the Third Reich began to lose the war, a Slovak national uprising broke out in August 1944, but by the end of October it was suppressed by German troops.