Zamagurie

Zamagurie is a former national and cultural melting pot

The Zamagurie region was formally established at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, when the Spiš County was founded. Nevertheless, settlement in these areas appeared much earlier. A unique testimony to the existence of settlements in this area is a travertine cast of a Neanderthal brain that is about 120,000 years old and was found in Gánovce.

Going back to more recent times, we can find historical legends saying that in the 9th and at the beginning of the 10th century, the Tatra region belonged to the Great Moravian State, whose original inhabitants were Slovaks. Around the middle of the 12th century, the area of Zamagurie became interested in the Hungarian army, which, trying to keep Spisz, brought their troops to its territory, which were to stop the pressure of the Polish princes. Hungarians were very keen on preserving Spisz, which is why in the 12th century they attracted colonists to these areas, among others from Germany and Romania. Their goal was to protect the borders. Initially, they settled mainly in Spišské Podhradie and Spišské Italia (Slovak: Spišské Vlachy). It was also then that, thanks to the German settlers, the religious center of the region was established at the Spiš Podgrodzie - the Spiš provosta (the Spiš Chapter). The strongest colonization wave (especially of the Germans) reached Spisz after 1241. Until the end of the 13th century, Slovaks and Germans were the most numerous in the region, and to a lesser extent Hungarians and Walloons. A significant share of Germans in relation to other nationalities took place in the valleys of the Poprad and Hnilec rivers.

At the beginning of the 13th century, Polish settlers founded Podoliniec, Nests and Lubowla. However, as a result of Polish-Hungarian disputes, in the second half of the 13th century these places were inhabited mainly by Germans and Slovaks. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the mountainous part of Zamagórze was colonized by the Wołochs, Highlanders and Ruthenians. It is worth noting that the Highlanders differed from the rest of the population in terms of dialect and material culture - clothing, architecture and folklore.

Due to the fact that the territory of Zamagurie was not affected by Turkish conquests, the number of its inhabitants grew. As a consequence, the serfdom settlements were fragmented and for this reason, after 1715, the subjects moved en masse to the south, settling in the Abowski poviat (present-day Hungarian territory). During the Teresian-Josephine reform (1790-1790) of the Habsburg monarchy, the settlement of Roma and Jews intensified in Zamagurie.

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