Spiš

Spiš Spiš, Spisz
UTC+2 (CEST )

Spiš (Latin: Cips/Zepus/Scepus/Scepusia/Scepusium, Polish: Spisz, Hungarian: Szepesség/Szepes, German: Zips) is a region in north-eastern Slovakia, with a very small area in south-eastern Poland (more specifically encompassing 14 villages^[a]). Spiš is an informal designation of the territory, but it is also the name of one of the 21 official tourism regions of Slovakia. The region is not an administrative division in its own right, but between the late 11th century and 1920 it was an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary (see separate article Szepes County in this regard).

Etymology

The name is probably related to the appellative spiška, špiška known from Slovak (Eastern Slovakia and Orava) and Moravian dialects (Haná) - a (cut) stick, a piece of wood or sugar, etc. Old Slavic pьchjati, pichjati - to stab, to cut → prefixed form sъ-pich-jь → after palatalization and extinction of yers spiš. Spiš probably means "a cut forest". The theory is supported also by the fact that almost all early Latin documents mention Spiš as silva Zepus (or with similar transcription) - the name of forest area.^[1]

Another theory is a derivation from Hungarian szép – nice, beautiful → Szepes. However, according to Šimon Ondruš this etymology is linguistically impossible. The Slovak and the Polish name could not be derived from Hungarian Szepes because the combination "consonant-e-consonant-e-consonant" is valid and common in Slovak (but also in other Slavic languages) without any need for phonetic adaptation and similar changes are not documented. On the other hand, the assumed phonetic adaptation Slavic Spiš → Hungarian Szepes depends on well known changes in the Hungarian language like vowel insertion (i.e. Slepčany → Szelepcsény) and vowel harmonization.^[1]

Geography

The region is situated between the

. Throughout its history, the territory has been characterized by a large percentage of forests - in the late 19th century, as much as 42.2% of Spiš was forest.

History

Early history

The history of the region until 1920 is given in more detail at Szepes County.

Traces of settlement in the Neanderthal era have been found in remains at Gánovce (Gánóc) and Bešeňová (Besenyőfalu).

The territory of Spiš was later populated first by Celts. It belonged to the state of Great Moravia (Veľká Morava), and after its dissolution became part of Poland.

The southern part of the territory was conquered by the

, the so-called "districtus Podoliensis", was incorporated only in the 1290s. The northern border of the county stabilized in the early 14th century. Around 1300, the royal county became a noble county.

Many of the towns of Spiš developed from

. Many smaller settlements were populated by settlers from Poland.

In 1412, under the

.

In 1868, 21 Spiš settlements sent their demands, the 'Spiš Petition', to the Diet of the Kingdom of Hungary, requesting special status for Slovaks within the Kingdom.

Spiš after the creation of Czechoslovakia

In 1918 (and confirmed by the

. In 1923 Slovak Spiš was divided between the newly formed Sub-Tatra county (Podtatranská župa) and Košice county (Коšická župa). In 1928-1939 and 1945-1948 it was part of the newly created Slovak Land (Slovenská krajina).

During

forces approached from the east at the end of 1944, most of the ethnic Germans in Spiš fled westward, between mid-November 1944 and 21 January 1945 (see also Carpathian Germans). Their property was confiscated after the war (see Beneš decrees).

After World War II the prewar borders of Spiš were restored, with the most of the county going to Czechoslovakia, and a small part to Poland. In 1948, it became part of the newly created Košice Region (Košický kraj ) and Prešov Region (Prešovský kraj), whose borders however were completely different from those of the present-day regions of the same name. From July 1960 it became part of the newly created Eastern Slovak region (Východoslovenský kraj), which ceased to exist in September 1990.

In 1993, Czechoslovakia was split and Spiš became part of Slovakia.

Nationalities

According to censuses carried out in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1869 (and later in 1900 and 1910) the population of

comprised the following nationalities: Slovaks 50.4%, (58.2%, 58%), Germans 35% (25%, 25%), Carpatho-Rusyns 13.8% (8.4%, 8%) and 0.7% (6%, 6%) Magyars (Hungarians).

The current ethnic composition of the region, however, is much different. As mentioned above, many Jews and ethnic Germans were removed or left during World War II.

Present-day Spiš has a number of Romani settlements and Romani are a substantial minority there.

There are also 40,000-48,000 Gorals (Slovak: Gorali; literally Highlanders). Although a negligible number in census terms, they are a distinctive minority with their own culture, and speak a dialect of Polish (or Slovak-Polish dialect continuum^[3] by some considered a language), especially elders.^[4][5] They consider themselves as Slovaks and, in present, speak mostly Slovak language. Official Slovak 2011's census reported only 3084 Poles living in Slovakia.^[6]

Religion

In the Spiš is the biggest and oldest churches a Roman Catholic Church and Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession (Lutherans). In 1600 year was biggest church a Evangelical Church. In the present is the biggest church a Roman Catholic Church.

Economy

Historically, economic activity in the region has been based principally on agriculture and forestry (formerly mining, too), which explains why Spiš belongs to the relatively poor regions of Slovakia.^[

]

Spiš today

Spiš today is one of Slovakia's 21 tourist regions but, unlike its predecessor, is not an administrative region.

Since 1996, Spiš has been divided between the modern Košice Region and Prešov Region and is covered approximately 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 that had been within Saris county and three villages of the Poprad district (Štrba including Tatranská Štrba, Štrbské Pleso and Liptovská Teplička from Liptov county.)

The present population of the Spiš region is about 320,000; almost half the population lives in towns, the largest of which are Poprad (55,000), Spišská Nová Ves (39,000) and Kežmarok (17,000).

Sources

• Krempaská, Zuzana, Sixteen Scepus Towns from 1412 to 1876, Spišska Nova Vés: Spiš Museum.
  ISBN 9788085173062

Notes

1. ^ Czarna Góra, Dursztyn, Falsztyn, Frydman, Jurgów, Kacwin, Krempachy, Łapszanka, Łapsze Niżne, Łapsze Wyżne, Niedzica, Nowa Biała, Rzepiska, Trybsz;

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Ondruš, Šimon (1980). "Pôvod názvov stovenských vrchov, hradov a stotíc". Studia Academica Slovaca 9 (in Slovak). Bratislava: Slovenská akadémia vied. pp. 281–282.
2. ^ Krempaska (2012), 2-5.
3. ^ Dudášová-Kriššáková, J. Goralské nárečia Bratislava 1993
4. ISBN 83-88430-25-4
   pp. 707-716.
5. ^ Trajdos, T. M. (ed.) Spisz i Orawa w 75. rocznicę powrotu do Polski północnych części obu ziem Kraków, 1995. pp. 24-37.
6. ^ http://portal.statistics.sk/files/tab-10.pdf Archived 2012-11-14 at the Wayback Machine ^{[bare URL PDF]}

External links

• (Unofficial) Spiš web site

49°5′N 20°30′E / 49.083°N 20.500°E / 49.083; 20.500