Oravsky Podzamok Things to Do

There were two, timy. lovely stone angels put by St. Nepomucen statue.

There is an interesting story of the saint St. Nepomucen:
John Nepomucen was born at Nepomuk, Bohemia (Czech), 1340; studied, lived and died in Prague in 1393; canonized in 1729.
He became involved in a dispute between Czech King Wenceslaus IV and the archbishop of Prague. He supported the archbishop. At a meeting with John and other clerics, Wenceslaus flew into a rage, tortured them so that John was seriously injured, and then had him murdered and thrown into the Moldau River at Prague.

The stone figure of St. John Nepomucen with two angels standed on a stone post on the left side of the trail to the castle. It looked old and interesting for me.

I found a lot of sculptures/statues of St. Nepomucen driving around Slovakia. They were called "nepomuceny". You can find them in Poland and in Prague, Czech as well - on Karl Bridge for example.


I put a few "Nepomuceny" on my Poland VT pages, welcome:
Wawolnica
Rybnik
Rybnik
Tychy

Visit Oravske Museum that is a castle on a top of a hill. It contains historical rooms and expositions: archeological, historical, natural and etnographical.
First buy a ticket.

ENTRANCE FEES
Adults - 100 Sk
Children 6-15 yo and students (international identity necessary!) - 60 Sk
Entrance with the camera - 50 Sk
Entrance with the videocamera - 100 Sk!
You could buy there:
36.3 Sk for $1
42.9 Sk for 1 Euro
9.47 Sk for 1 Polish zloty

HOURS
May, September, October 8.30 am - 4.00 pm
June 8.30 am - 5.00 pm
July, August 8.30 am - 5.30 pm
November-April only visits booked beforehand!

ORAVA & SPIS
Oravsky Podzamok is located in a historic and cultural region called Orava - the most northern part of Slovakia (north-central Slovakia just south of Poland) - land of beautiful landscapes, mountains, castles and wooden architecture. The adjacent region (to the east) is called Spis so you can often find the name: Orava and Spis as well.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Slovakia and Orava was considered part of Greater Hungary until 1918, when it united with the Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia, in addition to a small part of Silesia (Germany and Poland), to form a contry called Czechoslovakia. In 1939, shortly before the start of World War II, Slovakia declared its independence under pressure from German dictator Adolf Hitler, but in 1945 it was reunited with the rest of Czechoslovakia. From 1948 until 1989 Czechoslovakia was ruled by a Soviet-style Communist regime. In 1993 the country broke apart, and Slovakia and the Czech Republic became independent countries.

To be honest Oravsky Podzamok was not the best place in Slovakia to admire wooden architecture but quite interesting. And I surely had to see this cottage on my picture as it housed Oravske Museum headquarters, the castle ticket office and the souvenir store. Its walls were built of thick, wooden logs and looked very nice.

Hmm... the roof of the cottage was covered by "plastic" tiles instead of wooden ones. The base was made of stones and the ground floor was raised a little above the ground as protection against floods, I think.

MILO URBAN
There was a commerating plate on a wall of the cottage on which was written in Slovak information that Milo Urban in 1925-1935 came to this cottage to her wife and he was writing his works there in 1936 - 1981. Who was Milo Urban?
Milo Urban (1904-1982) belonged to greatest writers of Slovak literature. His novel "The living whip" (Zivy bic), 1927, was translated, as one of the first Slovak modern novels, into many languages. After WWII he lived and died silently because of his controversial political past during WWII.

We found this tiny church ("fara" in Slovak) on my picture below the castle hill. It was located in a small well-kept public park and had a small but well seen tower roofed in red iron sheet. Lovely, tiny architectural design looked as it was renovated recently.

The church was built in 1831 with tower and facade added in 1900. Before there was only a church placed inside the Orava castle.

Guys maybe not so lucky as women in Oravsky Podzamok. I didn't meet any pretty women there except these two on my picture. But I did not complain, I didn't go there to look for a woman and the two very sympathetic women were even more than enough for me :-))).

This woman on the right was named Kathy (Kodi01) and she was very smart and brave woman, she smiled a lot, she drank Coca-Cola light, she liked to talk much in English and she used to repeat one Polish word: tak, tak, tak which meant yes, yes, yes.

This one on the left was named Urszula (matcrazy0) and she was similar to Kathy except the fact that she liked to talk much in Polish. Sorry guys, Urszula was already taken by me :-))).

Ufff... I was a very busy interpreter between the two women, haha, sometimes I could translate words not very exactly :-))).

Hiking up to the castle hill we met a few visitors with these two young guys on my picture among them.
Hmm... women said that this one on the left looked very handsome. Instead of being jealous I... took them a picture.

I was surprised when I noticed that they were talking in English. I told Kathy that they were from Texas and she... asked hehe. They were... never guess... from Australia - quite far hehe :-)))

I found Orava castle (Oravsky Hrad) unique and attractive for at least two reason:
1. it's location on a top of a steep 114 m (374 ft) tall rocky cliff,
2. its three-castle composition (upper, middle and lower castle) clining to the profile of the castle rock.

And it was the best preserved castle from middle ages I ever visited in Slovakia.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The first castle was built at the rock in 13th century. It was originally a watch royal fortress guarded nearby Hungarian - Polish border (Slovakia belonged to Hungary and then Austro-Hungary till 1918).
The present shape of the castle is from the beginning of the 17th century when the castle was rebuilt by Turza family.