Slovenská Lupca
Encyclopedia
Slovenská Ľupča is the largest village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in the Banská Bystrica District
Banská Bystrica District
Banská Bystrica District is a district in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. Until 1918, the area belonged to the county of Zvolen within the Kingdom of Hungary.-Municipalities:*Badín*Baláže*Banská Bystrica*Brusno*Čerín...

 of central Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

.

Geography

The altitude
Altitude
Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...

 of Slovenská Ľupča ranges from 370 to 699 metres, with the centre of the village lying at 378 metres. The municipality covers an area
Area
Area is a quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional surface or shape in the plane. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat...

 of 33.325km². It is situated about 10 km east of Banská Bystrica
Banská Bystrica
Banská Bystrica is a key city in central Slovakia located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, and the Kremnica Mountains. With 81,281 inhabitants, Banská Bystrica is the sixth most populous municipality in Slovakia...

, in the Hron
Hron
Hron is a 298 km long left tributary of the Danube and the second longest river in Slovakia. It flows from its source located in the Low Tatra mountains through central and southern Slovakia, pouring into the Danube near Štúrovo and Esztergom...

 river valley. Slovenská Ľupča is part of two administrative units, the Banská Bystrica District and the Banská Bystrica Region
Banská Bystrica Region
The Banská Bystrica Region is one of the Slovak regions in the country of Slovakia in Europe.-Geography:It is located in the central part of Slovakia and has an area of 9,455 km². The region is prevailingly mountains, with several ranges within the area. The highest of them are the Low Tatras...

.

History

In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1250. It was founded on an ancient trade route
Trade route
A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long distance arteries which may further be connected to several smaller networks of commercial...

 Via Magna connecting Buda
Buda
For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...

 to Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

. The settlement was built around two important political and social centers: a castle and a monastery. A favorite residence of the influential noble Magister Donč, Slovenská Ľupča was elevated to a town by Charles I
Charles I of Hungary
Charles I , also known as Charles Robert , was the first King of Hungary and Croatia of the House of Anjou. He was also descended from the old Hungarian Árpád dynasty. His claim to the throne of Hungary was contested by several pretenders...

 in 1340. Slovenská Ľupča lost its town charter in the 19th century. The development of the village in the 20th century was connected with the large pharmaceutical factory Biotika built in 1953.

Ľupča Castle

Ľupča Castle was built in the Middle Ages to protect an important trade route along the Hron river. It was a favorite hunting resort of King Bela IV, who signed the royal town privileges of Banská Bystrica in the castle in 1255. Other monarchs who frequently resided in the castle were King Charles I, King Louis the Great, Emperor Sigismund
Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
Sigismund of Luxemburg KG was King of Hungary, of Croatia from 1387 to 1437, of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, the last Emperor of the House of Luxemburg. He was also King of Italy from 1431, and of Germany from 1411...

, and King Matthias Corvinus
Matthias Corvinus of Hungary
Matthias Corvinus , also called the Just in folk tales, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458, at the age of 14 until his death...

. The castle hosted an orphanarium from 1873 to 1938.

Other landmarks

Kláštorisko is an open-air museum with ruins of a medieval monastery. We do not know when the monastery was founded, but it certainly existed by 1263. Its great supporter Magister Donč was interred there in the 14th century. The monastery was abandoned in the 17th century.

The Holy Trinity Church was originally founded by the local Lutherans. However, it was later converted into a Roman-Catholic church. The church is built in the late Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 style.

A "plague column
Marian and Holy Trinity columns
Marian columns are religious monuments built in honour of the Virgin Mary, often in thanksgiving for the ending of a plague or for some other help. The purpose of the Holy Trinity columns was usually simply to celebrate the church and the faith. However, the plague motif could sometimes play its...

" (Slovak: Morový stĺp) was erected in the 18th century in thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary for ending a deadly outbreak of plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...

. It is located in front of the Lutheran church.

Economy

A pharmaceutical factory Biotika is located near the village.

Demographics

Slovenská Ľupča has a population of 3,119 (as of December 31, 2005). According to the 2001 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, 97.7% of inhabitants were Slovaks
Slovaks
The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...

 and 1.3% Roma. The religious makeup was 58.6% Roman Catholics, 20.6% Lutherans, and 11.3% people with no religious affiliation.

Famous people

  • Tibor Andrašovan, conductor and composer
  • Emil Belluš, architect
  • Roman Kaliský, writer
  • Daniel Gabriel Lichard, writer
  • Ferenc Wesselényi
    Ferenc Wesselényi
    Count Ferenc Wesselényi de Hadad et Murány was a Hungarian military commander and the palatine of the Royal Hungary.-Life:...

    , count, palatine of Hungary

External links


Castles in Slovakia
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK