Mountain meadow wars

Throughout history, some of Slovakia’s most charming views of towns and villages have been captured in the Spiš region, especially if the painter or photographer manages to also capture the peaks of the High Tatras in the background. Such is the panorama of Spišská Belá on this postcard from 1937, where – a typical feature of towns in this region – a Renaissance belltower stands just next to the church.

For Spišská Belá, mountain meadows had crucial importance, just as for other towns or villages. Land areas were defined by not only brooks but also the Tatra peaks – from which they may have also gotten their names.

The Tatra area of Spišská Belá was demarcated as early as 1310, during the reign of Charles Robert of Anjou. But not even a clearly demarcated territory could prevent various conflicts.

A source of constant strife was the Rakúska poľana mountain meadow in the Belianske Tatras, which it had to share with Kežmarok and Rakúsy. As the meadow was crucial to their subsistence, it is hardly surprising that the towns regularly got entangled in conflicts over it.

The bloody event that took place here on July 13, 1701, however, made even the royal authorities spring to action; they were forced to send an army to suppress it. This was, however, all they did to contribute to general peace.

Administrator Karretty had a huge rock placed on the mountain meadow with the initials K.R.B. engraved on it, indicating that Kežmarok, Rakúsy and Belá could all use the place to the same extent.

This meant, of course, that the conflict continued.

This article was originally published by The Slovak Spectator on December 22, 2014. It has been updated to be relevent today.