Kežmarok

The district town is located about 15 kilometers northeast of Poprad on the Popper River ( Poprad in Slovak ) and, along with Levoča, is one of the main towns in the Upper Spiš. Today Kežmarok is a location of the wood and textile industry.

history

Käsmark was founded in the 13th century by the Spiš Saxons through the merger of a Slovak fishing village, a Hungarian border guard and a German settlement. In 1269 the German settlement was granted city rights and in 1380 it rose to a royal free city (the privileges of a royal free city were reaffirmed in 1655). The Count of the Spiš Saxons had also had his seat in Käsmark since 1440, and the construction of the city castle in 1463 also took place at this time. In 1530 the city came under the control of Johann Zápolyas .

The municipal Latin school developed under the Melanchthon students Leonhard Stöckel (around 1510-1560) and Matthias Thoraconymus (* around 1550; † 1586) with a reformatory educational program, the "Melanchthon System", significant effects on the reform of the school system in Slovakia. As part of the Federation of 24 Spiš cities , Kežmarok was part of the Confessio Scepusiana ( Spis Confession).

Until the 20th century, the city had a German majority. In 1944 the German minority made up about 1/3 of the population. This made it the most important city for the Carpathian Germans. In addition, Kezmarok had an active Jewish community, which until 1940 made up about 14% of the population. During the time of the First Slovak Republic , a satellite state ("Protective State") of National Socialist Germany, 75% of all Jews living in the city were deported to labor camps and finally extermination camps, some of them with the participation of the Hlinka Guard (in 1944 also the SS ) were victims of executions. The persecution culminated in 1942 and 1944. While the Jewish community numbered about 1200 people in 1940, there were only 118 at the beginning of 1944. The Central Database of the Names of Holocaust Victims (Beta) of Yad Vashem lists about 700 Jewish residents by name, who lived in Kežmarok before the war, most of whom were deported and murdered in the Holocaust . At least 54 Jews were murdered in the city itself, including 43 remaining Jewish residents.

In 1950 the old town was placed under monument protection.

In 2017, Kežmarok was awarded the honorary title of “ Reformation City of Europe ” by the Community of Evangelical Churches in Europe .

Name of the place

The first source evidence for the settlement in the form of Villa ( Saxonum apud Ecclesiam) Sancte Elisabeth comes from 1251. In 1269, after the introduction of a cheese market , the settlement was elevated to the status of town and was given the name Käsmarkt (later Käsmark / Kesmark and incorrectly also Kaisersmarkt ). The Slovak and Hungarian names are derived from German.

population

year	number	Remarks
1880	4,475	3,222 Germans (72%), 705 Slovaks (15.8%), 347 Hungarians (7.8%)
1890	4,897	3,225 Germans (65.9%) 1,005 Slovaks (20.5%), 574 Hungarians (11.7%)
1900	5,606	3,408 Germans (60.8%) 1,074 Slovaks (19.2%), 952 Hungarians (17%)
1910	6.317	3,242 Germans (51.3%), 1,606 Slovaks (25.4%), 1,314 Hungarians (20.8%)
1930	6,465	2,577 Germans (40%)

Attractions

late Gothic castle ( Thököly Castle ) and city fortifications (15th century)
Holy Cross Basilica , Gothic hall church (built 1444–1498)
Classicist town hall (originally rebuilt from 1461, 1799)
Former Evangelical Lyceum (1787–1852) and grammar school.
Articular Church, Protestant wooden church with a plan of a Greek cross from 1717. In 2008 the church was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List (→ Evangelical Wooden Church of Kežmarok ).
the new Protestant church in neo-Byzantine style from 1898, designed for Jerusalem by Danish architect Theophil Hansen ; after the church was not built there, he donated the plans to the town of Kežmarok. The tomb of Imre Thököly is in the church .
Pauliniuskirche (Baroque church from 1747)

The city parish church
The new evangelical church
The station building
The "Reduta", today the city library
The town hall
Houses on Starý trh (Old Market)
Kežmarok wooden Protestant church

Community partnerships

Kežmarok has partnerships with the following cities and municipalities:

Germany Weilburg , Germany
France Lesneven , France
Lithuania Kupiškis , Lithuania
Poland Bochnia , Poland
Poland Gliwice , Poland
Poland Nowy Targ , Poland
Poland Zgierz , Poland
Czech Republic Lanškroun , Czech Republic
Czech Republic Příbram , Czech Republic
Hungary Hajdúszoboszló , Hungary

Personalities

Stephan I. Thököly (1581–1651), Hungarian nobleman and landowner
Imre Thököly (1657–1705), Hungarian nobleman, leader of the Hungarian national uprising
Paul Kray von Krajowa (1735–1804), Austrian Feldzeugmeister
Martin von Schwartner (1759–1823), Austrian historian and statistician
Johann Genersich (1761–1823), theologian and historian
Fritz Karmasin (1930–2013), Austrian market researcher
Juraj Herz (1934–2018), film director
Jana Gantnerová-Šoltýsová (* 1959), ski racer
Milan Lach SJ (born 1973), Catholic Bishop, Apostolic Administrator of the Parma Eparchy in the United States
Andreas Žampa (* 1993), ski racer

Sports

The MHK SkiPark Kežmarok played between 2007 and 2009 in the highest ice hockey league in Slovakia, the Extraliga .

Web links

Commons : Kežmarok - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Website of the city of Kežmarok

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Kežmarok, the city of the Reformation. Church and school. In: reformation-cities.org/cities, accessed on June 28, 2018 (on Kežmarok's Reformation history).

↑ ^a ^b Jozef Sulaček: Tragické osudy židovskej komunity v Kežmarku v rokoch II. Svetovej vojny. Kežmarok 2003.

↑ "Kezmarok" Encyclopaedia of Jewish communities, Slovakia. In: jewishgen.org. Retrieved July 12, 2010 .

↑ Lived and murdered in Kežmarok before the war: 766 (minus multiple answers). In: Yad Vashem : Central Database of the Names of Holocaust Victims (Beta), accessed June 28, 2018.

↑ Murdered in Kezmarok: 57 (minus multiple responses and foreigners [manual counting]). In: Yad Vashem: Central Database of the Names of Holocaust Victims (Beta), accessed June 28, 2018.

↑ Slovak Wikipedia: Evanjelické Lyceum .

[Reformation-1] Kežmarok, the city of the Reformation. Church and school. In: reformation-cities.org/cities, accessed on June 28, 2018 (on Kežmarok's Reformation history).

[Sulaček-2] Jozef Sulaček: Tragické osudy židovskej komunity v Kežmarku v rokoch II. Svetovej vojny. Kežmarok 2003.

[3] "Kezmarok" Encyclopaedia of Jewish communities, Slovakia. In: jewishgen.org. Retrieved July 12, 2010 .

[4] Lived and murdered in Kežmarok before the war: 766 (minus multiple answers). In: Yad Vashem : Central Database of the Names of Holocaust Victims (Beta), accessed June 28, 2018.