Pohronská Polhora

Pohronská Polhora (until 1948 Slovak only "Polhora"; Hungarian Erdőköz - until 1886 Zólyompolhora ) is a municipality in the center of Slovakia with 1710 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019), which belongs to the Okres Brezno , a district of the Banskobystrický kraj and belongs to traditional landscape Horehronie is counted.

geography

The village is located on the edge of the Veporské vrchy Mountains (part of the Slovak Ore Mountains ) by the Rohožná brook . Further up the valley, the road leads to the Zbojská pass ( 725 m nm ), and the highest mountain is Fabova hoľa ( 1439 m nm ) in the Muránska planina National Park . The center of the village lies at an altitude of 618 m nm and is 13 kilometers from Brezno and 17 kilometers from Tisovec .

history

The place was founded in 1786, previously there was only a restaurant built in 1726. Frequent robber attacks on the road between Brezno and Tisovec demanded a settlement in the previously deserted area. The first inhabitants were settlers from eleven villages in Arwa County . In addition to monitoring the road, economic reasons were also decisive: there were many iron ore mines in the area that supplied the material to the local blast furnaces. Large forests were suitable for making charcoal, which was necessary for making iron. A blast furnace was opened in the neighboring town of Michalová in 1792, which was in operation until 1877, but in recent years has not been able to compete with the new ironworks in Podbrezová .

After the downfall of the blast furnaces, their role was replaced by saws: a steam saw was opened in the village in 1880, and another in the Kubická district in 1890, alongside other sources of income such as agriculture and forestry. At the end of the 19th century, the Podbrezová – Tisovec railway line was built through the village , which is equipped with a gear system further up the valley due to the steep incline.

Until 1918, the place in Sohl County belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary and then came to Czechoslovakia or today Slovakia. In 1942, 158 houses in the village burned down after a fire; after that 42 families left the place and were settled in what is now Nová Polhora , in a large farm near Ploské near Košice .

population

Results after the 2001 census (1718 inhabitants):

By ethnicity:

93.02% Slovaks
6.17% Roma
0.29% Czechs
0.17% Magyars
0.17% Ukrainians

By denomination:

93.89% Roman Catholic
2.74% non-denominational
2.15% no information
0.87% Protestant

Attractions

Roman Catholic church in the classical style from 1808
Bell tower from 1843
Cemetery with cast crosses

traffic

Pohronská Polhora can be reached via the state road 72 (Brezno – Rimavská Sobota) and via the Podbrezová – Tisovec railway (Pohronská Polhora station).