Kežmarok, Prešov Region, Slovakia

History | Monuments | Demographics

🇸🇰 Kežmarok is a town in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia, on the Poprad River. Prior to World War I, it was in Szepes county in the Kingdom of Hungary.

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History Settlement at Kežmarok dates back to the Upper Stone Age. In the 13th century the region contained a community of Saxons, a Slovak fishing village, a Hungarian border post and a Carpathian German settlement. Its Latin name was first mentioned in 1251 as Villa (Saxonum apud Ecclesiam) Sancte Elisabeth. In 1269 Kežmarok received its town charter. It also had the right to organize a cheese market (hence the German name Kesmark ("Käsemarkt" - "cheese market"). In 1433 the town was severely damaged by a Hussite raid. After 1440, the count of Spiš had a seat in Kežmarok. In the 15th century (and then once more in 1655), Kežmarok became a free royal town.

The town was a stronghold of the noble Thököly family. The Hungarian magnate and warrior Imre Thököly was born in the town in 1657. He died in exile in Turkey in 1705 but in the 20th century his body was returned to Kežmarok and he is buried in a noble mausoleum in the town's Lutheran church.

The town's other monuments include a castle, many Renaissance merchant houses, and a museum of ancient books. In pride of place is the Protestant church built in 1688 entirely of wood. The church also contains an organ of 1719 with wooden pipes. The church has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008.

Kežmarok had an ethnic German majority until around 1910, and Germans stayed a large minority until the end of World War II. Most Germans were evacuated to Germany or the Sudetenland before the arrival of the Red Army. The evacuation was mostly the initiative of Adalbert Wanhoff and prepared the diocese of the German Evangelical Church between mid-November 1944 and 21 January 1945. It also had a large and active Jewish community. During World War II, under the auspices of the First Slovak Republic, nearly 3,000 of the town's Jews were deported to German death camps. The town's pre-war Jewish cemetery has now been restored.

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Monuments The town contains many historic monuments, including the Basilica of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the Wooden articular church in Kežmarok.

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Demographics According to the 2001 census, 95.21% of inhabitants were Slovaks, 1.59% Roma, 0.83% Czechs and 0.43% Germans. The religious makeup was 77.50% Roman Catholics, 10.98% people with no religious affiliation, 4.83% Lutherans and 2.63% Greek Catholics.

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Europe/Bratislava/Presov 
<b>Europe/Bratislava/Presov</b>
Image: Adobe Stock Tomas Marek #399621862

Kežmarok has a population of over 15,379 people. Kežmarok also forms the centre of the wider Kežmarok District which has a population of over 70,487 people. It is also a part of the larger Prešov Region.

To set up a UBI Lab for Kežmarok see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Kežmarok has links with:

🇵🇱 Bochnia, Poland 🇵🇱 Gliwice, Poland 🇭🇺 Hajdúszoboszló, Hungary 🇱🇹 Kupiškis, Lithuania 🇨🇿 Lanškroun, Czech Republic 🇫🇷 Lesneven, France 🇵🇱 Nowy Targ, Poland 🇨🇿 Příbram, Czech Republic 🇩🇪 Weilburg, Germany 🇵🇱 Zgierz, Poland
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Kežmarok is: -159.573,-49.136

Locations Near: Kežmarok 20.4271,49.1355

🇸🇰 Poprad 20.295,49.054 d: 13.2  

🇸🇰 Levoča 20.583,49.017 d: 17.4  

🇸🇰 Spišská Nová Ves 20.567,48.933 d: 24.7  

🇸🇰 Rožňava 20.517,48.65 d: 54.4  

🇵🇱 Zakopane 19.949,49.299 d: 39.2  

🇵🇱 Nowy Targ 20.033,49.5 d: 49.6  

🇵🇱 Nowy Sącz 20.713,49.617 d: 57.4  

🇵🇱 Limanowa 20.421,49.706 d: 63.4  

🇸🇰 Sabinov 21.083,49.1 d: 47.9  

🇸🇰 Prešov 21.233,49 d: 60.6  

Antipodal to: Kežmarok -159.573,-49.136

🇹🇴 Nuku'alofa -175.216,-21.136 d: 16607.6  

🇵🇫 Papeete -149.566,-17.537 d: 16387.8  

🇦🇸 Pago Pago -170.701,-14.279 d: 16008.3  

🇼🇸 Apia -171.76,-13.833 d: 15934.4  

🇺🇸 Hilo -155.089,19.725 d: 12345.2  

🇺🇸 Maui -156.446,20.72 d: 12241.3  

🇺🇸 Maui County -156.617,20.868 d: 12225.6  

🇺🇸 Kahului -156.466,20.891 d: 12222.4  

🇺🇸 Wailuku -156.505,20.894 d: 12222.2  

🇺🇸 Honolulu -157.85,21.3 d: 12181.2  

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