Spišská Belá
   Text    Google Map


    In the northern part of the Popradská basin there you can find an old-fashioned town of Spišská Belá. From the north-western side it is surrounded by the Belianske Tatry (Belianske Tatras), from the eastern side by the Levočské vrchy (Levočské Hills). It is situated in the flat part of the basin, together with several mountain streams (one of them has the name „Biela“, by which the town Spišská Belá was named).
    The area was inhabited already in the Stone Age, but the village was founded in the 12-th century. After the invasion of the Tatars in the middle of the 13-th century, German colonists settled here. Spišská Belá belonged to the wealthiest towns of the Spiš region, which in 1412 were given by the king Žigmund to the polish king Vladislav Jagielovský as a deposit for the loan of 37 thousands stacks of Czech groš (local currency). The deposit lasted until 1772. In 1778 a canning factory and a distillery were founded here. In 1895 a railway was built from the city of Poprad.
    The Roman-Gothic church of the St. Anton hermit which comes from the years 1263-1265 was later rebuilt and in the year 1720 changed to the Baroque style. The bell tower of a Renaissance architecture from the year 1590 and a building of a Roman-Catholic presbytery got its final Classicistic appearance in the year 1817. In the central square you can find Late-Renaissance and Baroque houses from the 17-th and 18-th century. Spišská Belá was the home of the medical doctor Michal Greisiger, a pioneering researcher of prehistoric settlements and folk-culture in the Tatras region. His museum together with the town library are both situated in the same building.
    In the Late-Renaissance house from the 17-th century a Museum of Photo-Optic of Jozef Maximilián Petzval was founded in 1964. Here this famous mathematician, physicist and an inventor of lens device was born.
    Close to Spišská Belá you can find famous tourist destinations such as château Strážky, the castle Ľubovňa, Belianska jaskyňa (Belianska Cave), rafting of the Dunajec river in Pieniny, the town of Kežmarok and the town of Levoča.

MAPS:
                     

PHOTO ALBUMS:
                                           



Spiš | Gemer | Liptov | Horehronie | Slovak Paradise | High Tatras | Low Tatras | Belianske Tatras
Pieniny | Spiš Castle | St. James’s Church | castle of Stará Ľubovňa | Krásna Hôrka | AquaCity | Bešeňová | Tatralandia | Vrbov | Vyšné Ružbachy