Vyšná Jablonka ( rue, Вышня Яблiнка; hu, Felsőalmád) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Humenné District Humenné District (''okres Humenné (also spelled Homonna, Homonn, Humen, Harwsfalva)'') is a Districts of Slovakia, district in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia. Until 1920, the district was mostly part of Zemplén (county) of the Administ ...

in the

Prešov Region The Prešov Region, also Priashiv Region ( sk, Prešovský kraj, ; hu, Eperjesi kerület; uk, Пряшівський край) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 13 districts (okresy) and 666 municipalities, 23 o ...

of north-east

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

History

The earliest mention of the village was in the "List of property" of the Lords of Humenne in 1436. From the beginning it was a foresters' village, what appeared until the present day. The fourth period mayor of the village is Emília Čopaková. From the nearly 700 inhabitants (1828 – 91 houses; 678 inhabitants) only 50 are now having their living place in Vyšná Jablonka. Once there used to be also a watermill, that you can nowadays see at the exposition of folk architecture of the Hummené museum.

Second World War in Vyšná Jablonka

When the partisans withdrew, only two snipers, Šuhajda and Jacko remained. A short time afterwards, a German

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

came through the village and stampeded some horses. The two snipers went to catch them. While doing that they found four German rangers, who were unprepared, as they were full of bravado because of the tank battalion. After capturing the Germans, an important piece of information was found out from the

feldwebel ''Feldwebel '' (Fw or F, ) is a non-commissioned officer (NCO) rank in several countries. The rank originated in Germany, and is also used in Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia. The rank has also been used in Russia, Austria-Hungary, occupi ...

Otto Vilnes (one of the captured German soldiers), who said that the 82nd division will take the positions at the Low Beskyds on the 26th of December, with the mission to hold the line until the new and fresh 254th infantry division will come. The Partisan Brigade "Sergej" decided to hold the line from the 82nd division group until the arrival of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

. On the 26th of December the Germans crossed Vyšná Jablonka and at the "Lukovsky Slip" they were defeated by the Partisans.

Orthodox Church

The village's first Orthodox church was probably built in the 16th century. It definitely existed in the 17th century, since the first record about the church is from the year 1623, written by the resident priest. In folk tales, it is said that he stayed in the Potok

slum A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inh ...

. The present-day church is located in the lower part of the village, at the western hill. Its construction is dated to the year 1766. In the landlord records from Hummené it was first mentioned in 1880. In the year 1998, the church went to the Greek Catholic Church. The orthodox votaries had to have their masses in one room at the local municipal office. Through the efforts of Empress Maria Theresa, the Orthodox in this area became united with Rome with the Union of Uzhorod in 1646. Any church built in this village would have been Greek Catholic, not Orthodox. The church remained Greek Catholic until the Communists outlawed the Greek Catholic Church and forced Orthodoxy on the people. The 1869 Census of County Zemplen (Administrative Records of the County Zemplen, Archive 2 of the County Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen) showed that there were 65 households in the village. One was Jewish, and if I remember correctly, one was Roman Catholic, all of the rest were Greek Catholic. In 1869 there were no Orthodox households or individuals in Vyšná Jablonka. One Roman Catholic is correct. He was my maternal great grandfather. He came from Poland with his daughter and mother-in-law and joined the Greek Catholic Church.

Geography

The village is in the northeast of

among the Low Beskyds of the

Laborec Highlands The Laborec Highlands (in Slovak, ''Laborecká vrchovina'') is a mountain range in northeastern Slovakia, part of the Lower Beskids of the Outer Eastern Carpathians. The range is composed of Carpathian flysch. Bordered in the north by the Polis ...

. It is situated close to the river Rieka which is 3 km (ca. 1.4 miles) away. The

lies at an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

of 385 metres and covers an

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an obje ...

of 24,832 km². The settlement has the highest elevation in the Humenné district. The next biggest cities being Humenné, Snina and Medzilaborce, 32 km, 25 km and 24 km away, respectively.

Flora & fauna

The village lies in the northern territories of Slovakia. The population of animals depends on the situation. There is a population of wolves (

canis lupus The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

), brown bears (

ursus arctos The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

es and

lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, Ontar ...

. They hunt the local

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

...

References

External links

* * * https://web.archive.org/web/20080111223415/http://www.statistics.sk/mosmis/eng/run.html * http://www.iabsi.com/gen/public/settlements/SL_vysna_jablonka.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Vysna Jablonka Villages and municipalities in Humenné District Zemplín (region)