Veľké Slemence (; hu, Nagyszelmenc) is a village 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 ...

Michalovce District Michalovce District (''okres Michalovce'') is a district in the Košice Region of eastern Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Euro ...

in the

Košice Region The Košice Region ( sk, Košický kraj, , hu, Kassai kerület; uk, Кошицький край) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions. The region was first established in 1923 and its present borders were established in 1996. It c ...

of southeastern Slovakia.

History

In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1332. It was a single village named Szelmenc (between 1919 and 1938 it was called Slemence) before 1945. From 1919 until 1945, Szelmenc bore the same history as Subcarpathian Rus'. It was first ceded to Czechoslovakia in 1919, then after the

First Vienna Award The First Vienna Award was a treaty signed on 2 November 1938 pursuant to the Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace. The arbitration and award were direct consequences of the previous month's Munich Agreement, which ...

in 1938 it returned to the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

, then back, then, after the Soviet-Czechoslovak Treaty in 1945 was partially ceded to the Soviet Union along with Subcarpathian Rus'. The new border between the two states ran through Szelmenc. The town was divided between Slovakia (2/3) and Ukraine (1/3) by cutting it into two parts - Veľké Slemence became a part of

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 ...

and Mali Selmentsi (Малі Селменці) a part of

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. In 1946, a house which lay exactly on the border was demolished with all the other objects in the way, and a 6 meter high palisade wall with watch towers and border patrolling were installed. For the next 60 years crossing between the two parts was prohibited. To meet with relatives on the other side, locals had to first travel 13 km to

Uzhgorod Uzhhorod ( uk, У́жгород, , ; ) is a city and municipality on the river Uzh in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistant from the Baltic, the Adriatic and the ...

for visas to Czechoslovakia. If their visa application, which took at least two weeks, was successful, they would travel 80 km south to the nearest border crossing, then 80 km back, and return the same way. Previously 3–500 meters and a half day, the trip became at least 160–200 km long for one way only and took at least a month to organize. Those, who tried to shout over from one side to the other were penalized on both parts. This resulted in discussing, sending messages, news in form of songs, sung loud near the border. In 2003, a Székely gate (székelykapu) was installed on the border, one half of it being in the Slovak, while the other half being on the Ukrainian part of the border, with a short poem on the Mali Selmentsi part. The poem can be roughly translated as "From one Szelmenc became two, should be unified by the Creator, God bless with peace and keep us together, our hope remains, and will join together what torn apart, gate wings of the two Szelmec closes our villages together". After the

fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...

, and more than a decade of fights with bureaucracy and negligence, a

border checkpoint A border checkpoint is a location on an international border where travelers or goods are inspected and allowed (or denied) passage through. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders ofte ...

for pedestrians and cyclists was established in 2005 on the street which was divided. It was opened on 23 December 2005, ending 61 years of division. On 1 January 2008, Slovakia joined the

Schengen Agreement The Schengen Agreement ( , ) is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the t ...

, resulting in tightening of the crossing between the two Szelmences once again. The residents of Mali Selmentsi were again forced to travel to Uzhgorod to apply at the Slovak Consular Office for a visa to enter Slovakia and the Schengen Area. On the other hand, as Slovak citizens, the residents of Veľké Slemence could enter Mali Selmentsi and Ukraine without a visa. However, on 11 June 2017, the

visa policy of the Schengen Area The visa policy of the Schengen Area is an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice policy of the European Union. It applies to the Schengen Area and to other EU member states except Ireland. The visa policy allows nation ...

was amended. Ukrainian citizens holding

biometric passports A biometric passport (also known as an e-passport or a digital passport) is a traditional passport that has an embedded electronic microprocessor chip which contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of the pa ...

no longer require a visa to enter the Schengen Area for up to 90 days in a 180-day period. At present, the border between the two Szelmences can only be crossed by pedestrians and cyclists who are EU, EEA, Swiss and Ukrainian citizens. The two parts have a total population of about 840 people, almost exclusively (+95%) ethnic Hungarians, with a few

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

in and around the village(s). The elderly citizens of the two Szelmences were once citizens of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, the

, and the Soviet Union, and now are the citizens of

(and thus the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

) and

, while most of them have never left the village, where they were born.

Geography

The village lies at an altitude of 106 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 or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an ope ...

of 9.972 km². The

has a population of about 600 inhabitants.

Culture

The village has a football pitch.

Education

* Dobó István Hungarian Elementary School

Bibliography

*Zelei, Miklós: A kettézárt falu. Ister Kiadó, Budapest, 2000.

Gallery

References

Egy határátkelés tapasztalatai
Találjuk ki Közép-Euópát?, September 19, 2007 ( Hungarian)
Schengenjárás Szelmencen
September 7, 2007 ( Hungarian)
Pic of the old border
on Flickr

made by the

American Hungarian Federation American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, americanhungarianfederation.org, 2004 (English)
News From Szelmenc
americanhungarianfederation.org (English only)
Vasfüggöny után újabb vasfüggöny

Új Szó Új Szó ( en, New Word) is a Hungarian-language only daily newspaper published in Bratislava, Slovakia. It also publishes a weekly Sunday supplement titled Vasárnap ( en, Sunday, before 1990: ''Vasárnapi Új Szó''). History ''Új Szó'' w ...

online, November 7, 2003 ( Hungarian)

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Velke Slemence Villages and municipalities in Michalovce District Divided cities Slovakia–Ukraine border crossings Hungarian communities in Slovakia