Kamenica () is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

and

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

Sabinov District Sabinov District (''okres Sabinov'') is a district in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia. It lies on the highlands of Šarišská vrchovina. The district had been established in 1923 and from 1996 exists in its present borders. Food, pharmace ...

in the

Prešov Region The Prešov Region (, ; ), also Priashiv Region (, ), is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 13 districts (okresy) and 666 municipalities, 23 of which have town status. The region was established in 1996 and is the mos ...

of north-eastern

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, 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 west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

History

The Castle Kamenica first developed out of the castle of the same name that was built on a nearby

hillock A hillock or knoll is a small hill,The Free Dictionary
"hillock" entry, retrieved December 18, 2007 ...

in the early 13th century in order to protect a major Polish trading route that had its terminus in

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

to the south. In 1436, the castle garrison rebelled and was quickly brought back under control, but not long after the

Hussites upright=1.2, Battle between Hussites (left) and Crusades#Campaigns against heretics and schismatics, Catholic crusaders in the 15th century upright=1.2, The Lands of the Bohemian Crown during the Hussite Wars. The movement began during the Prag ...

had control of both castle and village. The castle was refurbished in the Renaissance style in the beginning of the 16th century. In 1556 imperial troops besieged under command of Simon Forgacs, captured and seven days later, on the order of

Emperor Ferdinand I Ferdinand I (10 March 1503 – 25 July 1564) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1556, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia from 1526, and Archduke of Austria from 1521 until his death in 1564.Milan Kruhek: Cetin, grad izbornog sabora Kraljevine Hrv ...

, turned the castle into the ruin that can be seen today. After the sack of the castle the surrounding villages including Kamenica dwindled in size. Later, stones from the castle were used to build a brewery in Lúčka in 1816. The Village The village itself was first mentioned in 1248 as “Tharkveley,” (An early form of the Hungarian name for the village, Tarkő). In 1270, King

Stephen V Stephen V may refer to: *Pope Stephen IV, aka Stephen V, Pope from 816 to 817 *Pope Stephen V (885–891) *Stephen V of Hungary (born before 1239 – 1272), King of Hungary and Croatia, Duke of Styria *Stephen V Báthory (1430–1493), Hungarian co ...

along with his estates conferred Kamenica and its castle on Nicholas Berzeviczi, a keen supporter of the King. Stephen V died in 1272, jeopardizing the Berzeviczi family holding. The new King

Ladislaus IV of Hungary Ladislaus IV (, , ; 5 August 1262 – 10 July 1290), also known as Ladislaus the Cuman, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1272 to 1290. His mother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of a chieftain from the pagan Cumans who had settled in Hung ...

, however, re-confirmed the holding in 1275 and reconfirmed in a charter signed in Eger in 1287. The church of Kamenica was built around 1300 in the Gothic style by Count Rikolf Berzeviczi and the first noted priest is a man named Gottfrid in 1330. After the troubles of the 1436 revolt and the Hussite struggles, the village hit on hard times. The Berzeviczi family had already waned in power and the Sztáray clan had taken over, but by the mid-16th century the Dessewffy family had control over the village and the ruins of the castle. As of 1600, the village consisted of 31 households. After the Dessewffy family took over, the Lutheran church was shut down and a Catholic-only church returned in 1672 in an expanded Baroque style though it was still affiliated with the neighboring parish and not a parish of its own. In the 1680s, the village church was once more given its own parish, which did not move after 1741. The village continued to grow and in 1787, the village’s 627 residents lived in 93 different houses. In 1804, the church was renovated once again and completed in the neoclassical style. By 1828, there were 740 inhabitants living in 97 houses. Most residents were occupied in farming, weaving, woodcutting and animal husbandry. The village in 1910 reached 974, predominantly Slovak, inhabitants. After the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (; ; ; ), often referred to in Hungary as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference. It was signed on the one side by Hungary ...

was signed in 1920, Kamenica became a part of

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. During that same decade many villagers emigrated due to economic difficulties, many to the United States.

Geography

The

lies at an

altitude Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum (geodesy), datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometr ...

of 501 metres and covers an

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a 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 open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

of 21.298 km². It has a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of about 1870 people.
Slovakia Kamenica 12

Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Presov, Slovakia" * Roman Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1776-1895 (parish A) * Greek Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1815-1952 (parish B)

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20090118110914/http://www.kamenica.ocu.sk/ * http://www.obce.info/index.php?make=mapa&id=7&obec=1808 * http://mapa.zoznam.sk/?search=49.193596381404,20.960498112552&z=12
of living people in Kamenica
{{authority control Villages and municipalities in Sabinov District Šariš

History

Geography

Genealogical resources

See also

References

External links