Veľká Lomnica (1808 Welká Lomnica, 1900 Kakaslomnic, 1920 Lomnica, , , ) is a large

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' ...

Kežmarok District Kežmarok District (Slovak: ''okres Kežmarok'') is a Districts of Slovakia, district in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia. Its seat, cultural and economic center is Kežmarok, the traditional center of the historic Spiš region. The Kežmaro ...

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

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 ...

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 639 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 19.117 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 4,890 people.

Etymology

Lomnica is thought to stem from Slav word Lom - (rock) quarry, the name Veľká (great) has been added in later records to differentiate it from two other settlements with the same name.

History

Archeological finds of fortified settlement of

Baden culture The Baden culture or Baden-Pécel culture is a Chalcolithic archaeological culture dating to 3520–2690 BC. It is found in Central and Southeast Europe, and is in particular known from Moravia (Czech Republic), Romania, Hungary, southern Pola ...

in the locality Burchbrich are dated to the end of stone and beginning of Bronze Age, more than 4000 years ago. 70 small animal sculptures were found as well as many tools. In the first century BC, the Celts settle here and during

Great Moravia Great Moravia (; , ''Meghálī Moravía''; ; ; , ), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe, possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Repub ...

period the Slavs arrive. The village was first mentioned in 1257. The original Slav population was outnumbered by German settlers in the Middle Ages. Before the establishment of independent

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 ...

in 1918, Veľká Lomnica was part of

Szepes County Szepes (; , , ) was an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary, called Scepusium before the late 19th century. Its territory today lies in northeastern Slovakia, with a very small area in southeastern Poland. For the current region, see S ...

within the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

. From 1939 to 1945, it was part of the

Slovak Republic 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 ...

. On 28 January 1945, the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

dislodged the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

from Veľká Lomnica in the course of the Western Carpathian offensive and it was once again part of Czechoslovakia. In the upheavals of 1945 the Germans were expelled and now the population is formed by Slovak settlers mainly from Pohorela and region of

Gorals The Gorals (; Goral ethnolect: ''Górole''; ; Cieszyn Silesian dialect, Cieszyn Silesian: ''Gorole''), also anglicized as the Highlanders, are an ethnographic group with historical ties to the Vlachs. The Goral people are primarily found in thei ...

and also by Roma ethnic group. The well preserved romano-gothic church of Catherine of Alexandria was built in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 15th century. It has unique gothic wall frescoes discovered in the 1950s. The fresco " King Ladislaus fighting the

Cumans The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cumania, Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Ru ...

" is considered one of the most valuable in Slovakia.

Golf course

In 2005 had been opened a nine holes golf course and a year later additional nine holes course circuit, so in 2012 has Veľká Lomnica altogether 18 holes course. Before opening is another nine holes circuit. The village is a place of annual

golf tournament Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

Charity Golf Cup.

Famous people

* Ivan Gašparovič, freeman of Veľká Lomnica *

Adolf Burger Adolf Burger (12 August 1917 – 6 December 2016) was a Slovak Jewish typographer, memoir writer, and Holocaust survivor involved in Operation Bernhard. The film ''The Counterfeiters'', based largely on his memoirs, won the 2007 Academy Award fo ...

(1917-2016), a Jewish

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivor and writer, whose memoirs were made into an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

-winning movie * Georg Buchholtz, geographer * Ján Hrebík, Czechoslovak Army, resistance movement during World War II * Samuel Augustini ab Hortis, natural scientist * Gregor Berzeviczy, economist * Andor Nitsch (1883–1976), member of the Czechoslovakian Parliament (1925–1938) for the Zipser German party

References

External links

* http://www.golftatry.sk/ Golf course Veľká Lomnica Villages and municipalities in Kežmarok District Spiš {{Prešov-geo-stub