Below: Are we going up there?
It's been a common refrain, possibly for two reasons: either that on Day 34 of the trip and on the back of the Tatras' majesty most other sights seemed to pale in comparison, or that she simply needed to be told the rationale for everything we do and set eyes on. Neither boded well for me.
Below: Not one for kitschy superlatives, Mary's not sure why we visited Spissky Hrad.
Spissky Hrad: another castle with a kitschy superlative
Spissky Hrad translates into Spis Castle. Listed as Central Europe's largest - wait for it - ruined castle, it occupies a scenic hilltop spot from where the surrounding Spis region was once governed. This region between the Tatras to the north and the Slovak Ore Mountains to the south marked the marches between the Hungarian and Polish (up north away beyond the Tatras) kingdoms. The metal riches chiseled out from the Slovak Ore Mountains by communities of German miners also formed the basis of Spis prosperity from late medieval times.
Much of Spissky Hrad's present-day fortifications was hurriedly completed around the mid-thirteenth century with Mongol horsemen looming on the horizons. There is a story of how the defenders attempted to negotiate the ensuing siege away by kidnapping a Mongol princess as a bargaining chip. Having succeeded, this princess then fell in love with the castle commander's son. On the day of their betrothal, Mongol soldiers scaled the castle walls to deliver their wedding gift - an arrow planted unerringly in her heart.
Yet having emerged relatively unscathed from the inferno that was the Mongol invasion of Europe, Spissky Hrad was ignominiously reduced by fire to ruin five centuries later. No records survived of how. Arson, lightning and negligence were put forward as conjectures that heedlessly reduced Slovakia's largest castle to yet another historical footnote.
Below (top to bottom): looking back towards Spisske Podhradie from just below the castle; sitting on the same rock where I took a photograph in a previous 2010 visit.
The way to the castle wasn't hard to locate - one could see the castle from pretty much anywhere in Spisske Podhradie (Podhradie means under the castle in Slovak). The main path, once it emerges from the periphery of the town, leads (uphill, a crucial detail) across a glorious swathe of grass to the castle gate. We knew it was closed then, so a strict adherence to economy of effort dictated that we got to the point from which the ruins, the town and its surrounding hills could all be seen clearly at once. And then no further.
Below: Both castle and town in the rolling Spis country.
The roofless ruins today stand as a sobering reminder to all who would listen: let not those who are mortal trumpet their treasures by the hearth, for death comes ignobly, unseen, like a thief in the night. And let man listen, for even stone perishes.
Spisska Kapitula
Just west of Spisske Podhradie is the village of Spisska Kapitula, where the bishopric of Spis was once established. The main sights comprise the bishop's palace and St Martin's Cathedral, which was locked when we got there. We purchased tickets to enter from an adjacent building, and was asked to wait as the warden prepared to unlock its doors. She emerged with a bunch of large medieval-looking keys, the kind which are impossible to lose.
Below: standing before St Martin's Cathedral in Spisska Kapitula.
Perhaps more interesting is a pilgrim's trail which connects both the cathedral and the palace to a series of chapels further west. This sought to recreate for pilgrims the experience of Christ in the last days before Calvary, and was set up during the second half of the seventeenth century as part of Counter-Reformation efforts to wrest precious souls back from Protestant clutches.
Near the cathedral, we saw approaching an elderly lady who had just completed the last steps of the trail. She smiled and, pointing back towards its start, said something about it being a nice walk (she could very well have been referring to a regular morning stroll in the park). To be fair, the trail ran along a broad ridge and wasn't tough at all. My only thoughts dwelled on the next return bus we had to catch and a footsore wife sitting by my side. May God forgive me.
Below (top to bottom): the Spissky Jeruzalem trail - which starts from near St Martin's Cathedral at Spisska Kapitula, passing several shrines; and finishing not far away at the Chapel of the Holy Cross.
Plodding Poprad
Poprad, the small city south of the Vysoke Tatry resorts where we were based and from where we had arrived that morning, contained little of interest - apart from panoramas of the High Tatras away up north on a clear day. These are still stirring even if one finds it hard to ignore the utility poles, roads and houses that clutter the foreground like toys in a dishevelled playpen.
Below: Poprad panoramas - from the platform where trains leave for the Vysoke Tatry resorts.
That same very evening, we returned famished. Desperate eyes scouring the vicinity around the train station passed over two bars (no food - we asked), a small cafe about to close and then what looked like a posh eatery across the street from our guesthouse. We advanced three paces before we learnt that the establishment only contained chairs and mirrors.
Also, the waitresses there brandished scissors.
Logistics
Poprad was our base, from where buses (the bus station is next to the train station) run to Spisske Podhradie. Signs near the bus stop in the centre of Spisske Podhradie point the way to Spisska Kapitula, about 15 minutes away on foot. Walk west - uphill and with the castle at your back.
We haven't had time to explore the area thoroughly. But two other viewpoints towards Spissky Hrad can be found on the Spissky Jerusalem trail leading northwest away from St Martin's Cathedral in Spisska Kapitula (get to at least St Rozalia Chapel to see the spires of St Martin's framed by Spissky Hrad in the background) and on Drevenik hill south of the castle (from where on a clear day the castle ruins can be seen against the Tatra peaks to the north). Allow a full day to take in either.
Above (top to bottom): the map of the area around Spisske Podhradie; and a brief description of the Spissky Jeruzalem complex.
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