Bartošovce is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in Bardejov District

Bardejov District

Bardejov District is a district in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia.Until 1918, the district was part of the Hungarian county of...

 in the Prešov Region

Prešov Region

The Prešov Region is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions. It consists of 13 districts.-Geography:It is located in north-eastern Slovakia and has an area of 8,975 km². The region has diverse types of landscapes occurring in Slovakia, but mostly highlands and hilly lands dominate the...

 of north-east Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

.

History

Bartosovce is in the Bardejov District of the Saris Region in Slovakia

In historical records

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 the village was first mentioned in 1427. Significant emigration from Bartosovce occurred from approximately 1890 to 1910. Recorded histories are available from several historical books linking emigrants to the eastern United States. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TetMKIYctNIC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=bartosovce+emigrate&source=bl&ots=6Ekcb5vdcI&sig=I9NVdiPiCAkSCVKgO5HD_XzPcgA&hl=en&ei=9jS9

Much of the regional history is captured in folk music. An example of this music is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkwuyS8vkO8

The walled city of Bardejov dominates the region however a group of midevil castles most notably Kapusany surround the valley holding Bartosovce. http://www.slovakiaholidays.org/castles/map-medieval-castles.htm

History of Bardejov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardejov

Bardejov - an ancient town included in UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage Register, Bardejov retains a Medieval atmosphere which attracts many visitors. The rectangular town square is an Urban Conservation Area. A look at the renovated burgher houses on the square, a visit to the magnificent 11th-century Church of Saint Egidius with its original Gothic altars, or to the Saris Museum in the building of the former town hall are all musts for tourists, while the Museum's annex on Rhodyho street has the only exhibition of icons in Slovakia.

History of Saris Region
http://www.region.sk/saris.html

Šariš county was created before the 13th century from the comitatus Novi Castri (named after Novum Castrum, today Abaújvár), which also included the later counties Abov and Heves. The county's territory was situated along Torysa and upper Topľa rivers. Its area was 3,652 km² around 1910. The original seat of the county was Šariš Castle and since the 17th century, Prešov.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0ari%C5%A1

Historical archives are located in the Šariš Museum in Bardejov. ttp://www.muzeumbardejov.sk/english/historia/historia.htm

The museum is composed of the following departments:
- Department of History
- Department of Natural Sciences
- Department of Folk Lore
- Documentary Section
- Restoration and Conservation Section
- Cultural and Educational Section

This museum manages an outdoor reconstruction of historical buildings in area of 1.5 hectares, arranged like a park and garden, there are 24 exhibited buildings, which present the folk culture and the construction of two ethnic groups, Slovaks and Rusyns, living in the regions of Upper Šariš and Northern Zemplín. They come from the 19th and 20th centuries and they typologically belong to wooden constructions of the Carpathian type. There are four types of buildings:

a/ Residential timber houses and their most common variants:
b/ Various agricultural constructions
c/ Technical constructions
d/ Sacral buildings:

The buildings are furnished and equipped with tools from the time when they were built. Outside the open-air museum there is a wooden church from Mikulášová, built in 1730, moved to Bardejovské Kúpele in 1931, and currently managed by the Šariš Museum.

Early History of Slovakia
http://www.heartofeurope.co.uk/history.htm

There is an exhibit in the Poprad Museum of a Neanderthal skull molding, which was found in the village of Ganovce. "Ganovce Man", as he is affectionately known, dates back to around 200,000 B.C., and is the earliest evidence of people living in Slovakia.
Other archaeological discoveries, tell us that the Celtic tribes came to Slovakia at the beginning of the Iron Age and that the Romans invaded the region in 6 A.D.
There is a Roman inscription still engraved on the rock of Trencin Castle, which was written in 179 A.D. and marked the most northern point of the Roman Empire at that time.

Following the fall of the Roman Empire, the region that is now Slovakia was raided by various tribes, including the Huns, the Lombards, the Avars and the Germanic Goths, a phenomenon commonly known as the "migration of people".

It is not known for definite when the Slavs (the true descendants of Slovaks) first came to Slovakia. However, we do know that they had become the dominant race by the C7th.

Samo's Empire

The Samo Empire (623 - 665) was the first organized community of Slavs in the region that is now Slovakia, and was named after its ruler, Prince Samo. In 623, the Samo Empire rose up against the Avars, who had invaded the region from the Steppes of Asia, and drove them out of Slovakia. They then went on to gain their independence from the neighboring Franks, by defeating King Dagobert's army, at Vosgate Castle, in 631.
Prince Samo died in 665, together with the Empire he had created. With no capable heir to carry on what he had started, Slovakia was once more ruled by the Avars, until they were finally defeated by the Emperor Charlemagne, in 799

The Great Moravian Empire

Once the Franks had defeated the Avars, two separate Slavic communities began to emerge on either side of the White Carpathian mountain range. They were the principalities of Moravia and Nitra.
Prince Pribina of Nitra, ruled over a growing Slavic noble class in Western and Central Slovakia. He was astute enough to recognize the political importance of religion in the area, with respect to the neighboring Christian Frankish and Bavarian Kingdoms, and so it was he who first introduced Christianity to the Slavs, in 828. Meanwhile, to the West of the White Carpathians, Prince Mojmir ruled over an area of what is today Moravia, as well as parts of Western Slovakia. Mojmir wanted to expand his principality further, and so in 833 he attacked Nitra, driving Pribina out of the region, and thus uniting the two Slavic principalities.
Mojmir I became the first Ruler of the Principality of Mojmir, as it was known at that time. It was one hundred years later when it was first called the Great Moravian Empire, by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII.

Although Pribina was defeated at Nitra, he actually fared rather better than Mojmir following the battle. Having fled Nitra he found himself in favor with the Frankish King, Louis 'the German', and was given a principality in Pannonia (present day Hungary). Late in life, he was baptized in the Christian faith, and set about building churches and christening the people of Pannonia.

Meanwhile, Mojmir had a difficult time ruling over Nitra, facing many conflicts during his reign. He was finally dethroned by King Louis in 846, who had him arrested and replaced by Mojmir's nephew, Rastislav. Prince Rastislav was a far more successful ruler than his uncle had been, but nevertheless soon found himself involved in a dispute with King Louis, which led to the Franks invading Great Moravia in 855. Skirmishes between Great Moravia and the Franks lasted until 859, when a peace treaty was signed.
Rastislav will be best remembered in Slovak history for his role in bringing the Christian Missionary brothers, Cyril and Method, over from Constantinople. This was a politically astute move by Rastislav, for as well as stopping the influence of Frankish missionaries, it strengthened ties with the Byzantine Empire. Rastislav's downfall came in the shape of his nephew, Svatopluk, whose treachery led to Rastislav's imprisonment and death at the hands of the Franks. Svatopluk, who was a close friend of King Louis' son, Carloman, then succeeded his uncle as Prince of Nitra.
Svatopluk proved to be a very strong leader, and the Great Moravian Empire prospered under his 24 year reign. In 894, when Svatopluk the Great died, his three sons, Svatopluk II, Mojmir II and Bratislav took over control of the Great Moravian Empire. Their father warned them that the Empire would only survive the growing external threats of the Frank and Bavarian armies and the new threat of the Magyar tribes, if they remained unified. Although Mojmir and Bratislav had a strong relationship, they did not with their brother Svatopluk, and their internal conflicts would eventually lead to the break up of the Great Moravian Empire.

The Kingdom of Hungary

In the year 896, only two years after Svatopluk the Great's death, Magyar tribes crossed into the territory that is now Slovakia for the first time. As the Great Moravian Empire crumbled, the Magyars slowly but surely forged deeper into Slovak territory, until finally at the Battle of Bratislava, in 907, the Great Moravian Empire was defeated once and for all. It would be the last time that Slovaks ruled their lands for more than a Millennium.
Slovakia now saw fifty years of battles and skirmishing between the nomadic Magyars and the neighboring Franks, which finally came to an end in 955 when the Frankish King, Otto I, completely destroyed the Magyar army. This heavy defeat forced the Magyars to give up their nomadic lifestyle of attacking and pillaging towns, and settle down. Over the next three centuries the Magyars slowly but surely integrated themselves into the lands of the former Great Moravia, adopting many of the Slovaks customs, as well as Christianity.
In 1241, history repeated itself, as another nomadic tribe attacked the region from the East. This time it was the turn of the Tatars, who were also a Mongolian tribe, as the Magyars had been. Again the region of Slovakia was devastated as well as the rest of the Hungarian Kingdom, as battles raged between King Belo of Hungary and the Tatar forces. Belo was defeated and driven into exile after the battle of Slana River, as the Tatars took a foothold in the area that is present day Hungary. However, the Kingdom of Hungary was given a respite when the Great Khan Ogadan (son of Genghis) died, and the Tatar forces returned home so as to elect a new leader. King Belo then returned from his exile, and set about strengthening the Kingdom with many fortresses and castles, in order to keep out any future threat from the East.
Despite the Tatar invasion, on the whole Slovakia prospered in the first 500 years as a state in the Kingdom of Hungary. Rich in minerals and fairly well developed economically, Slovakia was one of the biggest producers of silver and gold in the whole of Europe.

Turkish Invasion

In the early C16th the Ottoman's expanded their great Empire westward through Central Europe. After the Turkish victory at the Battle of Mohac in 1526, the Kingdom of Hungary was badly defeated and found itself divided into three separate parts. The territory that is present day Hungary was now under Turkish rule, while another part, Transylvania, became a Turkish protectorate vassal, controlled by the Ottoman Empire. That left only Slovakia, which managed to withstand the Turkish Invasion.
Slovakia now found itself the center of the Hungarian State. All important Hungarian political, administrative and religious institutions moved to Slovakia. Although, Slovakia had not felt the full force of the Turkish Invasion, as Hungary had done, its situation was about to change for the worse. No longer was the relationship with Hungary a 'tenant - landlord' one, the Turkish Invasion had forced the two very different peoples to be intertwined, which would eventually have dire consequences on Slovakia as a nation.

The Habsburg Empire

One notable casualty in the Battle of Mohacs was the Hungarian King, Louis II. Following his death his brother-in-law, Ferdinand I of Austria, made a claim for the Hungarian throne. However, this claim was strongly contested by many of the Hungarian nobles. Once Ferdinand I was finally recognized as the ruler of the area that is now Slovakia, or "Royal Hungary" as it was known, the Kingdom of Hungary effectively became a part of the Habsburg Empire.
The Habsburg's main goal was to protect Europe from any further Turkish invasions. "Royal Hungary" was a convenient buffer zone between Vienna and the Turks, and Slovakia once more found itself as a battlefield, this time for the Habsburg - Ottoman war. Bratislava, as the capital of Royal Hungary, now saw the coronation of 19 Habsburg sovereigns as Kings and Queens of Hungary. Bratislava remained the capital of Hungary until the Turks were finally ousted from Central Europe, in 1786, and Buda became the capital city.

Magyarization

After the Turkish Invasion of Hungary, which resulted in Slovakia becoming the center for Hungarian rule, relations between the Hungarians and Slovaks got worse and worse.
When the Habsburg Empire gave way to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the C19th, Hungary suddenly had a more equal footing with its Austrian neighbors. Now that it did not have to directly answer to Vienna, Hungary began to pass new laws the aim of which was to wipe out non-Magyar cultures in Hungary. As the biggest non-Magyar culture in Hungary, the Slovaks suffered the most. Hungarian was the only language taught in schools, only those Slovaks that adopted the Hungarian culture and language could hope to get a decent job. It even got to the extent where Slovak children were taken from their families to be brought up as Hungarians.
So blatant were Hungary's efforts to ethnically cleanse Hungary of the Slovak culture and language that a word was given to their actions - Magyarization. During the dark days of the second half of the C19th, many thousands of Slovaks left their homeland to try and build a new life in America. The reason that Magyarization did not succeed, was down to the will of a strongly religious Slovak people, and also to a number of courageous individuals such as Ludovit Stur, who fought for a Slovak language, a separate Slovak identity and ultimately for a separate Slovak sovereign state.

First Czechoslovak Republic

In spite of the threat of Magyarization, the C19th saw a Slovak National Awakening within the country, where Slovak intellectuals began fighting the cause for a separate Slovak State. In 1863, the Matica Slovenska was founded and became the focal point for Slovak Culture. The Bishop of Banska Bystrica, Stefan Moyses became its first president. Meanwhile, the cause for a separate Slovak State was also taken up outside of Europe across the Atlantic, in the USA and Canada. There were also similar moves by the Czechs, who were suffering a comparable fate to the Slovaks, under Austrian rule.
At the beginning of the C20th, as the Hungarian government stepped up their policy of Magyarization, the calls for a separate Slovak State also increased. Furthermore, Andrej Hlinka, a Catholic priest who was central in championing the Slovak cause, founded the Slovak People's Party. Throughout Europe, change was rife and revolution was in the air, the situation in Hungary was also heading for a change, and it finally came in the catalyst of WWI.
During the war, Slovaks and Czechs, both at home and abroad, fiercely campaigned for an independent state from Austria-Hungary. In October 1915, Czech and Slovak Americans signed the Cleveland Agreement, which set out the creation of a federal state composing of the two independent nations. Three notable campaigners for a Czechoslovak Republic during the war were Tomas G. Masaryk, a Czech academic, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, a Slovak who also became a general in the French army, and Eduard Benes, a young Czech graduate, who had been singled out by Masaryk. Together, the three formed a triumvirate, who worked hard to form a new independent state.
In May 1918, Masaryk together with Slovak and Czech organizations in America signed the Pittsburgh Pact, a further agreement to how a Czechoslovak Republic would operate after the war had finished. Later that year, the 1st Czechoslovak Republic was officially recognized by France, UK and the USA. The final act that would spell the end of Hungarian rule in Slovakia took place in Martin, in October 1918. The newly constituted Slovak National Council issued the Declaration of the Slovak Nation, finally putting an end to the Hungarian rule in Slovakia, and announcing the participation of Slovakia in a Czechoslovak Republic.

Tiso's Puppet State

When Slovakia entered the 1st Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, she did so thinking it would be an equal partnership. Although, the situation was much more favorable than when she was a state in the Kingdom of Hungary, it soon became apparent that the partnership with Czech was certainly not equal. There were a number of reasons for this inequality. The Slovak economy was less developed than the Czechs, the people less educated, and far less ready for self-government. Also, the Slovaks were greatly outnumbered by the Czechs, so it would be impossible to have equal representation in the government based in Prague. Slovak resentment for this lack of equality steadily got worse, and leading Slovak figures, such as Andrej Hlinka, began calling for greater equality and Slovak autonomy. By 1938, with Europe on the brink of war, the Slovak National movement was strong, and the Slovak Populist Party, led by Father Jozef Tiso, was very powerful within the country.
Meanwhile, political events in Europe, by the Allied powers desperate to avoid another war, had a huge impact on the 1st Czechoslovak Republic. Britain and France, met with the fascist Germany and Italy, to sign the infamous Munchen Treaty, which resulted in Czechoslovakia handing over the Northwestern area of Bohemia to Nazi Germany. This was then followed up by the fascist government of Hungary invading Southern Slovakia, in an attempt to claw back part of the Kingdom of Hungary they had lost in the Treaty of Versailles. The Hungarian Invasion resulted in Germany and Italy signing the Vienna Arbitration, which forced Slovakia to hand over 10,420 km² of their land, 779 villages and 859,000 inhabitants (276,280 ethnic Slovaks) to Hungary. In just over a month Czechoslovakia had lost over a third of its territory and 5 million inhabitants. The 1st Czechoslovak Republic was finally forced to split on March 14, with Nazi Germany forming the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the Slovak Republic. Dr. Jozef Tiso was made President of Slovakia, after a meeting with Hitler the previous day, where he was given an ultimatum to form an independent Slovak State.
Depending on which source you read, Jozef Tiso is today either vilified as an evil dictator in the Hitler mode, who sent thousands of Jews to their deaths, or as a Slovak national, who had Slovakia's interest at heart, and who in fact intervened and saved thousands more Jews from certain death in concentration camps. The facts are that, when Tiso made a pact with Nazi Germany he preserved the state of Slovakia. Given Slovakia's history, and with the pro-fascist Hungary waiting in the wings, Slovakia's survival was not assured without the help of Hitler. The war years saw a very successful Slovak economy, the war boom almost wiping out the previously high unemployment. Despite this, during the regime of Tiso's Nazi Puppet State, there were many underground resistance movements in Slovakia who favored a return to a Czechoslovak Republic, but with Slovakia playing a bigger role than before the war.
The resistance groups grew stronger as the war progressed and it became clear that Nazi Germany would eventually lose. In March 1944, it was agreed by the Allies that it would be the Soviet Union that would liberate Slovakia from the Nazis, who had now sent in their troops to quell the growing resistance to the Tiso regime. Eduard Benes, the former Czechoslovak president exiled in London, agreed that a National Uprising by the Slovak armies and partisan forces would coincide with the Soviet liberation. However, the Slovak National Uprising (Slovenske Narodne Povstanie), on August 29, 1944, did not go according to plan. The Soviet troops did not materialize, because the Soviet Union changed its strategy at the last minute failing to tell the Slovak forces. Without the planned help from the allied forces, the Nazis were able to put down the uprising and many thousands of brave Slovaks were killed in the months that followed. Today, monuments throughout Slovakia remember the heroes that fought in the uprising.

Communism in Czechoslovakia

After the war, Benes returned as the President of the Second Czechoslovak Republic. Meanwhile, the Communist party grew in strength, becoming the leading political party in Czechoslovakia. In the 1946 May election, although very strong in the Czech Lands, the Communist Party did not fare well in Slovakia, where the Democratic Party held 62% of the votes. However, over the whole republic, the Communists got 37% of the votes, and so won the election, with their leader Gottwald becoming Prime Minister.
In February 1948, in line with the other Communist Parties in Central Europe, the Czechoslovak Communists staged a political coup, taking total power in Prague. They then set about changing Czechoslovakia's government and economy in line with that of the Soviet Union. The Communist government began its regime by prohibiting all other political parties. They also nationalized private property and took over control of the factories and many other businesses. Farmers and landowners were forced to join collective farms.
Stopping short of prohibiting religion in Czechoslovakia, the communists instead sought to control it. Many monasteries and other holy institutes were closed down, many bishops, priests and nuns arrested and sent to labor camps. People were encouraged not to openly worship, and practicing Christians were often held back in their education or denied the best jobs.
For the next two decades, Slovakia as part of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, underwent a rapid industrialization program. The State owned everything and nobody dared question the State. Those that did were often victims of mock trials, and sentenced to long prison sentences and even death.

The Velvet Revolution

During the late seventies and through the eighties, Czechoslovakia suffered under Normalization, and while some of the other Warsaw Pact countries enjoyed a little more freedom, there was no let up for Czechoslovakia. In the Czech Lands, where Normalization was at its most severe, the dissident group Charter 77 was created, in protest to the strict regime.

Meanwhile, dissent in Slovakia mainly took place through the Catholic Church. A very religious people, the Slovaks gathered together for various pilgrimages during the calendar year, such as the Marianske Pilgrimage near Levoca, where thousands met to demonstrate there faith in God.
By the mid-eighties, and especially with the appointment of Michael Gorbacov as First Secretary of the Soviet Union, or 'Perestroika' was spreading from Moscow to the Warsaw Pact countries. However, while change was present in Russia, Hungary, Poland and eventually East Germany, change was slow coming in Czechoslovakia. It wasn't until November 1989, after the Berlin Wall had come down, that the Czechs and Slovaks rose up against the Communists in Mass protest. Without the support of Moscow, the puppet communist government knew it was pointless in continuing and resigned less than a month later.
The fact that the Czechs and Slovaks rose up against the Communists without any bloodshed, is why the uprising was dubbed the 'Velvet Revolution'

The Velvet Divorce

Three years on from the Velvet Revolution, and Slovakia found herself once more in a familiar position playing second fiddle to the Czech Lands. Four decades of industrialization had left Slovakia with a defense orientated industry, and ill prepared for the new Market economy. This resulted in a rise in unemployment in Slovakia, as well as economic hardship. Meanwhile, the Czech Lands fared much better, with their economy more geared towards the mass privatization program which was underway.
These economic differences, as well as disagreements about the division of power between the federal level (Czechoslovakia) and republic level (Slovak Republic, Czech Republic), led to politicians in both republics debating the possibility of the two republics becoming two separate sovereign states.
The idea of two separate sovereign states was especially championed by the Czech politician Vaclav Klaus and the Slovak politician Vladimir Meciar. As the Prime Ministers of their respective republics, Klaus and Meciar negotiated the disbandment of Czechoslovakia. On January 1, 1993, the two republics amicably split, and Slovakia became a nation state.

It is worth noting, however, that polls taken at the time indicated that if there had been a referendum on the proposed split, the majority of the people would have opposed the break up.

Geography

The municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 lies at an altitude

Altitude

Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...

 of 355 metres and covers an area

Area

Area is a quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional surface or shape in the plane. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat...

 of 11.232 km².
It has a population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 of about 720 people.

The ancient Čergov Forest lies to the west of Bartosovce. Hiking to the top of Mount Čergov is a popular past time with several religious pilgrimages held by the local churches. A monument to the patron saint of firefighters is located at the top of the trail. http://www.slovakiaholidays.org/walking/forest-trail-e8cergov.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cergov

Facilities

The village has a public library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 a gym

Gym

The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...

  and a football pitch

Association football pitch

An association football pitch is the playing surface for the game of association football made of turf. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play".All line markings on the pitch form part of the area which they define...

.

External links

• http://www.statistics.sk/mosmis/eng/run.html
• http://www.saris.eu.sk/bartosovce/en

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.