Kráľova hoľa is the highest mountain (1,946 m) of the eastern part of the Low Tatras in central 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...

. Four rivers rise at its foot: Čierny Váh

Váh

The Váh is the longest river in entire Slovakia. A left tributary of the Danube river, the Váh is 406 km long, including its Čierny Váh branch...

, Hnilec

Hnilec

Hnilec may refer to:* Hnilec , Slovakia* Hnilec , Slovakia...

, Hornád

Hornád

Hornád or Hernád is a river in eastern Slovakia and north-eastern Hungary.It is a tributary to the river Sajó, which is itself a tributary to the river Tisza. The source of the Hornád is in the Low Tatra mountains under the Kráľova hoľa hill, southwest of Poprad...

, and Hron

Hron

Hron is a 298 km long left tributary of the Danube and the second longest river in Slovakia. It flows from its source located in the Low Tatra mountains through central and southern Slovakia, pouring into the Danube near Štúrovo and Esztergom...

. The summit, easily accessible by hiking trails from Telgárt

Telgárt

Telgárt is a village and municipality in Brezno District, in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia.-History:In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1326 or in 1549 .-Geography:...

 as well as by a paved road from Šumiac

Šumiac

Šumiac is a village and municipality in Brezno District, in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia....

 (inaccessible by motor cars, except for the mountain rescue service and maintenance workers of the TV transmitter on the summit), offers a panoramic view of Spiš

Spiš

Spiš is a region in north-eastern Slovakia, with a very small area in south-eastern Poland. Spiš is an informal designation of the territory , but it is also the name of one the 21 official tourism regions of Slovakia...

, the Tatras, Liptov

Liptov

Liptó is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in northern Slovakia.-Geography:...

, and the Upper Hron Valley. Largely deforested by exploitative timber harvesting in the early 19th century, its timberline was restored to its natural elevation of about 1,650 m (5,413 ft.) through the efforts of Ludwig Greiner

Ludwig Greiner

Ludwig Greiner was an influential 19th-century forest and lumber industry management expert who improved the effectiveness of woodland valuation methods in the Austrian Empire and trained a whole new generation of foresters in a comprehensive approach to the management of natural resources...

 in the second half of that century.

Kráľova hoľa is often depicted in Slovak

Slovaks

The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...

 folklore and Romantic poetry

Romantic poetry

Romanticism, a philosophical, literary, artistic and cultural era which began in the mid/late-1700s as a reaction against the prevailing Enlightenment ideals of the day , also influenced poetry...

 as a safe refuge of heroes and highwaymen

Highwayman

A highwayman was a thief and brigand who preyed on travellers. This type of outlaw, usually, travelled and robbed by horse, as compared to a footpad who traveled and robbed on foot. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads...

, namely Juraj Jánošík

Juraj Jánošík

Juraj Jánošík was a famous Slovak Carpathian Highwayman....

. As a metaphor of homeland in folk ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

s (such as Na Kráľovej holi) and particularly in one of the best-known Slovak poems The Death of Jánošík (1862) by Ján Botto

Ján Botto

Ján Botto was a Slovak poet, writer of Štúr generation and co-founder of the first Slovak gymnasium in Revúca.Born as a son of a farmer family, he began to attend Latin Gymnasium at Ožďany and from 1843 Evangelical lyceum at Levoča, where he wrote his first literal works...

, the mountain has become one of informal Slovak national symbols along with Kriváň

Kriván (peak)

Kriváň is a mountain in the High Tatras, Slovakia, that dominates the upper part of the former Liptov County. Multiple surveys among nature lovers have ranked it as the country's most beautiful peak. Readily accessible along maintained marked trails and with the exceptional vistas afforded from...

.

During the anti-Nazi Slovak National Uprising

Slovak National Uprising

The Slovak National Uprising or 1944 Uprising was an armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. It was launched on August 29 1944 from Banská Bystrica in an attempt to overthrow the collaborationist Slovak State of Jozef Tiso...

, the partisan

Partisan (military)

A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...

 group Jánošík had their shelters below the top of the mountain. In 1960, a TV transmitter with a 137.5 metres tall guyed tubular mast was built on the top. There is also a weather station and a station of the mountain rescue

Mountain rescue

Mountain rescue refers to search and rescue activities that occur in a mountainous environment, although the term is sometimes also used to apply to search and rescue in other wilderness environments. The difficult and remote nature of the terrain in which mountain rescue often occurs has resulted...

service.