Poprad (; hu, Poprád; german: Deutschendorf) is a city in northern

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), 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 s ...

at the foot of the High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. It is the biggest town of the

Spiš Spiš (Latin: ''Cips/Zepus/Scepus/Scepusia'', german: Zips, hu, Szepesség/Szepes, pl, Spisz) is a region in north-eastern Slovakia, with a very small area in south-eastern Poland (14 villages). Spiš is an informal designation of the territory ...

region and the tenth largest city in Slovakia, with a population of approximately 50,000. The

Poprad-Tatry Airport Poprad (; hu, Poprád; german: Deutschendorf) is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. It is the biggest town of the Spiš region and the ten ...

is an international airport located just outside the city. Poprad is also the starting point of the

Tatra Electric Railway The Tatra Electric Railway ( sk, Tatranská elektrická železnica), colloquially Tatra Railway, is an electrified (1500 V DC) single track narrow gauge railway in the Slovak part of the Tatra mountains. It consists of two connected lines: * P ...

(known in Slovak as ''Tatranská elektrická železnica''), a set of special narrow-gauge trains (trams) connecting the resorts in the

High Tatras The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains ( Slovak: Vysoké Tatry; pl, Tatry Wysokie; rue, Высокі Татри,'' Vysoki Tatry''; hu, Magas-Tátra; german: Hohe Tatra; french: Hautes Tatras), are a mountain range along the border of norther ...

with each other and with Poprad. Main line trains link Poprad to other destinations in Slovakia and beyond; in particular, there are through trains running from Poprad to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

History

The territory was since the Migration Period inhabited by Slavic settlers. The first written record dates from March 16, 1256 in the deed of donation of the Hungarian King Bela IV. It was colonized in the 13th century by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

settlers and became the largely German town ''Deutschendorf'' meaning 'Germans' village'. From 1412 to 1770, as one of the Spis towns, Poprad was pawned by the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

to the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exi ...

, resulting in a strong Polish influence on the city's further development. In the 17th century, the number of Germans began to decline. In January 1919 this territory was placed under the control of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. Poprad itself was for 690 years (up until 1946) just one of several neighbouring settlements, which currently make up the modern city. The other parts of the current municipality are ''Matejovce'' (German: ''Matzdorf''; Hungarian: ''Mateóc'', first reference 1251), ''Spišská Sobota'' (German: ''Georgenberg''; Hungarian: ''Szepesszombat'', 1256), ''Veľká'' (German/Hungarian: ''Felka'', 1268), and ''Stráže pod Tatrami'' (German: ''Michelsdorf''; Hungarian: ''Strázsa'', 1276). The most significant of these original towns was Georgenberg, now

Spišská Sobota Spišská Sobota (German ''Georgenberg'', Hungarian ''Szepesszombat'') is a historic Slovak town that was absorbed in 1946 as a borough of the city of Poprad. It is located in the northeastern part of the city above the Poprad river. The pop ...

, which preserved its dominant position in the area until the late 19th century. In 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, most of the transports of Jews to ghettos and concentration camps in German-occupied Poland were sent from the Poprad railway station. The first transport of about 1,000 Jewish girls and young women left Poprad on March 25, 1942 for Auschwitz-Birkenau. By the end of 1942, when the deportations stopped, over 58,000 Jews had been deported from Slovakia to Poland via Poprad. Poprad was liberated on January 28, 1945 by troops of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

18th Army. The German population was expelled afterwards. After the war, with the development of winter sports, Poprad became the starting point for expeditions to the

. In 1999, Poprad put in a bid to host the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second ...

, but lost to

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, Italy.

Geography

Poprad lies at an altitude of above sea level and covers an area of . It is located in northeastern Slovakia, about from Košice and from Bratislava (by road). Poprad is situated on the

Poprad River The Poprad ( hu, Poprád, links=no, german: Popper, links=no) is a river in northern Slovakia and southern Poland, and a tributary of the Dunajec River near Stary Sącz, Poland. It has a length of 170 kilometres (63 km of which are wit ...

in the Sub-Tatra Basin, and is a gateway to the

. Mountain ranges around the city include the

Levoča Hills Levoča (; hu, Lőcse; rue, Левоча) is a town in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,700. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Gothic church with the highest wooden altar in the w ...

in the east, Kozie chrbty in the south, and the

Low Tatras The Low Tatras or Low Tatra ( sk, Nízke Tatry; hu, Alacsony-Tátra) is a mountain range of the Inner Western Carpathians in central Slovakia. It is located south of the Tatras proper, from which it is separated by the valleys of the Vá ...

in the southwest. The drainage divide between the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

and

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

lies a bit to the west, near the village of Štrba.

Climate

Poprad lies in the

north temperate zone In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

and has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Dfb'') with four distinct seasons. It is characterized by a significant variation between warm summers and cold winters.

Demographics

Poprad has a population of 55,158 (as of December 31, 2005). According to the 2001 census, 98% of inhabitants were Slovaks, 1%

Czechs The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, ...

, 0.2%

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...

, 0.2%

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

, 0.1%

Rusyns Rusyns (), also known as Carpatho-Rusyns (), or Rusnaks (), are an East Slavic ethnic group from the Eastern Carpathians in Central Europe. They speak Rusyn, an East Slavic language variety, treated variously as either a distinct langu ...

, 0.1%

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...

, and 0.1%

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...

Religion

The oldest churches here are the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession (

lutherans Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

). It also operates here: the

Greek Catholic Church The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually. The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Ca ...

and

Orthodox Church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church * Oriental Orthodox Churches * Orthodox Presbyterian Church * Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand * State church of the Roman Empire * True Orthodox church See also * Orthodox (di ...

, Baptists, the Apostolic Church,

Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and i ...

, the Pentecostal Charismatic Church, and Jehovah's Witnesses. Poprad * Concathedral of Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic) * Church of st. Egidius (Roman Catholic) * Church of st. Cyril and Methodius (Roman Catholic) * Church of Holy Trinity (Lutheran) * Pentecostal Church * Church of st. Peter and Paul (Greek Catholic) * *Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witness *Church of Holy Cross (Orthodox) * Veľká * Church of st. John (Roman Catholic - Salesians) * Church of Holy Trinity (Lutheran) * Baptist church * Church of Seventh-day Adventists Spišská Sobota * Church of st. George (Roman Catholic) * Lutheran church Matejovce * Church of st. Stephen (Roman Catholic) * Lutheran church Stráže pod Tatrami * Church of st. John (Roman Catholic) * Lutheran church Kvetnica * Church of st. Helen (Roman Catholic)

Landmarks

The historical centre is concentrated around the St. Egidius square (''Námestie svätého Egídia''), which is rimmed with houses predominantly from the 18th and 19th centuries. Churches in the city include the early-Gothic Catholic Church of St. Egidius from the late 13th century. Another historical centre near Poprad is in

, which was declared in 1953 to be a Town Monument Reserve. A significant landmark there is the Church of St. George, with five late-Gothic side altars and a main altar from the workshop of

Master Paul of Levoča Master Paul of Levoča (German: ''Paul von Leutschau'', hu, Lőcsei Pál mester; sk, Majster Pavol z Levoče) was a medieval carver and sculptor of the 15th and 16th century, active mostly in then Carpathian-German town of Levoča, Slovakia ( ...

. Modern places of interest include a new

water park A water park (or waterpark, water world) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming, and other baref ...

called AquaCity Poprad.

Government

Between 2003 and 2014, the mayor of Poprad was Anton Danko (former international ice-hockey referee). In the November 2014 municipal elections, he lost to Jozef Švagerko (KDH – Christian democrats).

Territorial division

The city is divided into six boroughs for the purpose of municipal administrative division: # Staré Mesto Old Town"#

# Stráže # Veľká # Matejovce # Kvetnica

Sport

Poprad currently has one ice hockey club,

HK Poprad HK Poprad is a professional ice hockey team in the Slovak Extraliga, the top ice hockey league in Slovakia. It plays its games in Poprad, Slovakia. The squad's greatest success was 2nd place in the Slovak Extraliga in 2006, 2011 and 2021. The club ...

who play at the Poprad Ice Stadium. Lev Poprad was another ice hockey club in Poprad, who used to play in the

KHL The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs b ...

for one season but was moved to the Czech capital, Prague, in 2012. Despite successful 2013/2014 seasons, club has ended due to financial problems. There is a number of former and current ice hockey players in

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

who were born in Poprad. The city also hosted the

1994 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships The 1994 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships was the 58th such event sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Teams representing 35 countries participated in several levels of competition, with an additional two national tea ...

1999 European Youth Olympic Winter Days The 1999 Winter European Youth Olympic Winter Days was an international multi-sport event held between 6 and 12 March 1999, in Poprad- Tatry, Slovakia. Sports Medalists Alpine skiing Biathlon Cross-country skiing Figure skating Ice ho ...

2017 IIHF World U18 Championships The 2017 IIHF U18 World Championship was the 19th IIHF World U18 Championship and was hosted by Poprad and Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia. The tournament was played from 13 to 23 April 2017. Finland entered the tournament as the defending champions ...

and

1999 Winter Universiade The 1999 Winter Universiade, the XIX Winter Universiade, took place in Poprad Tatry, Slovakia. Medal table Sports * Figure skating 1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jor ...

. Every year the ice hockey Tatra Cup is held. There was also an unsuccessful bid to host the 2006 Winter Olympics. There are many football stadiums in Poprad, however the main one is

NTC Poprad National Training Centre Poprad ( sk, Národné tréningové centrum Poprad) is a football (soccer), football stadium in Poprad, Slovakia. It serves as home stadium for football club FK Poprad and Slovakia national under-21 football team, Slovak n ...

, home of

FK Poprad FK Poprad is a Slovakia, Slovak association football, football team, based in the town of Poprad. The club was founded in 1906. The team play in the Slovak Second Football League, Slovak 2. liga, the second tier of Slovak football, having been ...

founded in 1906 and the Slovakia national youth teams. The local women's basketball club is Basketbalová Akadémia Mládeže Poprad (BAMP). Their matches are played in Aréna Poprad. The arena also was one of the venues at the

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

editions of the

FIVB Volleyball World League The FIVB Volleyball World League was an annual international men's volleyball competition. Created in 1990, it was the longest and richest of all the international events organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). The wome ...

Education

The city's system of primary education consists of 12 public schools, and one religious primary school, enrolling in total 5,464 pupils. Secondary education is represented by four grammar schools with 1,800 students, three specialized high schools with 1,566 students, and four vocational schools with 2,045 students (data as of 2007).

Transport

Poprad is a gateway to the

High Tatra The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains ( Slovak: Vysoké Tatry; pl, Tatry Wysokie; rue, Высокі Татри,'' Vysoki Tatry''; hu, Magas-Tátra; german: Hohe Tatra; french: Hautes Tatras), are a mountain range along the border of norther ...

mountain range, which is a popular tourist destination. The city lies on the main road ( E 50) and railway connecting western and eastern Slovakia.

Poprad-Tatry railway station Poprad-Tatry railway station ( sk, Železničná stanica Poprad-Tatry) is a break-of-gauge junction station serving the Municipalities of Slovakia, city of Poprad, in the Prešov Region, northeastern Slovakia. Opened in 1871, the station forms par ...

links Poprad with other major destinations on Slovakia's standard gauge rail network, and with the mountains via the metre gauge

. The direct trains SuperCity

Pendolino Pendolino (from Italian ''pendolo'' "pendulum", and ''-ino,'' a diminutive suffix) is an Italian family of tilting trains used in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK, the US, ...

connects Poprad with

. International Poprad–Tatry Airport from 1938, is an airport with the highest elevation in Central Europe. It also offers scheduled flights to London.

Bus transport

Lines: , , , , , , ,

Rail transport

Lines: ,

Personalities

Daniela Hantuchová Daniela Hantuchová (; born 23 April 1983) is a Slovak tennis commentator and retired player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first WTA Tour title at the Indian Wells Masters, defeating M ...

– professional grand slam winning tennis player *

Peter Bondra Peter Bondra (; born 7 February 1968) is a Ukrainian-born Slovak former professional ice hockey player. He was the general manager of the Slovakia national team from 2007 to 2011. A two-time 50-goal scorer, Bondra became the 37th player in Nati ...

– ice hockey player, more than 500 goals and more than 1000 games in NHL *

Jan Brokoff Jan Brokoff, also known as Johann Brokoff, (23 June 1652 – 28 December 1718) was a baroque-era sculptor and carver. Brokoff was of Carpathian German origin, born in Spišská Sobota, today in Slovakia, then in Royal Hungary, and later w ...

– Baroque-era sculptor and carver (born 1652 in Spišská Sobota – died 1718 in Prague) * Adolf Burger – author of memoirs on

Operation Bernhard Operation Bernhard was an exercise by Nazi Germany to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy during the Second World War. The first phase was run from early ...

filmed as the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

-winning '' The Counterfeiters'', grew up and trained in Poprad * Peter Ihnačák – Ice hockey player born in 1957 in Poprad *

Leslie Kish Leslie Kish (born László Kiss, July 27, 1910 – October 7, 2000) was a Hungarian-American statistician and survey methodologist.. Reprint of an obituary from ''International Statistical Institute (ISI) Newsletter'', Volume 25, No. 73. Life a ...

– statistician, was born in Poprad *

Boris Prokopič Boris Prokopič (born 29 March 1988) is a footballer who plays as a midfielder for Brühl in the Swiss third-tier Promotion League. Born in what is now Slovakia, Prokopič was a youth international for Austria. Career Prokopić began his ca ...

– Austrian football player *

Miroslav Lajčák Miroslav Lajčák (born 20 March 1963) is a Slovak politician and diplomat, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. In addition, Lajčak also served as President of the United Nations General Assembly for the 72nd session ...

– diplomat, born in Poprad * Peter Svätojánsky – ski mountaineer * Tibor Sekelj – explorer, Esperantist, writer and lawyer *

Anton Gavel Anton Gavel (born October 24, 1984) is a Slovak-German professional basketball coach and former player. He is a 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) tall combo guard who primarily played at the shooting guard position. He is head coach for ratiopharm Ulm of t ...

– Slovak basketball player *

Andrej Kiska Andrej Kiska (; born 2 February 1963) is a Slovak politician, entrepreneur, writer and philanthropist who served as the fourth president of Slovakia from 2014 to 2019. He ran as an independent candidate in the 2014 presidential election in which ...

– businessman, entrepreneur and former president of Slovakia

Twin towns – sister cities

Poprad is twinned with: *

Ústí nad Orlicí Ústí nad Orlicí (; german: Wildenschwert) is a town in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. The town lies in the Orlické Mountains on the confluence of the rivers Tichá Orlice and Třebovka. The town ...

, Czech Republic *

Zakopane Zakopane ( Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the extreme south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has been ...

, Poland *

Vysoké Tatry Vysoké Tatry (; hu, Magastátra, ; german: Höhe Tatra, ; pl, Wysokie Tatry, ; cs, Vysoké Tatry, ), formally Mesto Vysoké Tatry () is a town at the feet of the Slovak part of High Tatras in Slovakia including all the major resorts in that ...

, Slovakia * Szarvas, Hungary *

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form th ...

, England, UK * Oulu, Finland

References

External links

Official website of Poprad municipality

House of Photography in Poprad

Photos and videos

360° QTVR fullscreen panoramas
of the Poprad city {{Authority control Cities and towns in Slovakia Spiš Villages and municipalities in Poprad District