Spišská Stará Ves: Dunajec, Church and Art

For a stay in Spišská Stará Ves, seasonal wooden raft trips on the Dunajec are a specific point of reference. Other cultural highlights include the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the Galéria Ferdinanda Kleinbergera Katonu, folklore and historic memorial sites. When choosing when to travel, you can take a recurring activity into account and consider architecture, art and local history as distinct areas of interest.

Wooden Raft Trips on the Dunajec

From Spišská Stará Ves, you can take a wooden raft trip through the Dunajec Canyon every year from spring to autumn. This seasonal period provides a specific guide if you want to plan your trip especially around the raft ride. Along the way, you can see limestone cliffs and rock faces several hundred metres high rising directly from the river. The season and the landscape offer different points of reference: one describes when the trip is possible, while the other shows what characterises the route along the river.

Gothic Church and Later Furnishings

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was built in the second half of the 14th century as a two-nave Gothic church. Its surviving features include the Gothic presbytery, two Gothic portals and Gothic windows with original tracery. This makes it possible to understand the church not only in terms of when it was built, but also through its specific architectural features.

The furnishings also point to later periods: the late Baroque main altar dates from 1765, and the church also houses a painting of a seated Madonna dating from 1490. The building’s history and these two works of art mark different periods within the same church.

Ferdinand Katona and Local Folklore

The Galéria Ferdinanda Kleinbergera Katonu in Spišská Stará Ves is a permanent exhibition of the Tatranská galéria in Poprad. It includes 50 oil paintings and 30 drawings by Ferdinand Katona. While the church can be explored through its building phases and furnishings, this exhibition focuses on the artist and the works on display.

Folklore is also part of the cultural life here. The FS Maguranka ensemble regularly takes part in the Zamagurské folklórne slávnosti and various cultural and social events in Spišská Stará Ves and the surrounding area, both near and farther afield. During the tourist rafting season in the Pieniny Mountains, the ensemble presents Gorals’ folklore and the tradition of the bridal headdress ceremony. This links the ensemble’s performances both to regional festivals and to a folklore contribution described in terms of the season.

Historical Traces and Getting Around

The plague and cholera cemetery was established after the plague epidemic of 1710. In 1831, 121 years later, 71 cholera victims were buried at the same burial site. These two dates connect the site with two different epidemics and help explain its historical use as a burial ground.

Spišská Stará Ves lies in the protection zone of Pieninský národný park. For road directions, you can use the Class II road II/542 as a reference: it runs from Spišská Belá via Slovenská Ves to Spišská Stará Ves and passes through the town. This gives you both a named road route and the town’s location within the protection zone as specific geographical reference points when planning your trip.

Discover more destinations: Mlynceky, Malý Slavkov, Busovce, Spišské Hanušovce, Spišská Belá, Červený Kláštor, Veľká Franková, Reľov.

Return to the broader travel overview: Okres Kežmarok.