Harichovce: Holiday apartment between the Medvedie chrbty and the Levočská kotlina

Historical documents name 1268 as the year Harichovce was founded. Since 1268, Harichovce had its own parish and a parish priest. The privileges confirmed by King Štefan V. in 1271 placed Harichovce among the fully recognized Spiš towns. Thus, the historical classification encompasses both the explicitly stated ecclesiastical status and the confirmed position among the Spiš towns. The dates therefore trace the development from ecclesiastical independence to the town’s political and legal classification.

Geographical setting

Harichovce lies at the transition between the Medvedie chrbty and the Levočská kotlina. The village is located in the central part of the Hornádska kotlina. The Levočský potok flows through Harichovce and empties into the Hornád River. The location of the village and the course of the stream are thus described through several clearly named landscape and water features. The transition between the two first-mentioned landscape areas and the location within the Hornádska kotlina are just as much part of the geographical description as the watercourse through the village and its confluence with the Hornád.

Culture and tradition

The repertoire of the Harihovčan folk group includes folk songs, traditional customs, ceremonies and dances. The Harihovčan folk group has performed at festivals in Slovakia and abroad. The cultural references therefore encompass both the traditional contents of the repertoire and the group’s performances at events within and outside Slovakia. Folk songs stand alongside customs, ceremonies and dances; the festival performances mentioned expand this description to include the group’s public presentation in Slovakia and abroad.

The municipality of Harichovce invites visitors to the traditional cooking competition “Súťaž vo varení fazuľovice pri Kadlubku”. The original Slovak title forms part of the event’s full name and also refers to its local designation. The event supplements the references to traditional culture with an explicitly named culinary occasion organized by the municipality.

Architectural heritage

The church “Kostol Nepoškvrneného Počatia Panny Márie” was originally Gothic and was remodeled in the Baroque style in 1763–1764. It is a single-nave building with a semicircular-ended presbytery and an attached three-story tower. On the right side of the tower’s lower section, the church preserves a walled-up early Gothic portal. The building’s history thus presents the original Gothic form, the precisely dated Baroque remodeling and the church’s specific architectural design side by side. The description therefore combines the earlier construction phase with the later remodeling while also specifying the floor plan, the ending of the presbytery, the position of the tower and the preserved portal.

Hiking routes

One hiking route leads from Sans-Souci via Harichovce in the direction of Pod Kačelákom. Another hiking route leads via Harichovce. The route information therefore mentions the village once as part of a connection from Sans-Souci in the direction of Pod Kačelákom and once as a stop on another hiking route. While the first description names both reference points and the direction, the second only indicates that the route passes through Harichovce, thereby adding another, unspecified course to the route description.

Other places:Markušovce, Spišské Vlachy, Krompachy, Matejovce Nad Hornádom, Spisske Tomasovce, Hnilec, Poráč, Hrabusice.

To the main travel overview: Okres Spišská Nová Ves.