Oravský PodzámokOravský Podzámok

Where it standsKde leží

Oravský Podzámok stands mid-valley on the Orava river, between Dolný Kubín downstream and Podbiel and Tvrdošín upstream. The valley narrows here and a limestone crag rises out of it; the village occupies the strip between the foot of that rock and the water, and the road and the branch railway share the same gap.Oravský Podzámok leží uprostred doliny na rieke Orave, medzi Dolným Kubínom po prúde a Podbielom a Tvrdošínom proti prúdu. Dolina sa tu zužuje a dvíha sa z nej vápencové bralo; obec zaberá pás medzi pätou skaly a vodou a tou istou úžinou prechádza cesta aj odbočná železnica.

The municipality also takes in Široká, a separate part of it further along the valley, where the industry sits. The two halves look nothing like each other.K obci patrí aj Široká, samostatná časť ďalej v doline, v ktorej sídli priemysel. Obe polovice vyzerajú úplne inak.

Why it is herePrečo práve tu

The village exists because the rock does. Whoever held that crag held the valley — the road north towards Poland and the traffic that used it — and a castle has stood there since the thirteenth century. Its own pages here tell that story.Obec existuje preto, že existuje to bralo. Kto držal skalu, držal dolinu — cestu na sever k Poľsku aj dopravu, ktorá po nej šla — a hrad na nej stojí od 13. storočia. Jeho príbeh rozprávajú na tomto webe vlastné stránky.

What made the village more than a hamlet at a gate was administration. The whole of Orava was a single estate, and when the Thurzó male line ended in the seventeenth century it passed to a body of co-heirs, the Orava Composessorate, which ran the forests and the sawmills into the twentieth century. Its offices, stores and staff housing stood below the rock, and the Orava Museum has its seat here still.Z osady pri bráne urobila obec správa. Celá Orava bola jedným panstvom a keď v 17. storočí vymrela mužská vetva Turzovcov, prešlo na spoločenstvo dedičov — Oravský komposesorát, ktorý až do 20. storočia riadil lesy a píly. Jeho kancelárie, sklady a byty zamestnancov stáli pod skalou a Oravské múzeum tu má sídlo dodnes.

The railway came up the valley at the end of the nineteenth century and gave the village a station. It also finished the older way of moving timber: rafts had gone down the Orava to the Váh for centuries, and once the line could carry the wood they stopped.Železnica prišla dolinou koncom 19. storočia a obec dostala stanicu. Zároveň ukončila starší spôsob dopravy dreva: plte schádzali Oravou do Váhu po stáročia, no len čo drevo dokázala odviezť trať, prestali.

What you actually seeČo naozaj uvidíte

The castle is the visit and has its own pages here — guided, seasonal, and a long staircase from the lower courtyard to the citadel. What the village adds is the view of it, which is free: from the street, from the bridge, and best of all from the far bank, where the whole climb of walls and gates reads at once.Hrad je tá návšteva a má tu vlastné stránky — prehliadka so sprievodcom, sezónna prevádzka a dlhé schodisko z dolného nádvoria na citadelu. Obec k tomu pridáva pohľad naň, ktorý je zadarmo: z ulice, z mosta a najlepšie z druhého brehu, odkiaľ sa celý stupňovitý rad múrov a brán dá prečítať naraz.

At street level there is a short row of estate-period buildings under the cliff, the village church and the bridge. It takes a quarter of an hour and is worth it, because the scale of the ordinary houses is what gives the rock behind them its size.Na úrovni ulice je pod bralom krátky rad budov z čias panstva, obecný kostol a most. Zaberie to štvrťhodinu a stojí to za ňu, lebo práve mierka bežných domov dáva skale za nimi jej rozmer.

Above the village marked paths climb into the wooded hills, and the valley road carries on upstream to Podbiel, where the log street of Bobrova raľa and the turn for Zuberec and the Roháče both wait.Nad obcou stúpajú značené chodníky do zalesnených kopcov a cesta dolinou pokračuje proti prúdu do Podbiela, kde čaká zrubová ulica Bobrova raľa aj odbočka na Zuberec a do Roháčov.

Living village, not a museumŽivá obec, nie skanzen

This is a working village with one of the country's busiest monuments inside it. Parking is down in the village rather than at the castle gate, coaches turn in it, and in July and August the queue forms on the street outside people's houses. Park where you are directed, keep gateways clear, and do not treat front gardens as viewpoints.Je to fungujúca obec s jednou z najnavštevovanejších pamiatok krajiny vnútri. Parkuje sa dole v obci, nie pri hradnej bráne, otáčajú sa tu autobusy a v júli a auguste sa rad tvorí na ulici pred domami. Zaparkujte tam, kam vás pošlú, nechajte voľné vjazdy a predzáhradky neberte ako vyhliadku.

The other half of the municipality earns its living in the older sense: ferroalloys have been smelted at Široká since the 1950s, and the plant is one of Orava's larger employers. Outside the castle season the whole place is quiet.Druhá polovica obce sa živí prácou v staršom zmysle slova: v Širokej sa od 50. rokov tavia ferozliatiny a závod patrí k väčším zamestnávateľom na Orave. Mimo hradnej sezóny je celá obec tichá.

Getting thereAko sa tam dostať

The village has a station on the branch line that leaves the Žilina–Košice main line at Kraľovany and runs up the valley to Tvrdošín and Trstená. Buses serve it from Dolný Kubín and the upper valley, and by car it is directly on the main Orava valley road.Obec má stanicu na odbočnej trati, ktorá odbočuje z hlavnej trate Žilina – Košice v Kraľovanoch a vedie dolinou do Tvrdošína a Trstenej. Autobusy sem chodia z Dolného Kubína a z hornej Oravy a autom je obec priamo na hlavnej ceste oravskou dolinou.