1209 · 16 March 1256 A name taken off the riverMeno podľa rieky

The Poprad is the odd one out among Slovak rivers: it runs north, out of the country, and by way of the Dunajec and the Vistula its water reaches the Baltic instead of the Black Sea. The settlement took its name from the river. The word Poprad appears in a charter as early as 1209, and the village itself is first named in writing on 16 March 1256, in a donation deed of King Béla IV. A first written mention is a fact about a document, not about when people arrived — there were farmers on this ground long before any clerk wrote its name down.Poprad je medzi slovenskými riekami výnimka: tečie na sever, von z krajiny, a cez Dunajec a Vislu sa jeho voda dostane do Baltského mora, nie do Čierneho. Osada dostala meno po rieke. Slovo Poprad sa v listine objavuje už roku 1209, samotnú dedinu však písomne menuje až darovacia listina kráľa Bela IV. zo 16. marca 1256. Prvá písomná zmienka je pritom údaj o listine, nie o tom, kedy sem prišli ľudia: na tejto pôde sa gazdovalo dávno predtým, než jej niekto zapísal meno.