1828 · 1848 Two thousand people in a timber villageDvetisíc ľudí v drevenej dedine

By 1828 Važec had 197 houses and 2,093 inhabitants, and nearly every one of those houses was a log building under a shingle roof, standing close to its neighbour along one long street. That is exactly what later made the village famous to painters and photographers — and exactly what made it dangerous. The revolution of 1848 ended serfdom: Važec's people no longer owed labour to the Szentiványi and their relatives. It did not make the land any better. In an upland village the practical result of emancipation was a generation looking for wages — in the forest, on the river, and very soon on a railway.Roku 1828 mal Važec 197 domov a 2 093 obyvateľov a takmer každý z tých domov bol zrub pod šindľovou strechou, tesne pri susedovi, pozdĺž jednej dlhej ulice. Práve to neskôr priťahovalo maliarov a fotografov — a práve to bolo nebezpečné. Revolúcia roku 1848 zrušila poddanstvo: Važčania už neodrábali Szentiványiovcom a ich príbuzným. Pôda tým lepšia nebola. V horskej dedine znamenalo zrušenie poddanstva v praxi generáciu, ktorá hľadá zárobok — v lese, na rieke a onedlho na železnici.