Home | First lady | Activities of Silvia Gašparovičová | Year 2012 | V4 First Ladies admired the beauty of the High Tatras
From 5th to 6th May 2012, the Summit of V4 Countries was held in Štrbské Pleso (High Tatras, Slovakia). On the first day of the summit spouses of presidents of Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland had the opportunity to listen to folk music performances of the Vagonár Ensemble. They also discussed their activities. "I am very happy that we managed to hold the V4 Summit in the High Tatras. Finally, we managed the dream to show our friends from neighboring countries the beauty of the High Tatras. We all saw it already, but it´s an other thing to see it in such joint meetings and negotiations," told to the reporters First Lady of Slovakia Mrs. Silvia Gašparovičová.
During the morning First Ladies visited by carriages the famous tourist center Štrbské Pleso, accompanied by the Mayor of the town Štrba. They stopped not only at stalls with traditional Slovak folk themes, but also at the so-called Lakes of Love, which were built by founder of the town Štrbské Pleso Josef Szentiványi in the 19th century. "As I have only now learned, what we now consider to be beautiful was already made in the 19th century and with a great caring it maintained to this day," said at the lakes Livia Klausová. The name of the lakes is probably given by the fact that they lie so close together. But the reason can probably be also the fact that the lake has been a frequent destination for walking and sessions of couples of patients emerging from medical reconvalescence homes. Interestingly, in the middle of the larger lake lies at the bottom a stone Slovak double cross, which was placed there in 1940.
The First Lady of Poland Anna Komorowska also liked the High Tatras very much. "I am grateful to President of Slovakia and the Slovak First Lady, that this summit is taking place right here," said Anna Komorowska.
In the afternoon the First Ladies of the Visegrad Four countries had a joint program with the presidents. They visited Lomnický štít, where they viewed the Observatory of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
On 6 May 2012 Mrs. Silvia Gašparovičová, Mrs. Livia Klausová and Mrs. Anna Komorowska visited the Museum of Liptov Village Pribylina. In 1991 it was opened to the public. It contains mostly houses from the flooded area of Liptovská Mara, among them also some of the upper and lower Liptov area. The ladies visited here a wooden house from the village Liptovská Sielnica, a gothic-renaissance chateau from the village Parížovce, yeoman wooden mansion from Paludza, a municipal school from Valaská Dubová and an early gothic church of Our Lady.
Presidential couples joined also the restoration of the High Tatras by planting of trees. A huge windstorm that hit the territory of Slovakia on 19th November 2004, significantly damaged the forest ecosystems in the region of High Tatras, Horehronie, Kysuce, Orava and Spiš region. The greatest damage was done to the Tatra National Park, where in a very short time more than 12-thousand hectares of forest were torn. |
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