The Christmas season and the arrival of the New Year is associated with the lit and glittering squares of the towns and cities of the villages. Many people head to regional towns, or beyond the borders of Slovakia, where the decorations are richer, sometimes uplifting and sometimes overly ostentatious.
Try to transport yourself to 150 years ago, when the era of electric lighting in the territory of present-day Slovakia was just beginning and round bulbs with yellow light were a miracle for people, or scientific achievements.
Kežmarok has been commemorating this period since 2017 by rediscovering the statue of Svetlonoska, which is erected in the park opposite the new (red) evangelical church.
Park comfortably in the parking lot by the churches (Hviezdoslavova street) and in the small park you will see a statue with a sign with information. A solar panel allows it to illuminate the surroundings in the evening through a torch held in its right hand.
As early as 1895, a bronze statue of a Roman woman representing the Giver of Light was placed on a pedestal in the middle of the promenade by the church. She had her right hand raised, holding a torch and looking at it. The statue was said to be hollow inside, with an electric current inserted into her right hand to keep the torch lit at night. The question remains whether the light represented a secular or spiritual image, or both together. To this day, however, it is said among many people that the statue served as a reminder of the introduction of electricity. Although the true meaning of the statue remains shrouded in mystery, it may forever remind today's inhabitants of Kežmarok of two significant events that took place in 1894 - the electrification of the town and the consecration of the new evangelical church.
She elaborated:
Ing. Gabriela Bodnárová
Photo:
JADRO -Jaroslav Šleboda
