Last modified: 2009-02-28 by jarig bakker
Keywords: liptovsky mikulas | saint nicholas |
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submitted through Rob Raeside, 23 July 1999
Liptovský Mikuláš lies in the heart of the Liptov-Váh valley basin.
It is surrounded on the north by the West Tatra, on the south by the Lower
Tatra and the famous Demanova valley grottos have made Liptovský Mikuláš
famous. The town lies on the main railway and road network linking East
and West Slovakia. Here the legendary bandit Juro Janosik of Terchova was
condemned and executed.
Jarig Bakker
Liptovský Mikuláš sounds as : "Mikulash". Here are some details about
this sleepy town in Slovakia. If someone wants to have a cheap ski-vacation,
there is a quite good and quite cheap ski resort near this town and also
a very beautiful ice cave. Liptovský Mikuláš is a town in Liptovsky region
in the north part of Slovakia on the river Vagh. Before the Communist era
it was called Liptovsky Svete Mikulaš (Liptovsky Sinterklaas) which appears
also on the city COA, and the name was changed by removing the "santa"
by the communist regime. The flag got its colors from the town Coat of Arms. Source:
Eva
Derech (my mother in law; LM is her birthplace).
Dov Gutterman, 23 Jul 1999
All the Saints had been removed in the Slovak communes during the Soviet
era. Saint in Slovak is Svätý (a with umlaut, y with acute accent). The
most important saint cities are Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas (Mikulas is Nicholas,
to translate by Santa Claus is quite excessive) and Turčianské Svätý Martin,
now Martin.
Francois-Jean Blanc, 23 Jul 1999
![[Liptovský Mikulás old flag]](../images/s/sk-lmold.gif)
by Jan Kravcik, 15 June 2000
This is the old flag of the city.
Jan Kravcik, 15 June 2000
liptm.gif)
From: <http://www.tatrahome.sk/revue/erby/>. (!Link does not work any
more!)
At this website is the following additional potentially flag-related information on St. Nicholas of Myra (or Bari).
Nicholas wanted to be able to follow the footsteps of Jesus in the Palestine,
which he did. On his voyages across the sea, he calmed the waves (which
is why he is patron of sailors and travellers).
A citizen of Patara lost his fortune, and because he could not raise
dowries for his three daughters, he was going to give them over to prostitution.
After hearing this, Nicholas took a bag of gold and threw it through the
window of the man's house at night. The eldest girl was married with it
as her dowry. He performed the same action for each of the other girls.
The three purses, portrayed in art with the saint, were mistakenly thought
to be the heads of children, and thus originated the story that three children,
murdered by an innkeeper and pickled in a tub of brine, were resuscitated
by Nicholas. The three purses are also thought to be the origin of the
pawnbrokers' symbol of three gold balls.
Another legend holds that he appeared to sailors caught in storms off the coast of Lycia and led them safely into port. Churches built under his dedication are often placed so that they can be seen off the coast as landmarks.
St. Nicholas's emblem in art is three balls. Sometimes he is portrayed
(1) as a young man throwing three golden balls into the
window of three poor girls; (2) raising three children from a pickle
tub; (3) rescuing survivors from a shipwreck; (4) reviving a man unjustly
hanged (not to be confused with Nicholas of Tolentino, who is never a bishop);
or (5) as a new-born babe praising God.
Patron of children (Santa Claus, Sint Klaus), bankers, captives (because of the rescue), pawnbrokers (three balls), and sailors (for miraculously saving doomed mariners off the coast of Lycia), brides, unmarried women (because he provided dowries), perfumers (from his shrine at Bari there was said to originate a fragrant 'myrrh'), of travellers, pilgrims, and safe journeys (because he reputedly travelled to the Holy Land and Egypt), maritime pilots, boatmen, fishermen, sailors, dock workers, stevedores, brewers, coopers, bootblacks, the unjustly judged, and poets.
Russia, Greece, Sicily, Lorraine, Moscow, Freibourg, and Apulia all
fall under his patronage, too.
Joe McMillan, 29 Nov 2001