Keà ¾marok ( or ; , , , ) is a town in the Spià ¡ region of eastern Slovakia (population 16,000), on the Poprad River. Before World War I, it was in Szepes county in the Kingdom of Hungary.
Settlement at Keà ¾marok dates back to the Upper Stone Age. In the 13th century, the region contained a community of Saxons, a Slovak fishing village, a Hungarian border post, and a Carpathian German settlement. Its Latin name was first mentioned in 1251 as Villa (Saxonum apud Ecclesiam) Sancte Elisabeth. In 1269, Keà ¾marok received its town charter. It also had the right to organize a cheese market (hence the German name Kesmark ("Käsemarkt" - "cheese market"). In 1433, the town was severely damaged by a Hussite raid. After 1440, the count of Spià ¡ had a seat in Keà ¾marok. In the 15th century (and then once more in 1655), Keà ¾marok became a free royal town.
The town was a stronghold of the noble Thököly family. The Hungarian magnate and warrior Imre Thököly was born in the town in 1657. He died in exile in Turkey in 1705, but in the 20th century his body was returned to Keà ¾marok and he is buried in a noble mausoleum in the town's Lutheran church.
The town's other monuments include a castle, many Renaissance merchant houses, and a museum of ancient books. In pride of place is the Protestant church built in 1688 entirely of wood. The church also contains an organ of 1719 with wooden pipes. The church has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008.
Before the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, Keà ¾marok was part of Szepes County within the Kingdom of Hungary. From 1939 to 1945, it was part of the Slovak Republic. On 27 January 1945, the Red Army dislodged the Wehrmacht from Keà ¾marok in the course of the Western Carpathian offensive, and it was once again part of Czechoslovakia. Keà ¾marok had an ethnic German majority until around 1910, and Germans stayed a large minority until the end of World War II. Most Germans were evacuated to Germany or the Sudetenland before the arrival of the Red Army. The evacuation was mostly the initiative of Adalbert Wanhoff and prepared the diocese of the German Evangelical Church between mid-November 1944 and 21 January 1945. It also had a large and active Jewish community. During World War II, under the auspices of the First Slovak Republic, nearly 3,000 of the town's Jews were deported to German death camps. The town's pre-war Jewish cemetery has now been restored.
The town contains many historic monuments, including the Basilica of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the Wooden articular church in Keà ¾marok.
It has a population ofÃÂ people (31 December ).
The tradition of Keà ¾marok sports goes back deep into the past. The shooting club was founded here in 1510 and the building of its shooting range, many targets and commemorative items have been preserved to this day. In 1873, the Hungarian Carpathian Association was founded in the city, which was the first tourist organization in Hungary. Since the 1923/1924 season, the Keà ¾marok Carpathian Association, among other activities, organized a hockey cup competition in Starý Smokovec, which was one of the first in Slovakia.
Keà ¾marok is twinned with: