Stará ýubovà Âa (, , , , , ) is a town with approximately 16,000 inhabitants in northeastern Slovakia. The town consists of the districts Podsadek and Stará ýubovà Âa.
The name is of Slovak or Slavic origin and is potentially derived from a personal name. It comes from a root þub- meaning lovely, nicely. The same root is present in Czech Libeà Â, Polish Lublin, Slovenian Ljubljana and similar Slavic geographic names. The German name Altlublau and the Hungarian ÃÂlubló were derived from the Slovak version.
Stará ýubovà Âa is situated on the Poprad River south of the Polish border and east of the High Tatras. It is one of the oldest towns in the Spià ¡, an historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary, and is today the administrative capital of the district of Stará ýubovà Âa in the Preà ¡ov Region.
In 1292 Stará ýubovà Âa is first mentioned as Libenow. In 1311, the ýubovà Âa Castle was mentioned. In 1323, King Charles I granted the castles of ýubovà Âa and Plaveàto Palatine Philip Drugeth. At that time, Lubowla was held by Count Nicholas. In 1342, Louis the Great granted the settlement town privileges. In 1384, a meeting took place in Lubowla between Sigismund of Luxembourg, Margrave of Brandenburg, and the Polish nobles, to discuss the conditions for the Hungarian princess Jadwiga's arrival in Poland to assume the throne after her father.
Sigismund, already King of Hungary by then, held another meeting here in 1412 with Wà Âadysà Âaw Jagieà Âà Âo, King of Poland. At this meeting ýubovà Âa was among 16 Spià ¡ towns given by the Sigismund of Luxemburg as a deposit to King Wà Âadysà Âaw II of Poland. The pledge was part of the Treaty of Lubowla and was thought to be only for a short time, but it finally lasted for 360 years.
ýubovà Âa became the seat of a separate starostwo of Spià ¡. The first starosta was Paweà  Gà Âadysz, who spoke Hungarian; he was succeeded by the famous knight Zawisza the Black. In 1587, during Archduke Maximilian of AustriaâÂÂs bid for the Polish crown, his supporters seized the castle; however, after MaximilianâÂÂs defeat at Byczyna, it returned to Polish hands. During the Swedish Deluge, the Crown Treasury was brought to the castle from Kraków.
Only in the course of the first Partition of Poland in 1772 during the reign of Maria Theresa of Austria the territory came back to the Kingdom of Hungary. The pledge was actually an advantage for the towns concerned because they did not have to submit themselves to the comitatus or nobility and had a neutral position in turmoils between Poland and Hungary.
Before the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, Stará ýubovà Âa was part of Szepes County within the Kingdom of Hungary. From 1939 to 1945, it was part of the Slovak Republic. On 24 January 1945, the Red Army dislodged the Wehrmacht from Stará ýubovà Âa and it was once again part of Czechoslovakia.
From a hill over the city the castle of ýubovà Âa dominates the city. The castle is open to the public and houses a museum about its history. From its already reconstructed tower there are good views over the surroundings. Next to the castle there is an open-air museum, ýubovniansky skanzen, with many houses and other buildings showing the folk architecture of the region. The most interesting exhibit is the wooden Greek-Catholic church from Matysová, built in 1833.
The old town consists mainly of the rectangular St. Nicolas Square which is surrounded by burgher's houses of the 17th century. In the centre there is the gothic Roman Catholic Church of St. Nicolas built in 1280.
Another building of interest is the new Greek-Catholic church of the Mother of Eternal Help in the south of the city. It was consecrated by Pope John Paul II on 22 April 1990 and is constructed in the shape of a royal crown.
It has a population ofÃÂ people (31 December ).
Stará ýubovà Âa is twinned with: