Elevation: 2494 m / 8182 ft
Type: peak
Views: 2,380
Popularity: 34% (2479th place)
Description of mountain:
Mount Kriváň is the first prominent peak of the High Tatras when viewed from the west and belongs to Tatra National Park. It rises above the Liptov Valley with its characteristic pyramidal summit.
Kriváň, at 2,494 meters above sea level, is one of the highest peaks in Slovakia and the Carpathians. Since the second half of the 19th century, this mountain has symbolized Slovak national consciousness. In 1840, monarchists loyal to the Hungarian emperor erected an obelisk on the summit of Kriváň in memory of the ascent by King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony that same year. A few years later, Slovak patriots destroyed this obelisk during one of the "popular excursions"—a kind of Slovak national pilgrimage. The first such excursion took place on August 16, 1841, with participation from Ľudovít Štúr and Michal Hodža. In the year of the 1861 memorandum, Štefan Marko Daxner organized the largest march to Kriváň. Since 1955, these walks to Kriváň have been dedicated to the 1944 Slovak National Uprising.
From 1960 to 1990, an image of this peak adorned the state coat of arms of Czechoslovakia. Today, it is depicted on the reverse side of Slovak 1-, 2-, and 5-cent coins. Due to its particularly striking shape, the mountain is the subject of various Slovak myths and legends.
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