A History of Central Eastern Europe

migrating Valachs of the Carpathians in the 13 th and 14 th centuries. The Valachs, thought to
originate in today’s Albania, slowly moved from there through Romania and the Ukraine into the
easternmost extent of the Western Slavic tribes, i.e. Slovak. This move, occurring over several
generations, allowed for the gradual assimilation of many Valachs. Often given the name
Ruthenians, the Valachs brought with them elements of their Eastern or Byzantine Catholicism.
The Valachs, now on the southern slopes of the Tatras, continued their westward move and
added a strong Slovak flavor to their culture and language which can be found in the area known
as MORAVIAN WALLACHIA to this day. 8
Germans dominated the political and economic landscape until the 1800s while “real”
German influence shrank to 3 distinct areas, the PRESSBURG in the southwest, the HAUERLAND in
Central Slovakia and the best-known area, SPIŠ. Each area received the special privilege of being
governed by German law rather than Hungarian – in SPIŠ the law was called the Zipser Willkür
while the towns that had this privilege were called the ZIPSERBUND.
The ZIPSERBUND was not static: from
1317 to 1344 the Provincia Saxonum de Scepus
(Saxon Province of SZEPES) numbered 43
settlements; by mid-14 th c the number was
reduced to 24 settlements in the Provincia XXIV
oppidorum terrae Scepusiensis (Latin; Bund der
24 Zipser Städte, “League of 24 ZIPSER towns”
German); this number remained stable over the
centuries however there were short periods when
the number was greater than 24. Apparently, the
number of towns in the ZIPSERBUND was
different than the number of towns with the
privilege of Zipser Willkür. In 1370 there were
24 towns in the ZIPSERBUND but 41 with the
Zipser Willkür privilege. This may have been an
actual fluctuation in the number of ZIPSERBUND
towns as the number dropped from 43 to 24
between 1350 and 1400 or it may represent an
extension of rights to German towns not
considered part of the BUND. The ZIPSERBUND
towns bypassed the local magistrates and were
directly answerable to the king which translated
into less money for the local ruling family and
more for the royal one. STARÁ VES, though surrounded by them, was not one. Under the terms of
the 1412 Treaty of Lublin, 16 German towns of the SPIŠ district were mortgaged to Poland for an
indefinite loan of “60 times 37,000 Prague groschen” (~ 7 tons of pure silver) – more than 3 ½
centuries passed before the towns reverted to Hungarian rule.
ALISPÁN, ZUPAN, GRAF, FÕISPÁN AND COMES
The 13 th century ruling family, the BERZEVICZY, gave way to MÁRTON THURZO who was
the SZEPESI ALISPÁN or Viscount of Szepes, from 1396 to 1431. His time in office was apparently
split as ISTVÁN, founder of the noble family of ISTVÁNFFY OF BARANYAVÁR AND
KISASSZONYFALVI was the SZEPESI ALISPÁN for some years, ending in 1418. By 1440 the
THÖKÖLY family had gained the seat for, in that year, Késmárk (Kežmarok Slovak) became the
county seat. The town was a stronghold of the noble THÖKÖLY family where their castle,
Thököly hrad, still stands.
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