A History of Central Eastern Europe

German records it is found as both ALTENSTADT and ALTENDORF and it is found in
records dating from 1320 C.E. in Latin as VILLA ANTIQUA. While there are slight
differences in meaning, all can be translated as OLD TOWN. The Latin VILLA is used in
describing a country house, estate or farm while VICUS or VICULUS ANTIQUA would be a
more accurate way of naming a village “Old Town.” Considering that languages are not
static and are subject to regional peculiarities and the passage of 700 years – I think we
can safely state that it was close enough. Now that the Latin has been accepted as
correct we are confounded by the existence of another village less than 20 miles distant
that shares the same name! VILLA ANTIQUA is found in even older records, 13 th century,
and that place, in Slovak, is NOVA VES or (you guessed it) NEW TOWN! In German, stadt
refers to a city while dorf refers to a village. Both the Hungarian and Slovak forms are
direct translations of Villa Antiqua.
Slovak and Hungarian
linguistics use a system by which the name of the
COMITATE precedes the town’s name (in Slovak a modifying form is used and SPIŠ
becomes SPIŠSKÁ):
At first it appears
somewhat logical to contrast
“OLD TOWN” with a nearby
“N EW T OWN .” Two problems:
‣ First, no town is named O
T OWN at its’ founding
(remember UJHELY in
Hungary?); and
LD
‣ Second, NEW TOWN is older
than OLD TOWN!
So how did it get its name?
SPIŠSKÁ STARÁ VES or SZEPES O’FALU.
A village born of intrigue
The first great landholder in SPIŠ known to posterity was EKBERT VON ANDECHS‐
MERANIA, brother of GERTRUDE, QUEEN OF HUNGARY. While brother‐in‐law to the
Hungarian KING ANDRÁS II, EKBERT’S already immense wealth grew astronomically, as
did many other of the Kings’ in‐laws.
SYNOPSIS (The short version): the KING brings the kingdom to near financial ruin after
enacting the Novæ Institutiones. This policy, in effect by 1206, allowed him to grant royal
lands to his supporters and, oddly, most of those just happened to be his in‐laws.
“He gave away everything - money, villages, domains, whole counties - to the utter impoverishment of
the treasury. Andrew was generous primarily with his (1 st ) wife's German relatives and followers,
which caused discontent among his subjects.” 9
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