{"id":54,"date":"2023-05-06T08:48:07","date_gmt":"2023-05-06T08:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mappabianca.com\/?page_id=54"},"modified":"2023-10-16T12:44:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T12:44:55","slug":"abramova","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mappabianca.com\/en\/abramova\/","title":{"rendered":"Abramov\u00e1"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The majestic places stand out on every guidebook and map, and often attract large numbers of people. I have no intention of stripping them of their charm, only to smile at them amicably and take a closer look at the less famous ones. The latter often retain an intact originality and a shyness of magnetic charm. It is like entering the house of a local and being shown his kitchen, where he leaves his shoes, books in an unknown language, how he makes coffee. One such place is Abramov\u00e1. It is a group of houses in north-west Slovakia, two lines along a country road. All around is undulating land that jumps up to the mountains everywhere you look. It is more downhill than uphill, and to the south it slowly descends to the plains, but here the air is still high, and high on a hill is the church of sv. Kozmu in Dami\u00e1na (St Cosmas and St Damian), dating back to the late 1200s. It is a soothing sight for the eyes, as the road follows the curves of the landscape to the iron gate on the fence, and leads even closer to the church.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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There is a cemetery there, bizarrely located on the slopes of the hill that rise at the foot of the church. Graves are scattered all over the place, in clusters here and there, like huddles of people. They have wrought-iron tombstones, stylised into rays of hands reaching for the sky. The sky is vast around there, but it is partly hidden by a majestic oak tree that casts a shadow over a defiladed section of the cemetery, in the shade behind the church.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The profaned chapel, with the oak tree in the foreground.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The graves here are ancient, many are profaned. There is also a chapel, in the corner, which has also been profaned. The slabs that once stood intact to close the underground niches are broken through, and there is rubbish inside. It is a sinister sight. Why have those graves been violated? The chapel has shattered glass, the door is closed but inside you can see an old altar and rubble. A fence surrounds it, but it is choked with grass and torn down in many places. The two underground tombs in front of the entrance are open and empty, but inside you can still see the niches where the coffins used to be. Where are we? In the distance are the wooded outlines of the Mala Fatra, green and overgrown with trees, and a few Soviet-looking buildings, mixed in with the logs and rocks emerging from the woods. It was quiet that day. The village of Abramov\u00e1 was a few hundred metres away, but had it been even closer little would have changed: it was almost deserted and made no noise. Only every now and then did a lorry loaded with logs turn a distant bend and pass on its way up north, towards Martin and \u017dilina. There was something strange about the cemetery and the church of sv. Kozmu in Dami\u00e1na.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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