Spišská Belá: Belianske Meadows and the Petzval Museum

Spišská Belá combines an important natural area with clearly distinct cycling, educational trail and cultural experiences. The main attractions are Belianske Meadows with their national nature reserve, Beliansky rybník as a recreational area close to the town, and the J.-M.-Petzval Museum in the optician’s birthplace. This makes it possible to explore the town through its landscape and opportunities for activity, as well as through photographic technology, urban history and art.

Belianske Meadows: Wetland, nature reserve and educational trail

Belianske Meadows is a Natura 2000 site of European importance with the identification code SKUEV0144 in the cadastral area of Spišská Belá. At the same time, it is a national nature reserve containing Slovakia’s largest preserved calcareous fen. The fen began to form around 11,000 years ago. Belianske Meadows are also home to the only confirmed known occurrence of the moss Calliergon trifarium in Slovakia.

For a manageable walk, the Belianske Meadows educational trail is available. It is 800 metres long, follows a circular route with seven information boards and includes a 250-metre-long wooden elevated walkway. This means that the distinctive features of the calcareous fen are reflected not only in its designation but also in a clearly described route. Before the entrance to Beliansky rybník, there are two car parks with a combined capacity of approximately 80 spaces; one is paved and the other is gravelled.

Cycling and recreation at Beliansky rybník

The Belianska cycling route is a 9-kilometre route between Spišská Belá and Tatranská Kotlina and starts at Beliansky rybník. It is paved, suitable for two-way traffic and designed for recreational cycling. The route includes four covered rest areas. For your planning, this means that you will find a designated connection with its own stated length and infrastructure for breaks, without confusing the route with a hiking trail.

Beliansky rybník is a recreational area close to the town of Spišská Belá, with views of the High Tatras massif and, in some places, the Belianske Tatras. Visitors can fish in the carp pond. The Fľak forestry educational trail adds a year-round accessible route measuring 2,800 metres. It forms a closed circular route with ten stations featuring information boards.

Petzval Museum and historic centre

The J.-M.-Petzval Museum has been open since 1964 in the birthplace of Jozef Maximilián Petzval in Spišská Belá. The exhibition presents the life and work of Jozef Maximilián Petzval and Otto Baltazár Petzval. It traces the development of photographic technology from the first experiments with the camera obscura to the first photograph from 1826.

Among the special exhibits is a replica made entirely of metal of a Voigtländer & Sohn daguerreotype camera with a portrait lens. J. M. Petzval was the first person in the world to calculate this portrait lens, in 1840. The centre of Spišská Belá provides another historical highlight: it is designated as an urban heritage zone, and the burgher houses stand on typical narrow medieval plots extending lengthwise into the depth of the area.

Art at Kaštieľ Strážky

The permanent exhibitions at Kaštieľ Strážky include “Ladislav Mednyánszky and Strážky”, portraits from the 17th to the 19th century in the Spiš region, and 20th-century Slovak sculpture. The Slovak National Gallery also offers educational programmes there for school groups of 15 pupils accompanied by educational staff. Participants work directly with original works of art.

If you would like to compare other destinations for your trip to Slovakia, you can also find Zakovce, Majere, Spišská Stará Ves, Stara Lesna, Mlynceky, Kežmarok, Lechnica and Veľká Franková.

For the higher-level travel overview: Okres Kežmarok.