Černová Memorial

Černová is now a suburb of Ružomberok, and the church around which the 1907 tragedy occurred still stands. A memorial in the churchyard marks the site of the shooting, and the church itself — the specific church whose consecration was at the heart of the dispute — is worth seeing in the context of what happened here.

The Černová massacre, in which 15 Slovak villagers were shot dead by Hungarian gendarmes, resonated far beyond the event itself. International figures including Leo Tolstoy and the British journalist R.W. Seton-Watson (writing under the pen name Scotus Viator) drew attention to it as evidence of Magyar oppression of Slavic minorities in the Kingdom of Hungary. For anyone interested in Slovak history or the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, this is a significant site.

things to do sight
A story
On 27 October 1907, Hungarian gendarmes fired on a crowd of villagers gathered for the consecration of their new church in Černová — they were protesting the authorities' refusal to allow their priest, Andrej Hlinka, to consecrate it. Fifteen people died, many more were wounded. The event became an international cause célèbre, reported across Europe and America, and accelerated the Slovak national movement.