Below the western wall of Ostrva, near Popradské Pleso in Slovakia’s High Tatras, a small forest clearing holds a place of remembrance rather than a conventional cemetery. The Symbolic Cemetery at Popradské Pleso commemorates people who died in the mountains, especially the Tatras, as well as people connected with the range who lost their lives elsewhere. Its setting gives the memorial a direct relationship to the landscape that shaped its purpose.
The idea was initiated by Czech painter Otakar Štáfl in the 1920s, and the site was formally opened in 1940. TANAP, the Tatra National Park Administration, says the grounds include a chapel with a bell, carved wooden crosses associated with the Detva tradition and memorial plaques. The chapel’s motto, “To the dead in remembrance, to the living as a warning,” makes clear that the place honors the dead while asking visitors to approach mountain travel with care.
