11/25/2023 0 Comments Orbis pictus comenius wineA plaque on one of the houses records the printing and publication in the town of the most famous work of Comenius, the Orbis Pictus. Also notable in the square is the wrought iron 'Cage of Shame', dating back to the 17th century, used for public punishment of miscreants. The square is very well preserved and contains a number of striking buildings which were the townhouses of the local nobility in the late Middle Ages. It houses a magnificently carved and painted wooden Gothic altar, the largest in Europe, (18.62 m in height), created by Master Paul around 1520. The town square boasts three major monuments the quaint Old Town Hall (15th-17th century) which now contains a museum, the domed Evangelical Lutheran Church (1837) and the 14th century Roman Catholic Church of St. The old town is picturesquely sited and still surrounded by most of its ancient walls. The town started to decline during the anti-Habsburg uprisings in the 17th century. Levoča was a center of the Protestant Reformation in Northern Hungary. There was a printing press as early as 1624. In this period of prosperity several churches were built and the town had a school, library, pharmacy, and physicians. The town kept this cultural and economic status until the end of 16th century, in spite of two damaging fires: the first in 1550 destroyed nearly all of the Gothic architecture and another in 1599. Finally, one of the best-known medieval woodcarvers Master Paul of Levoča settled here. The bookseller Brewer from Wittenberg transformed his bookstore in a prolific printing plant, that lasted for 150 years. The English humanist Leonard Cox taught around 1520 in a school in Levoča. At the same time the town became an important cultural centre. It exported iron, copper, furs, leather, corn, and wine. In the 15th century the town, located on an intersection of trade routes between Poland and Hungary, became a rich center of commerce. In 1321 a wide storing right was granted enticing merchants, craftsmen and mine owners to settle in this town. In 1317, Levoča received the status of a royal town. The oldest written reference to the city of Levoča dates back to 1249. The town became the capital of the Association of Spiš Germans, with a form of self-rule within the Kingdom of Hungary. After the Mongol invasions of 1241/1242, the area was also settled by Germans. In the 11th century, this region was conquered and, subsequently, became part of the Kingdom of Hungary and remained such until 1918. Levoča was inhabited as early as the Stone Age. Levoča is part of the UNESCO to World Heritage List of Levoča, Spiš Castle and the associated cultural monuments. Levoča town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Renaissance church with the highest wooden altar in World, carved by Master Paul of Levoča, and many other Renaissance buildings.
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