Gemerská Poloma

Gemerská Poloma (Hungarian: Veszverés) is a village and large municipality in the Rožňava District. It is located in the Košice Region of middle-eastern Slovakia.

The area of Gemerská Poloma was variously part of Great Moravia and the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. In 1241 the area was subject to Mongol invasion.

The first historical mention of the village was in 1282; as "Poloma". At the end of the 14th century, Poloma was divided into two distinct villages: Malá Poloma ("Small Poloma") and Veľká Poloma ("Big Poloma"). The two villages were ultimately united together again in 1958.

The original name of the village comes from polom, meaning "broken" in Slovak. The story says that there was a big storm one day nearby the current village in the mountains and ruined the dwellings of the inhabitants. They therefore chose to move away from the place and settle down closer to the river on the current village site.

Gemerská Poloma was invaded by the Ottoman Turks in 1557 and belonged to the Bebek family of Štítnik until the end of the 16th century.

Several people died from the cholera epidemic in the period 1873–1875.

Before the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, Gemerská Poloma was part of Gömör and Kishont County within the Kingdom of Hungary. From 1939 to 1945, it was part of the Slovak Republic. On 23 January 1945, troops of the Romanian 4th Army entered Gemerská Poloma and it was once again part of Czechoslovakia.

The municipality lies at an altitude of 327 metres (1,073 ft)^[3] and covers an area of 57.63 km² (22.25 sq mi) (2024).^[4] The river Slana passes on the southern part of the village. There are three important mountains surrounding the village: Turecka on the south, Volovec on the south-west and Sulova on the north.

It has a population of 1885 people (31 December 2024).^[6]

In year 2021 was 1945 people by ethnicity 1868 as Slovak, 136 as Romani, 48 as Not found out, 18 as Hungarian, 10 as Czech, 6 as Russian, 4 as German, 4 as Other and 1 as Rusyn.

Note on population

The difference between the population numbers above and in the census (here and below) is that the population numbers above are mostly made up of permanent residents, etc.; and the census should indicate the place where people actually mainly live. For example, a student is a citizen of a village because he has permanent residence there (he lived there as a child and has parents), but most of the time he studies at a university in the city.

In year 2021 was 1945 people by religion 1011 from Evangelical Church, 574 from None, 262 from Roman Catholic Church, 59 from Not found out, 10 from Jehovah's Witnesses, 9 from United Methodist Church, 7 from Greek Catholic Church, 7 from Apostolic Church, 2 from Ad hoc movements, 1 from Paganism and natural spirituality, 1 from Christian Congregations in Slovakia, 1 from Other and 1 from Buddhism.

The village has a public library a swimming pool (non-functional) and a football pitch.

The most important people born in Gemerska Poloma are Peter Kellner-Hostinský and Peter Madáč. Peter Kellner-Hostinský (1823-1873) was an important writer, philosopher, historitian, economist. Peter Madac was a famous doctor of medicine and a specialist in physics.

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Kosice, Slovakia"

• Roman Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1777-1897 (parish A)
• Lutheran church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1784-1865 (parish A)

• Poloma, a town in Prešov Region
• List of municipalities and towns in Slovakia

• https://web.archive.org/web/20080111223415/http://www.statistics.sk/mosmis/eng/run.html
• Surnames of living people in Gemerska Poloma