Štrbské Pleso

Štrbské pleso is a glacial lake of about twenty hectares at 1,346 metres, with the High Tatras rising directly behind it, and the village around it is the highest permanent settlement in Slovakia. It has been a resort since the nineteenth century, with sanatoria built for the air, and it now works year round: a path runs round the lake in half an hour, trails climb into the mountains behind, and ski jumps and cross-country tracks operate in winter.

History

The resort began in 1872, when Jozef Szentiványi built a hunting lodge on the shore, a year after the railway reached Poprad. The architect Karol Móry bought the neighbouring land in 1897 and dammed the Mlynica brook in 1900 to make a small new lake, and the resort was much modernised in the 1970s and rebuilt again in 2007-2014 before the 2015 Winter Universiade (Wikipedia, Štrbské Pleso).

The landscape

• The lake - a glacial tarn with the High Tatras rising behind it.
• The lake circuit - an easy path round the water in about half an hour.
• The mountain trails - routes climbing to Popradske pleso and the ridges.
• The ski jumps - the winter sports complex built for the resort.

When to go

June to September for walking and December to March for skiing. The lake path is walkable year round. Summer weekends and the Christmas period are extremely busy.

Before you go

It is heavily developed and crowded; anyone expecting a quiet mountain lake will be disappointed. Parking is expensive and fills early. The high trails behind close from November to mid-June.

Nearby

Popradske pleso is above, and Poprad is east.