| Veretsky Pass | |
|---|---|
| Верецький перевал | |
|
|
|
| Traversed by | Road |
| Location | |
| Location | Ukraine |
| Range | Carpathians |
Verecke Pass or Veretsky Pass (Ukrainian: Вере́цький перевал; transcribed: Veretskyy pereval, more formally: Ukrainian: перевал Середньоверецький, pereval Serednioveretskyy, also known as: Ukrainian: Ворі́тський перевал, transcribed: Vorítskyy pereval; Hungarian: Vereckei-hágó) is a mountain pass in Ukraine, one of the most important passes of the Inner Eastern Carpathian Mountains.
It is the location where the Hungarian tribes entered the Carpathian Basin in 895 to conquer the land for their own, by bringing destruction to the evolved state of Great Moravia.
Contents |
The pass is located just where the oblasts of Lviv and Transcarpathia meet, on the spine of the Northeastern Carpathians, between the Latorica or Latorytsia and Opor river valleys and at the river divide or watershed between the Latorytsia and the Stryi. It has an altitude of 841 meters.
The pass has been well-traveled for more than a millennium. In 895 the tribes of conquering Magyars used the pass to enter into the Carpathian Basin inhabited by various Slavic tribes, the area of latter-day Hungary. In 1241 the main army of the Mongols crossed the pass into the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1914 during the First World War the pass saw heavy fighting between Austrian-Hungarian troops and those of Tsarist Russia. During World War II the pass was the scene of further battles; the remains of the defensive fortifications of so-called the Árpád Line can still be seen today. Since 1980 the pass has been bypassed by major highways.
The pass is also memorable in Ukrainian history because in 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, it was the site of a mass murder of some 600 Ukrainian freedom fighters, the Carpathian Sich (Карпа́тська Січ, Karpatska Sich), who had been fighting against Hungarian and Polish occupying forces.[1]
In 2008, the Hungarian government received permission from the Ukrainian government to install a monument to the passing of the Hungarian peoples into the future Hungary (in 895). The monument was designed by Ukrainian sculptor Petro Matl (Петро Матл) from Mukachevo.