A village without a single green – put together from mountain settlements on the kopanice that joined up in 1895.
11,1 km · 3 h 35 min
blue → red
The shortest of them and the only circuit: from the chapel above Kršlisko across the ridge to the bell tower at Gregušovci and down to the elm.
14,4 km · 4 h 40 min
red
The ridge of the high Javorníky from Melocík through Greguše to Kasárne – a cross-country ski trail in winter.
19,9 km · 6 h 40 min
red (E3)
A whole day along the border ridge: Bumbálka, the Tripoint, the Partisan memorial, the source of the Kysuca, Kasárne and Stratenec.
1720–1895
At the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries the settlement of Vysoká – Makov began to take shape in the mountains above the Kysuca valley; it is first recorded in 1720. Settlement went the kopanice way: a family cleared a piece of hillside, built a cottage on it and farmed around it. Scattered settlements grew up in this way.
The village as we know it today is the result of an administrative decision: in 1895 Makov was established by joining parts of seven villages. It still consists of four territorial parts – Potok, Čierne, Kopanice and Trojačka – and of scattered mountain settlements such as the Greguše settlement with its bell tower.
According to the village chronicle the village takes its name from the makovec – the name given to the highest summit of the Kysuce territory that the settlers farmed on.
The border
The road up the valley leads to the Bumbálka saddle – the border crossing that links the village with the Czech side of the Beskids. The crossing as such ceased to exist when Slovakia joined the Schengen area in 2007.
The border then holds the main ridge of the Javorníky almost as far as Veľký Javorník – about half a kilometre short of the summit it turns away from it, so the highest mountain of the range stays wholly on the Slovak side.
Long before that the portáši patrolled here – border guards who walked the ridge. Their routes are still called the portáš paths. The Kasárne saddle recalls them, as does the page on the portáš graves on the Czech side.
In September 1944 the 1st Czechoslovak Jan Žižka Partisan Brigade fought its way across the border here into Moravia – just under two kilometres from Bumbálka the Partisan memorial still recalls it.
Water
Above the U Jaši settlement, in the Hričovec nature reserve, the Kysuca rises – the river the whole region is named after.
Makov therefore lies on a watershed: a few kilometres away, on the other side of the ridge, the Bečva rises and heads the opposite way – into the Morava.
