A historic boundary stone • the hill Trojačka • 939 m a.s.l.
The border here has been rewritten twice since 1906 – the stone still stands. And today's border marker has gone up within arm's reach of it.
On a wooded summit a short way above Bumbálka stand two boundary markers close together. The sandstone boundary stone of 1906 carries the names Uhry, Morava and Karlovice – and a few dozen centimetres from it stands the white marker of today's Czech-Slovak state border.
Why come here
There are few places where you see an old land boundary stone and a present-day border marker side by side. A few dozen centimetres – and more than a hundred years – separate the newer border from the older one.
What not to miss
Each of the three sides carries a different name: Uhry to the east (Makov), Morava to the north (Ostravice), Karlovice to the south (Velké Karlovice).
When to come
From Bumbálka it is roughly a kilometre along the red ridge route. In summer you walk in the shade of the wood; in winter a groomed cross-country ski trail runs past.
The boundary stone has a triangular cross-section. Its three sides are a map: it stands where three cadastres meet, and each side points by name into “its” territory. The names, though, are from 1906 – walk round the stone and read who the neighbours were back then.
The side turned towards the cadastre of Makov. Kysuce belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary – so the boundary on the ridge was not only a village boundary but the boundary between the lands of the Hungarian crown and Moravia. Slovakia lies in that direction today.
The front side, facing the cadastre of Ostravice as it then was. Below the name of the land is carved H. H. – Herrschaft Hochwald, the Hukvaldy estate of the archbishopric, which owned the woods here. The year 1906 and a registration number complete it.
The southern side points into the cadastre of Velké Karlovice. This Wallachian village in the upper Bečva basin reaches with its paseky as far as the ridge – and its cadastre touches those of Ostravice and Makov here to this day.
The border was here before the stone, and it has outlived every state that defined it. The stone of 1906 is its most legible witness.
A border older than the stone
The land boundary between Moravia and Hungary did not run here by chance. It followed the main ridge – and with it the main European watershed. Rain that falls on the northern side of the summit runs off by the Ostravice and the Odra to the Baltic; water from the other sides runs by the Kysuca and the Bečva to the Danube and the Black Sea. The boundary between the lands was drawn by the ground itself from the beginning.
What met on the ridge, though, were not states as we know them today, but estates and cadastres: the Ostravice woods of the Hukvaldy estate from the north, the paseky of Velké Karlovice from the south and Hungarian Makov from the east. It is exactly that meeting of three territories that the stone on the summit marks – which is why it has three sides.
Three turns up here in the language as well: by one reading the hill is called Trojačka because three mountain ranges meet here – the Vsetínské vrchy, the Moravian-Silesian Beskids and the Javorníky Mountains.
The year 1906
At the beginning of the 20th century the Hukvaldy estate had its boundaries newly surveyed and set with stone markers. What came to Trojačka then was a triangular boundary stone of sandstone: only 25 × 24 × 26 centimetres in section, standing about 80 centimetres above the ground – and yet it has outlasted the states whose border it marked.
The lettering on the stone most likely has a particular author. The researcher Karel Jan Malina compared the shapes of the letters with a signature carved into the rock on Čertův mlýn – “Bolf Josef, kameník, H. B. 1903” – and concluded that the dressing and setting of the boundary stones here in 1903–1906 was probably the work of Josef Bolf of Horní Bečva (1868–1909), who trained in master Leide's quarry.
The border changes
The stone had stood in place for only twelve years when the first state vanished from its sides. In 1918 the monarchy broke up and Hungary ceased to exist. The border did not vanish with it: what had been a boundary between two lands of the monarchy became the Moravian-Slovak boundary within a shared state.
The border was rewritten a second time on 1 January 1993, when Czechoslovakia divided. Overnight an internal boundary became the border between two independent states – and so a white border marker stands beside the old stone: S on the Slovak side, C on the Czech. A few dozen centimetres and almost ninety years separate the two markers.
The three still holds today. At the summit Makov, Velké Karlovice and Bílá meet – and with them the Žilina, Zlín and Moravian-Silesian Regions. The tripoint has stayed; only its names have changed three times.
Timeline
for centuries
The land boundary between Moravia and Hungary follows the main ridge – and with it the main European watershed between the Baltic and the Black Sea.
1903–1906
The Hukvaldy estate has the boundaries of its woods newly set with stone markers. Judging by the matching lettering, the dressing was probably the work of the stonemason Josef Bolf of Horní Bečva.
1906
The estate sets a triangular boundary stone on the summit with the names Uhry, Morava (Ostravice, H. H.) and Karlovice.
1918
Hungary ceases to exist and Czechoslovakia comes into being. From then on the same line is the Moravian-Slovak boundary within a shared state.
1993
With the division of Czechoslovakia the border between the Slovak and the Czech Republic runs along the ridge. A white border marker with S and C joins the old stone.
today
At the summit the cadastres of Makov, Velké Karlovice and Bílá meet – and with them the Žilina, Zlín and Moravian-Silesian Regions. The red ridge route passes the stone.
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After roughly a kilometre of gentle climbing alongside the white border markers you reach the summit plateau. A boundary stone of 1906 and the marker of today's state border stand side by side here – walk round the stone, each side carries a different name.
The stone is not the end of the walk, only a point on it. The same red-marked trail carries on from Trojačka along the border to the Makov pass and on to Kasárne and Stratenec – the whole Javorníky ridge walk is about 15 km and you can pick any stretch of it. To the west, at Třeštík, the Vsetínské vrchy ridge walk takes over, past Benešky to Soláň.
On the way from Bumbálka you walk right along the border – the white border markers along the path will bring you reliably to the destination. Bus services to Bumbálka change with the day and the season; you can check the Czech ones in IDOS, the Slovak ones in CP.sk.
From Bumbálka fifteen to twenty minutes' walk gently uphill. Even with a look at the stone and a walk round the summit it is an easy outing of under an hour.
The stone has stood here for over a hundred and twenty years. Do not move it, do not carve anything into it and do not test whether it holds – so that it lasts for the generations to come.
The ridge divides the Beskydy Protected Landscape Area on the Czech side from the Kysuce Protected Landscape Area on the Slovak. Keep to the waymarked routes and the cleared border strip.
You are in the mountains at almost a thousand metres: stout footwear helps and the weather changes fast. In winter the path lies under snow and ice – and skiers use the groomed trail around Bumbálka.
Refreshments and toilets are down at Bumbálka and in Makov.
Two boundary markers on the summit of Trojačka (939 m a.s.l.): a sandstone boundary stone of 1906 with the names Uhry, Morava and Karlovice – and, a few dozen centimetres from it, the white marker of today's Czech-Slovak state border.
By one reading because three mountain ranges meet here – the Vsetínské vrchy, the Moravian-Silesian Beskids and the Javorníky Mountains. Today the summit is also a tripoint of three regions: Žilina, Zlín and Moravian-Silesian.
Each of the three sides pointed into a different cadastre: UHRY towards Makov, MORAVA with Ostravice and the year 1906 to the north (H. H. = Herrschaft Hochwald, the Hukvaldy estate), KARLOVICE to the south into Velké Karlovice.
Most easily from the Bumbálka saddle on the Makov – Horní Bečva road along the red ridge route (E3) – roughly a kilometre of gentle climbing. A path also comes up from the Makov settlement of Trojačka, or along the longer ridge route from Kasárne.
According to the researcher Karel Jan Malina, the dressing and setting of the boundary stones here in 1903–1906 was probably the work of the stonemason Josef Bolf of Horní Bečva – his signature is also carved by the spring on Čertův mlýn.
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