Laborec River

The Laborec is a river in eastern Slovakia, a left-bank tributary of the Latorica in the Bodrog and Tisza basin. It is 129 km long (the introduction of the Slovak encyclopaedia gives 135.5 km, making it the country's tenth-longest river), and its basin covers 4,522.5 km², the fifth largest in Slovakia. The mean flow at the mouth is 54.5 m³/s. The Laborec flows from north to south through almost the whole of Zemplín and is regarded as the symbol of the region: from the Beskid Niski below the Dukla Pass through Medzilaborce, Humenné and Michalovce to the East Slovak Lowland.

The course: from source to mouth

The source of the Laborec lies on the southern slopes of the Beskid Niski, a few kilometres from the Dukla Pass, in the village of Čertižné, at 682 m (Polish sources give 710 m). In 2005 the Slovak water management company placed a memorial stone at the spring, on the initiative of the local forester and historian Miroslav Porada. As a mountain river the Laborec flows south through Medzilaborce, Krásny Brod and Borov, collecting the left-bank Výrava and Udava; above Humenné they and the Cirocha form a fan of streams.

The Cirocha joins the Laborec at Humenné. The river then turns south-west, skirts the Vihorlat from the west, passes Jasenov and Strážske, then flows south again through Michalovce. Here the Laborec's water feeds the Zemplínska šírava reservoir. After a long stretch without tributaries the Laborec receives its largest tributary near Drahňov — the Uh, most of whose basin (1,613 km², 61%) lies in Ukraine's Zakarpattia — and joins the Latorica near Oborín. The basin is very asymmetric: the left part covers 4,076.7 km², the right only 445.8 km², because the Ondava flows parallel to the west of the Laborec.

What to see along the river

• Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art, Medzilaborce — in the town on the Laborec.
• Krásny Brod Monastery: ruins and pilgrimage site — in the Laborec valley at Krásny Brod.
• Vihorlat Museum and Open-Air Museum, Humenné — in the town near the Cirocha confluence.
• Zemplínska šírava — the “Slovak Sea” below the Vihorlat — the reservoir fed by the Laborec.

The river and people

The river's name is derived from the Indo-European root albh, «white», as in the name of the Elbe (Labe); the Hungarian Slavist of Slovak origin János Melich proposed a Turkic–Bulgar origin, and according to a legend in the anonymous Hungarian chronicle the river is named after the Slavic lord Laborec, who ruled in Uzhhorod at the end of the 9th century. The Laborec valley, which separates the Ondava Upland from the Bukovské vrchy, has been a transport corridor since ancient times: today roads 18, 74 and 559 run here, and from Michalovce to Medzilaborce the Slovenské Nové Mesto – Zagórz railway, the historic First Hungarian-Galician Railway. Below Strážske the river is suitable for easy paddling all year; the more interesting stretch for kayaks is from Radvaň nad Laborcom to Humenné and Strážske, but it needs at least 80 cm on the Koškovce gauge. Over the centuries the bed near Strážske has shifted several kilometres east.

Nature and safety

The Laborec is known for violent floods. Before the Zemplínska šírava was built, together with the Uh and the Čierna voda it repeatedly flooded the Senné depression, forming a temporary «East Slovak Sea» up to 12 km long and 5 km wide — in 1924 the whole village of Senné was under water. In November 1933, after downpours, the Laborec and the Cirocha flooded the surroundings of Humenné within a few hours, forming a lake 2–3 km across, and in Michalovce the level rose 6.3 m above normal. So after heavy rain keep away from the banks on the lower course. Emergency numbers: 112, in the mountains HZS 18 300.

Nearby: peaks, trails, huts

From Humenné the trail Humenné, mesto – Hôrka climbs a hill above the valley, Krivošťany – Jasenov, Castle leads to Jasenov Castle, and east of the river rises Vihorlat.

Photos: Plepo, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons; Ondřej Žváček, CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons; ZemplinTemplar, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; No machine-readable author provided. PM assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain, Wikimedia Commons; Jan Starec, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.