Poprad River

The Poprad is a river of Slovakia and Poland and a right-bank tributary of the Dunajec. It is about 174 km long: 113 km flow through Slovakia, 31 km form the border and the last 31 km lie in Poland. Its basin covers 2,081 km², almost 1,600 km² of them in Slovakia. Through the Dunajec and the Vistula the Poprad carries its water to the Baltic Sea — a rarity for Slovakia, where nearly all rivers belong to the Danube basin. The river's name is one of the oldest in the sub-Tatra region and appears in documents from 1244.

The course: from source to mouth

The Poprad rises in the High Tatras. Its highest source is the Hincov potok, which flows out of Veľké Hincovo pleso at 1,945 m. In the Mengusovská valley, at about 1,302 m, it joins the Krupá stream coming from Popradské pleso, and the Poprad begins. The river skirts the High Tatras from the south, enters the Poprad Basin and flows through Poprad, the largest town on its banks. It then runs north-east through Kežmarok and Spišská Belá, between the Tatras and the Spišská Magura on one side and the Levoča Hills on the other, into the Ľubovňa Basin.

Below Stará Ľubovňa the Poprad turns east, near Plaveč it swings sharply north-east and crosses the border at Čirč. The river then cuts through the Beskid Sądecki, separating the Radziejowa range from the Jaworzyna Krynicka range. It forms the border on two stretches — from Leluchów to Muszyna (5 km) and from Legnava to Piwniczna-Zdrój (26 km). Below Rytro the valley widens, and between Stary Sącz and Nowy Sącz the Poprad joins the Dunajec. It has no large tributaries, only mountain streams: on the Slovak side the Velický, Slavkovský and Studený potok, the Kežmarská Biela voda, Ľubica, Jakubianka and Ľubovnianka; on the Polish side the Muszynka, Wierchomlanka, Łomniczanka and Wielka Roztoka. The mean flow at Mníšek nad Popradom is 22.3 m³/s.

What to see along the river

• Popradské pleso and the Symbolic Cemetery — in the headwaters, above the Krupá valley.
• Kežmarok Castle and the Wooden Articular Church of the Holy Trinity, Kežmarok — a few hundred metres from the river.
• Ľubovňa Castle — on a rock above the Poprad; it guarded the old trade route along the valley.
• Żegiestów-Zdrój spa: the Anna pump room and the Spa House — a spa in the border gorge.
• Stary Sącz: market square and Poor Clares' convent — the town near the mouth.

The river and people

As early as the Middle Ages a trade route from Spiš to Lesser Poland ran along the Poprad valley, guarded by Ľubovňa Castle. The river itself was hardly used for transport: in the mid-19th century Wincenty Pol wrote that rafts could only go down it at high water, that mill weirs below Kežmarok were in the way and that boulders blocked the bed between Ľubovňa and Sącz, especially after the great flood of 1813, so goods from Spiš were more often carried by cart. Today a road to Prešov runs along the Slovak part of the valley, the scenic regional road 971 follows the Polish bank from Muszyna to Piwniczna-Zdrój, and the Nowy Sącz – Leluchów – Plaveč – Poprad railway runs along the whole valley. The valley is rich in mineral and thermal springs, which gave rise to the spas of Muszyna, Żegiestów and Piwniczna-Zdrój.

Nature and safety

The headwaters lie in the Tatra National Park: you may move only on marked trails there, and swimming in the Tatra lakes is forbidden (Slovak Ministry of the Environment, 2026). The Polish part of the valley is protected by the Poprad Landscape Park. The Poprad is a mountain river with fast floods: in June 2010 the water flooded part of Stará Ľubovňa and destroyed the railway bridge near Stary Sącz, rebuilt in 2011. Keep away from steep banks during rain. Emergency numbers: 112, in the Slovak mountains HZS 18 300, in the Polish mountains GOPR 985 or +48 601 100 300.

Nearby: peaks, trails, huts

The trail Tri studničky, old forester's lodge – Popradské Pleso, stop leads to the source lake. From Stará Ľubovňa you can climb the trail Stará Ľubovňa – Orlovská Magura, and from Rytro above the Polish gorge the trail Rytro – Przehyba; the valley is also crossed by the Main Trail of Beskidy.

Photos: Ing.Mgr.Jozef Kotulič, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Michal Klajban, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Color managed in Photoshop by Poeticbent (talk · contribs), based on lower..., CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.