Stolica

Stolica (Hungarian Sztolica) is the highest peak of the Stolické vrchy and of the entire Slovak Ore Mountains at 1,476 m. It stands in central Slovakia about 12 km north-east of the town of Revúca, and the boundary between the Banská Bystrica and Košice regions (Revúca and Rožňava districts) runs over it. Around it lie the villages of Rejdová, Muránska Zdychava, Čierna Lehota, Muránska Huta and Telgárt. The massive mountain stands south of the main Ore Mountains ridge, to which it is linked by the Slanské sedlo saddle (1,234 m). The eastern boundary of the buffer zone of Muránska planina National Park runs across the summit, and the mountain itself is part of the Stolica protected area.

The massif is a huge granite monolith, tectonically raised among crystalline schists. It forms a four-armed node with a broad flat top; to the north-west, beyond Slanské sedlo, rises Kyprov (1,391 m), to the south-west, beyond the Harová saddle (1,362 m), the broad ridge of Lehotská hoľa. The Slaná river (Hungarian Sajó) rises on the northern slopes, in a clearing right below the summit. The southern slopes feed the Lehotský potok to the Štítnik river, the western ones tributaries of the Muráň.

Getting there / trails

Stolica is a hub of marked trails; the red Rudná magistrála, which crosses the whole Ore Mountains, ends here. Times from a Polish guide (up / down):

• Blue markings from Slanské sedlo — 45 min / 25 min; red via the Harová saddle — 1 h 15 min / 45 min. The red trail reaches Slanské sedlo from Muránska Huta via the Javorinka saddle.
• Blue and green markings from Faltenovo sedlo via Harová — 1 h 45 min / 1 h; the saddle can be reached from Čierna Lehota or Muránska Zdychava.
• Green markings — the «Pavol Jozef Šafárik Trail» from the Cúdenisko-Paseky junction (Brdárka) via the Olochova jama saddle — 2 h 15 min / 1 h 45 min; trails from Slavošovce and Rejdová lead here too.

On the summit stand a simple wooden cross, a metal signpost «mushroom» and a box with a summit book.

The view

The top is partly forested, so views open only from clearings, mainly on the southern and north-eastern slopes. The view of neighbouring Kráľova hoľa (1,946 m) and the whole Kráľova hoľa ridge of the Low Tatras is especially fine; in good weather the High Tatras are visible too.

Nature

The massif is almost entirely forested: beech lower down, higher up Carpathian spruce forest with sycamore and rowan, black honeysuckle in the understorey, and alpine lady fern, Austrian leopard's-bane and large white buttercup in the herb layer, with the rare yellow Sudeten pansy on old pastures. The top and ridges were once covered with heavily grazed meadows; some were replanted, others overgrown by mat-grass. Sheathed cottongrass and bogbean grow by the springs. In recent years the forests below the summit have been badly damaged by storms. Nutcrackers, adders and brown bears live here.

Safety and rules

These are lonely mountains with no hut on the summit: rely on yourself, carry water and be alert — bears live in the massif. In Muránska planina National Park and its buffer zone keep to marked trails. Slovak Mountain Rescue Service (HZS): 18 300 (+421 18 300) or 112.

Photos: TrSzGabesz, CC BY-SA 4.0; TrSzGabesz, CC BY-SA 4.0; ++Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons.