Legnava


Legnava is a village and municipality in the Stará Ľubovňa District, Prešov Region in northern Slovakia. It has 146 inhabitants.

History

Early History
The village was founded after 1366, when the then Hungarian king Ludovit I. Great gave nobleman Jakub a forested area between the villages Starina, Orlov, Andrejovka and the river Poprad, to create a village. The first written mention of this village dates from 1427.
History of Legnava under Hungarian Rule
The village had then 7 taxed port and belonged to the estate Brezovica. In the documents from the 15th and 16th centuries it occurs sporadically under the name Legnava, more often in the Hungarianized Langno, Lagnó, Hosszúvágás and under the German name Legenau, Langhaw. The German name reveals that the settlement was built by settlers with sholtýs under the right of purchase. The document from 1440 shows that they lived in the village of Valasi. Šoltýstvo remained in the village until the 16th century. In 1600 the village consisted of 16 serf houses. At the end of the 16th century, Legnava was a medium-sized municipality with exclusively serf population mostly of Ruthenian origin. In the 17th century it belonged to the Semsey family, in the 18th century the Szirmay family.
A chapel built by Tomáš Szirmay is located 1 km from the village. In 1787 the village had 298 inhabitants and in 1880 even up to 503 inhabitants. Nowadays, the inhabitants made their living mainly by farming, breeding sheep, working in forests. After 1918 by farming, cattle breeding and canvas weaving.
Modern History
As of currently, the majority of the land surrounding Legnava is owned by the Kundrat family, a land exchange took place in 2019.