Symbolic cemetery
„In memory of the dead - as a warning to the living“ is a motto carved on the door of a chapel located at the Symbolic cemetery under Mount Ostrva in the High Tatras. It is completed by an inscription on a stone: „To known and unknown victims of the High Tatras.“ It has existed since 1940, as quoted by Alojz Lutonský, when an idea of Otakar Štáfl was made real „...to concentrate depressing boards to victims of Tatra peaks, located in various parts of the Tatras, at one accessible, dignified place.“ After years of preparations, the Symbolic cemetery could be regarded as finished. „On Sunday, 11th August 1940, at the Tatra festival, after speeches and consecration of the chapel by the president of the Slovak Republic and bishop of Spiš, the Symbolic cemetery was opened officially.“
Today, there are 313 stone tablets with 450 names (of which 39 are women) installed at the Symbolic cemetery. The oldest one is from 1911, as a silent memory of Jenö Wachter, who died in 1905 when abseiling the peak of Žabí kôň. He was one of the first victims of the Tatras, at the beginning of sport climbing. Part and parcel of the Symbolic cemetery are wooden crosses from Detva. There are 77 of them, of which 47 are original and 30 newer ones. Two big crosses are placed at the entrance of the cemetery.
The Symbolic cemetery is guarded and administered by the State Forests of TANAP, in the spirit of cemetery rules. Their Protective district Štrbské pleso and Center of terrain services maintain the roads, paths, stairs, banisters, fences, access bridges, the chapel, crosses, they restore the tourist marking and orientation, approve installation of new and maintenance of installed stone tablets and clean the area after visitors all the time.