Gallery Encián – High Tatras
Part of the town: Poprad (časť mesta)
Gallery Encián – High Tatras
Encián is a national cultural monument known also as the Encián hotel Skalnaté Pleso and registered in the list of cultural monuments of the Slovak Republic as number 3850/3. The building of Encián, designed by the eminent Slovak architect Dr. Jurkovič, had originally two separate parts – a cable car station and a hotel.
The Encián hotel, which was built in 1937 without any project documentation, was one of top-modern hotels in Central Europe at that time. “We were dreaming about it for three years… searching for possibilities, methods, money. All the time, it was standing there in silence, watching at us with its wide, partly broken windows. Only a few people understand how much is hidden inside this legend, which helped form the image of Skalnaté Pleso with its typical dignity in the past.”
Encián is a great construction which used to serve as the upper station of the 1st cable car section and the lower station of the cable car which operates between Skalnaté Pleso and Mt. Lomnický štít.
The original project of architect Dušan Samo Jurkovič was changed several times by the investor in the course of the construction process, which affected beautiful lines of author´s concept. Various facilities were added to the building, besides technological background, there were also sections designated for running a restaurant and offering accommodation. But time was merciless to Encián.
When a new cable car between Tatranská Lomnica and Skalnaté Pleso was built in the 1970s, life started to move from Encián to the neighbouring cable car station. “We didn´t want to make a big issue of the reconstruction as from the very first moment, we felt great humility and respect towards this place, whose genius loci deserves it.”
Skalnaté Pleso, Tatranská Lomnica
Part of the town: Poprad (časť mesta)
Telephone: +421 9011 033 645
Email: encian@krajsietatry.sk