Vlkolínec is a living village, home to both permanent inhabitants and seasonal residents (owners of wooden cottages who stay here during the holidays).
Sidorovo, the prominent peak rising above Vlkolínec, forms part of the Veľká Fatra range. Locals call it Žiar, while historical maps (up to 1950) refer to it as Híravá. The mountain bears traces of a prehistoric hillfort dating back 2,500 years. Amateur archaeological research conducted by Ivan Houdek in 1931–32 confirmed the presence of Hallstatt and Early Lusatian cultures, evidenced by ceramic fragments. Every Easter Sunday, the Vlkolínec Civic Association organises a star-shaped hiking ascent of Sidorovo.
Natural monuments – several geological formations in the area have been protected since 1952: Krkavá skala, on the eastern slope of Sidorovo, is a limestone cliff 22 metres high and covering 0.26 hectares. A small stand of red pine grows at its summit. Vlčia skala is a travertine formation shaped like a terrace that plunges steeply into the Trlenská Valley. A building once used as a Jesuit retreat from the monastery in Ružomberok stands atop the terrace. Doggerské skaly, also in the Trlenská Valley, is a set of rocks covering 0.17 hectares and forming a karst landscape that exposes a Jurassic radiolarite sequence from the Dogger age in the Veľká Fatra range.
Flora – the area supports several valuable plant communities: moist habitats in the Trlenská Valley and below Borovník are home to species such as the western marsh orchid (Dactylorhiza majalis Rchb), bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata L.), bird’s-eye primrose (Primula farinosa L.), and hare’s-tail cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum L.). Limestone cliffs are colonised by the auricula (Primula auricula L.). Forest edges host grassy and herbaceous communities with species such as alpine clematis (Clematis alpina), lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus L.), and common columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris L.). The potential natural vegetation consists of spruce–pine and beech forests.
The fauna is characteristic of Central European mountain regions and includes the brown bear (Ursus arctos), grey wolf (Canis lupus), and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx).
The first recorded (surviving) mention of the village of Vlkolínec dates from 1461, under the name Wylkovinecz. The village was, and still is, part of the town of Ružomberok, which was granted town privileges in 1318. However, as early as 9 July 1376, King Louis I (Louis the Great) ordered the reeves and inhabitants of all villages within the town’s domain – its “streets”, as they were called: Černová, Biely Potok, Vlkolínec, and Villa Ludrová – to pay taxes (collecta) to Ružomberok and to turn to the town authorities if they had any disputes. This decree marked the beginning of their subordination.
The population consisted of peasants and cottagers: peasants were landowners with a homestead, house, and plot, while cottagers were landless tenants occupying a house in the village.
The 1771 rebellion of the four streets – or rather, the dispute between the “streets” and the town – had deep roots. For centuries, Černová, Biely Potok, Ludrová, and Vlkolínec were outer settlements that belonged to Ružomberok. Records from 1598 even show that each village elected two senators to the town council. Yet tensions simmered over shared rights to the surrounding territory – logging in the forests, fishing, and livestock grazing on pastures and meadows. The town, wanting to restrict the “street dwellers” from using this communal land, resorted to livestock confiscations, fines, and even corporal punishment. It treated the inhabitants of the four streets not as equal citizens, but as serfs. The town even forced them to contribute part of a monetary tax (census) that Ružomberok itself owed to the lords of Likava. In 1771, this long-standing conflict came to a head. The “streets” attempted to break away from Ružomberok through legal means, but failed – and resistance broke out. The revolt was instigated by Ondrej Krička, a cooper from Ružomberok, who rallied discontented residents. He was soon joined by other leaders: Adam Púček from Biely Potok, Martin Hlásny from Ludrová, and Michal Laurinček from Vlkolínec. In 1775, at the request of the town, imperial troops occupied the “streets”. The men fled to the hills, the fields lay uncultivated, and women and children were left to face the cruelty of the mercenaries, who remained in place until 1777. Under such harsh conditions, the villagers were forced to capitulate (only Vlkolínec, in 1777, formally reaffirmed its loyalty to the town). Three leaders of the uprising were sentenced to hard labour in Szeged, and, after serving their terms, remained under permanent surveillance.
The folk architecture of Vlkolínec is typical of highland regions. The main building material was timber from the surrounding forests; stone was used only for cellars and storage rooms. The sloping terrain was levelled with high stone foundations, whose plinths form a colourful contrast with the timber walls. Uneven walls were smoothed with clay, which was then whitewashed and painted twice a year, once in spring and again in autumn. Interior walls were also levelled with clay and, once dry, were painted. Floors in the entry hall and storeroom were typically made of compacted earth, while the main room had a wooden floor.
Log houses: the essential construction method for wooden buildings here is block construction – laying hewn logs horizontally, one atop another, without a vertical frame. At the corners where walls meet, the beams were interlinked using mortise joints. Moss was placed between the logs during assembly to insulate against wind (draughts) and cold and to retain warmth from the hearth or stove. Once the structure was complete, the gaps were sealed with clay, which served both a practical and aesthetic function. Log houses in Vlkolínec typically had three rooms: the main room, the entry hall, and the storeroom.
The main room (izba) was the largest space in the house and the centre of family life. It accommodated extended families – often several households or two generations – and served as a space not only for sleeping, cooking, and eating, but also for all household tasks. In winter, even young animals were sheltered here. Some homes had a pit dug into the floor for storing potatoes.
The entry hall (pitvor) was the central room of the house. Over time, its rear section evolved into a kitchen with a hearth and stove. Smoke escaped through a hole in the ceiling (dymník) into the attic, which also served as a smoking chamber for meat and wooden shingles hung in special racks. The bread oven, located in the main room, was also heated from this hearth. (In the early 20th century, smoke began to be drawn through a chimney from a brick oven.)
The storeroom (komora) was a dark room with a single window, used to store food and grain in troughs or chests. A barrel of sauerkraut stood here, along with farming tools and wooden utensils. It also served as an occasional sleeping area.
Barns (humná) were wooden farm buildings used for work and storage. They typically stood behind the main house, enclosing the courtyard.
The stable (maštaľ) either stood separately or was attached to the barn. Along with pigsties and sheep pens (záčiny), it housed domestic livestock.
Wooden shingles, made by splitting softwood, were a traditional roofing material with a typical lifespan of around thirty years. The manual production process began by selecting a tree with a straight trunk, which was then sawn into evenly sized billets using a two-man saw. These were cut to the required length and split with an axe to the desired thickness. The resulting boards were shaped further using a drawknife on a shaving horse. Grooves were then carved into the thicker edge of each shingle using a special knife known as a pažák, allowing the individual pieces to interlock. The shingled roofs of houses in Vlkolínec are gabled, finished with a stepped ridge spanning approximately five rows of shingles. At the top of each gable sits a semicircle and a wooden peg (some of these semicircles are adorned with carved decorations or inscriptions, such as a date, a cross, or the builder’s name).
A stream once formed the original axis of the settlement, with a roadway running along either side. Its water was channelled through wooden troughs around 40 cm in diameter, allowing the women of Vlkolínec to do laundry and water their livestock. Today, however, the stream no longer flows through the entire village. In the central section, between house numbers 8 and 9, it has been diverted from the road and now runs through gardens out of the village.
At the heart of Vlkolínec stands a well constructed from logs and equipped with a pulley mechanism. This once served as the village’s sole source of drinking water, though the settlement now has a mains supply.
The belfry, built in 1770, has log walls clad externally with shingles and is topped with a shingled roof and a cross. The two-storey tower once marked the time for daily prayers and functioned as a kind of village clock. Traditionally rung by one of the women appointed as bell-ringer, the bell sounded three times a day – in the early morning, at lunchtime, and in the evening – and also tolled to mark a death. The belfry marked the boundary between the upper and lower parts of Vlkolínec, dividing the villagers into Nižňania (“lower folk”) and Vyšňania (“upper folk”).
The church stands at the eastern edge of the village. Originally built as a roadside chapel next to the cemetery, it is a single-nave Baroque structure in a Classical style with a presbytery and a tower incorporated into its front façade. It is dedicated to the Visitation of the Virgin Mary to Saint Elizabeth, an occasion associated with the blessing of flowers symbolising fertility. A pilgrimage is held each year in Vlkolínec on this date, 2 July. Another pilgrimage takes place on 5 August for the Feast of Our Lady of the Snows, commemorating a “miraculous” summer snowfall and the end of a plague.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Vlkolínec had a folk school, located in a wooden cottage at the centre of the village. As the number of children grew during the Austro-Hungarian period, the town of Ružomberok built a brick school with one classroom, providing six years of compulsory education with a single teacher. Following the establishment of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, a new law on schools introduced eight years of compulsory schooling. One teacher from that period, Jozef Májek, was killed in Spain in 1936 as a 25-year-old member of the International Brigades. Today, the former school building houses the Gallery of Folk Art. Children from Vlkolínec now attend primary schools in the town.
Hay huts – known as štále – were used to store hay or provide shelter for livestock in summer and winter. They were scattered across the surrounding land, with at least one hay hut in every meadow near Vlkolínec (around fifty stood in the meadows near Malinné). In winter, hay was brought home to feed the animals, transported on sledges called krňačky.
Farming in Vlkolínec was carried out on terraced fields. The villagers primarily grew cereals (locally called zbožie), most commonly barley, which was used for flour, groats, and poultry feed. Barley straw, often mixed with weeds, was chopped into chaff to feed livestock and sheep in winter. Rye (raž) was cultivated for its straw, which filled strožliaky – mattresses. Oats were prized for their resilience. Grain was threshed by hand in the barnyard using flails, then winnowed with a sieve to remove fragments of straw and husk. The grain was then tossed with a wooden shovel to separate it from the chaff and sifted again using a special sieve with holes just large enough for the grain to pass through. Potatoes (known locally as švábka) and fermented cabbage were staple foods in Vlkolínec.
Peas were grown in pea fields. Once ripe, they were harvested, dried, and threshed with flails. The empty pods were fed to livestock. Peas were a traditional folk food, often made into mash. In times of scarcity, they were milled into flour and mixed into bread dough. Due to their abundance, peas were believed to possess magical properties and were seen as a symbol of prosperity. Cooked peas formed part of the traditional Christmas meal in Vlkolínec.
Beans are a popular legume today. In Vlkolínec, bean stew is cooked by the Vlkolínec Civic Association at cultural events.
Flax and hemp – practical textile plants – were cultivated for centuries by the women of Vlkolínec, who processed them at home to weave linen and hemp cloth. Once pulled from the earth, the stalks were dried, then soaked in retting pits. After drying again, they were crushed with a pestle, beaten on a threshing board, and combed on a hackle. The resulting fibres were prepared into tow for spinning. The seeds of flax and hemp were ground in a mortar to produce oil, which was used to flavour mashed potatoes during Lent.
Potatoes and cabbage formed the basis of the local diet.
Fruit trees in Vlkolínec included especially hardy varieties of plums and pears (known locally as hniličky), which were dried in a bread oven to make fruit crisps.
Sheep were kept in large numbers. At the beginning of the 20th century, the village had two sheep farms housing a total of 500 sheep. Their wool was processed into cloth, which was sold at the market fair in Ružomberok.
The men of Vlkolínec earned their living as woodcutters. In summer, they felled trees in the surrounding forests. In winter, they hauled these logs down into the town on sledges (krňačky).
In the past, the people of Vlkolínec were known as skilled carpenters. They built timber houses in villages across lower Liptov, split shingles, and practised woodcarving. Traditional Slovak carving was originally associated with practical shepherds’ utensils (pails, ladles, and moulds for cheese, including oštiepok – a traditional smoked sheep-milk cheese), as well as household items such as kitchen tools, wooden dishes, spoons, spatulas, pestles and butter churns. Today, folk carvers create decorative objects, artistic reliefs, and sculptures, which are exhibited to the public each August at “Sunday in Vlkolínec”.
