Kriváň () is áňa mountain in the High Tatras, Slovakia, that dominates the upper part of the former Liptov County. Multiple surveys among nature lovers have ranked it as the country's most beautiful peak. Readily accessible along maintained marked trails and with the exceptional vistas afforded from its summit, it is the hikers' favorite mountain in the western part of the High Tatras. Kriváň has also been a major symbol in Slovak ethnic and national activism for the past two centuries. It has been referenced in works of art from 19th-century literature, through paintings, film documentaries, to a Polish rock track. A country-wide vote in 2005 selected it to be one of the images on Slovakia's euro coins.
Name
The name Kriváň, first recorded as Kriwan in 1639, is derived from the root kriv- meaning "bent" or "crooked". It reflects the angled appearance of its shape when viewed from the west and south, characterized in the work from 1639 as an "oxtail" (cauda bubula in the Latin original). The Slovak name is used in other languages including in Polish, rather than its potential Polonized version (Krzywań), except occasionally in Podhale in the immediate vicinity of the Tatras.
Two adjacent peaks in the nearby Malá Fatra range carry the same name - Veľký Fatranský Kriváň and Malý Fatranský Kriváň, and so does the village of Kriváň further away in southern Slovakia.
History
Elevation
Based merely on visual observation, Kriváň competed for the status of the highest mountain in the High Tatras with Lomnický štít, which dominates the view from the east, until 1793 when the latter was accurately identified as the higher of the two (but wrongly as the highest peak in the mountain range, an error corrected by Ludwig Greiner in 1837):
[Kriváň] is generally said to be the highest of all the Alps in the Carpathian chain; but this opinion is not supposed to be founded upon any measurement.
The relative elevations of the two mountains were determined by the English natural historian Robert Townson, who ascended both peaks in August 1793 and also made an early recorded comment on Kriváň's aesthetic appeal:
The weather was very fine, and the Krivan, having got in the night a cap of snow, looked sublime. [...] 1888 yards above the village of Vasetz [Važec]; the Krivan is therefore something lower than the Lomnitz Peak [Lomnický štít].
The exact elevation of Kriváň is currently recognized as
Kriváň is believed to have the greatest height from its base in the whole Tatras, as it rises from the bottom of the Kôprova valley or from Tri Studničky up to .
Ascents
Before 1800
A travel book Ungarisher oder Dacianisher Simplicissimus written by Daniel Georg Speer in 1693 mentions a current legend (may have more ancient roots) explaining how Krivan got its shape. Lucifer (the carrier of light) flew over Tatras carrying some people to hell. His foot tripped on the tip of Krivan which got bent, and losing his balance he dropped the sinners who populated since the county of Liptov. Records of explorations by miners in the Kriváň massif date to the first half of the 15th century. Their presence increased during the gold rush of the 16th century. Although they may not have been the first to do so, it is probable that some of the miners reached the top of Kriváň; remnants of their shacks have survived below Priehyba Ridge at the elevation of about 2,000 m (6,560 ft.) through the present, and the highest, long abandoned, Terézia Shaft is merely about 60 m (200 ft.) below the summit. The commercial exploitation of the meager deposits discovered at Kriváň proved to be barely viable. It was abandoned in the 18th century.
The Scottish doctor Townson who ascended it in 1793 provided some evidence that Kriváň was already a recognized occasional destination for tourists in the second half of the 18th century. His guide from Važec had been to the top several times before and Townson saw him collect small coins from under a summit stone where hikers would leave them for luck. The first recorded ascent of Kriváň was by the Lutheran Pastor Andreas Jonas Czirbes from Spišská Nová Ves on 4 August 1773.