The Five Pond Valley

The primitive name of the Five Pond Valley, which originated from folk culture, is Pięciostawy.
At the beginning of Tara mountain tourism, the name Five Pond Valley (Dolina Pięciu Stawów) was introduced, which turned out to be misleading, because there is another valley at the Slovakian side of the Tatra mountains that has the exact same name. So to tell them apart, the first valley was named the Five Polish Pond Valley, and the second was named the Five Spis Pond Valley.

Despite its lengthy name, the Five Pond Valley is still a place worth visiting.
The high-mountain, postglacial valley, with the length of 4 kilometers, the width of 2 kilometers and surface of 5,5 square kilometers, is located at the area of the Tatra National Park, at the height of approximately 1625-1900 meters above the sea level.
Long ago, the valley was the place of sheep grazing and was part of The Five Lake alp. Before World War II, the Tatra Mountain Association began repurchasing the area of this alp from
highlanders. In 1956, the Tatra National Park limited the pasturage, and between 1963 and 1965, the whole area of the valley became the property of the park.

Tourists began visiting this valley in the early 19th century. Among the first people who came to the valley were Stanislaw Staszic and and Seweryn Goszczynski. In the late 19th century, a network of tourist trails was layed out. The valley is also visited in the winter, but sadly, it doesn’t always end happily. In march 1976, two experienced tourist died from exhaustion, while trying to reach the mountain shelter in the Five Pond Valley through the Roztoka Valley. They were found dead roughly a dozen meters away from the shelter.

After you get trough the Five Pond Valley, you might want to rest in a local mountain shelter. This shelter was founded back in 1876. It is open for visitors all year long and has a stylish inn and kitchen. It is renowned for its apple pie, baked locally for generations according to the original recipe.