Dr. h. c. prof. Peter Kónya, PhD (* August 20, 1966, Prešov, Czechoslovakia) is a Slovak university professor, historian and academic official. He works at the Institute of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Prešov. He has been the Rector of the University of Prešov since 1 August 2015.

His long-term scientific research focuses on the history of the anti-Habsburg uprisings in Hungary and their impact on the free royal towns of the Upper Hungary (Prešov Blood Trial of 1687, Prešov, Bardejov, Sabinov during the Counter-Reformation and the anti-Habsburg uprisings (1670 - 1711), For God's Fatherland and Freedom. The turbulent fate of the Kuruc general Juraj Ottlyk). He also researches the issues of Reformation and Recatholization and the history of the Evangelical Church a.v.,He was the compiler and author of several scientific collections, monographs and editions of sources on the subject (Counter-Reformation, Recatholization and Catholic Reformation, Three Lutheran Confessions of Faith from Hungary, Leonard Stöckel and the Reformation in Central Europe, Confessionalization in Slovakia in the 16th-18th centuries). 

His research interest is also focused on the research of regional history, where he was the author and compiler of many histories of villages and towns in eastern Slovakia (History of Sabinov, History of Sobraniec, History of Kráľovský Chlmec, History of the village of Soľ). He is the compiler and co-author of the university textbook History of Hungary (1000 - 1918).

Awards:

1st Dean's Award of the Faculty of Arts PU (2001, 2010)

2. Jozef Miloslav Hurban Prize for biographical and dictionary literature (2010),

3. Award of the Slovak Historical Society at the Slovak Academy of Sciences (2011)

4. Medal of the Debrecen Branch of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Pro Cooperatione.

Source: https://www.unipo.sk/filozoficka-fakulta/instituty-fakulty/ih-new/ludia/profesori/30976
Photo source: Author: University of Presov - https://www.unipo.sk/informacie-o-univerzite/organy/oas/rektor/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85891316

One of the greatest Czech thinkers, philosophers and writers was born on 28 March 1592 in Moravia. He studied theology and was a priest, later the last bishop of the Unity of Brethren. After the defeat of the Bohemian Estates at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, he became an exile and began his pilgrimage through Europe. 

After a stay in Poland and Sweden, he came to Prešov in 1650 and then to Blatný Potok at the invitation of Prince Rákoci. In 1654 he visited Prešov again and was one of the candidates for the post of rector of the town school, but the town council chose another candidate. Comenius went again to Poland and from there to Holland, where he spent the last years of his life. He died on 15 November 1670 in Amsterdam.

During his lifetime, Komenský gained a reputation as an author of pedagogical writings in the field of educational theory and didactics. His ideal was pansofia, i.e. the universal science of the system of all knowledge. Komenský's works that are still recognized today include The Gate of Languages Opened, The World in Pictures, The Great Didactic, and The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart. Many of his ideas are timeless, and because of them he is considered not only the founder of modern pedagogy, but also, and rightly, a teacher of nations.

During his visit to Prešov, Komenský stayed in the house of Ondrej Klobušický, later converted into a palace, today the seat of the Regional Court. Komenský's stay in Prešov is commemorated by a commemorative plaque on the facade of the Evangelical College in the city centre.

Source: Regional Library P. O. Hviezdoslav in Prešov; Micro-project.
Photo source: By Jürgen Ovens - http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/collectie/SK-A-2161, Free work, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34250301

He was born on 18 October 1874 in Tajov, after which he chose his pseudonym. He graduated from the teachers' institute in Kláštor pod Znievom (1889 - 1893) and worked as a teacher in Banská Bystrica and in villages in the Horehronie and Považie regions. Later he graduated from the Commercial Academy in Prague (1898 - 1900) and worked as a bank clerk in Trnava, Martin, Nadlak. From 1910 to 1912 he was the head of the Tatra Bank branch in Prešov. From 1912 he was the secretary of the Slovak National Party in Martin, where he became the editor of the National Herald after its activities were discontinued. In 1915 he enlisted on the Eastern Front, joined the foreign resistance and joined the Czechoslovak legions. After the war he settled in Martin, but from 1920 he was the head of the legionary office in Bratislava. In 1925 he retired and devoted himself only to literary activities. He died on 20 May 1940 in Bratislava.

Tajovský is one of the top representatives of Slovak literary realism and the founder of realistic drama. His works are connected with current political and social issues, and in addition to criticism, he often used humorous tuning of stories set in a village or small-town environment. He published prose collections Besednice, Smutné nôty, Rozprávky pro folk, Volebné rozprávky, Spod kosy, Tŕpky, Slovenské obrázky, Na fronty a iné rozprávky, Rozprávky o československé leggiách v Rusku, but his best known stories are Maco Mlieč, Mamka Pôstková, Na chlieb, Horký chlieb and Mišo. During his stay in Prešov, he wrote the one-act play Sin, the prose poems Gypsies, Twelve Souls and Heavy Struggle, as well as the autobiographical features When I Was in Prešov, From Prešov to Ujheľ and Behind Záborský's Manuscripts. Tajovský's plays Promises, The Women's Law, Mother, New Life, Sin, In the Service, The Confused Farm, The Death of Ďurka Langsfeld, The Blúznivci and The Hero are still part of the repertoire of Slovak theatres today. In Prešov, a street is named after him.

Source: Regional Library P. O. Hviezdoslav in Prešov; Micro-project.
Photo source: Author: photo from archive from 100 years ago - own, Free work, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8959440

Alexander Duchnovich was a Ruthenian national revivalist, writer, educator and Greek Catholic priest, who was born in the family of a Greek Catholic priest on 24 April 1803. He graduated from the gymnasium in Uzhhorod. He studied philosophy in Košice and theology in Uzhhorod. In 1830-1834 he was a teacher in Uzhhorod, a parish priest in the villages of Komlóš (today Chmeľová), Chmeľov, Beloveža. He lived in Belovezha for four years and was sent there by Bishop Gregor Tarkovič. It was during this period that Duchnovich decided to become more involved in the dignified life of the Ruthenians. He began to write in his native language (until then he had used Hungarian and Russian). In Belovezh he wrote or compiled his manuscript collection „Privitatae cogitationes“, which contains works of the 1920s and 1930s and gives an overall picture of his artistic output in this period. In Belovezh he performed mainly church duties (parish priest - svyashchenik). In addition, he taught children and adults. He taught children in their native language and also at school he paid attention to learning the basics of agricultural work, especially gardening and fruit growing.

From 1838 to 1844 he was a bishop's notary in Uzhhorod. From 1844 he was a canon in Prešov; he was also a school inspector. He taught Russian and Latin at the Greek-Catholic gymnasium in Presov. In 1847 he was a representative of the Prešov bishopric at the last Hungarian Estates Council. In the same year he published a syllabary entitled Knyzycja chytaľnaja dla načynajuščych. In it, he also published a short story Obraz zhizni (in Slovak, Obraz zhizni zhizni), written by a mere 12-year-old Anatoly Kralitsky. In 1854 he published Liturgicheskii Katechizis, ili objasenie sv. Liturgii i nekotorych cerkovnych obrjadov.

In 1862 he founded (together with other representatives of the Ruthenian national movement) the Obshchestvo svjatoho Ioanna Krestitelja i Predteči (Society of St. John the Baptist, 1862-1874). The Society was active in 1862-1874; it was renewed in 2003. The Society originally supported poor Ruthenian students in their studies. The program of the restored society is the religious, national and cultural development of Rusyns. 

Since 1990, the Alexander Duchnovič Rusyn Theatre in Prešov has been named after him.

Source: https://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Duchnovič
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He came from the family of a blacksmith and a richtár from Bardejov. He studied in Košice, Bratislava and from 1530 at the University of Wittenberg under the guidance of representatives of the German Reformation Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon. Especially under their influence, his faith and his cultural and educational level were shaped. 

After years as rector of the school in Eisleben (1534 - 1539), he returned to his hometown where he took over the management of the Latin town school (except for a year's stay in Kežmarok in 1555 - 1556, he was at its head until his death), which under his leadership reached an excellent level. Its excellent reputation is evidenced by the fact that sons of prominent noble families also studied there.

Leonard Stöckel is the author of several textbooks (including the Leges scholae Bartfensis from 1540, the oldest pedagogical written monument in Slovakia, which contained methodological instructions for the organisation of pupils' extra-curricular work, instructions for the acquisition of the curriculum, but also regulations concerning pupils' duties and disciplinary guidelines) and also a school drama written in German The history of von Susanna (The Story of Susan), published in Wittenberg in 1559. In the field of theology, L. Stöckel was one of the main disseminators of the Reformation doctrine in the northern regions of Upper Hungary, and wrote several important works in defence of Protestantism. Of particular importance are his Notes on the General Principles of the Christian Doctrine of Philip Melanchthon (published in Basel in 1560) and the Confessio Pentapolitana, the confession of faith by which the Pentapolitana, an association of five Upper Highland towns, subscribed to Protestantism in 1549.

Leonard Stöckel has a great merit for the elevation of cultural, spiritual and artistic life in Bardejov in the first half of the 16th century.

Source: showbiz.sk
Photo source: By Anatol Svahilec - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120616683

Jonáš Záborský was a Slovak novelist, playwright, poet, historian, journalist and priest. He was born in 1812 in a peasant family in the village of Záborie (now Martin district). He studied at grammar schools in Kežmarok and Levoča, graduated in theology at the Evangelical Academy in Prešov and later studied at the University of Halle in Germany. From 1834 to 1839 he was a chaplain in Pozdišovce, in 1840 he became a parish priest in Rankovce. After the fire of his rectory in 1842, he converted to the Catholic Church and worked at the German rectory in Košice.

He disagreed with Ľudovít Štúr and his codification of the written Slovak language and considered his national programme unrealistic. In 1848 he was imprisoned for possession of the Requests of the Slovak Nation, and in 1850 he was appointed professor of Greek at the law faculty in Košice. From 1850 to 1853, he also worked as editor of the government-run Slovak Newspaper in Vienna, from where he had to leave due to conflicts with the censorship. In 1853 he became a parish priest in the eastern Slovak village of Župčany, where he worked until his death, adopted a new form of Slovak and devoted himself mainly to literary activities.

Jonáš Záborský's oeuvre is extensive. It includes classicist poetic compositions (Zehry, The Entry of Christ into Paradise), satirical prose (Faustiáda, The Shofranks, On the Seven Dukes of Hungary, Chruňo and Mandragora, Frndolína), didactic humoresques (Two Days in Chujava, Kulifaj), and autobiographical prose (The Panslavist Parson), historical short stories (Buld, Svätopluk's Betrayal, Mazep's Love), a syllabotonic poetic composition (The Death of Janosik), and many dramas (The Last Days of Great Moravia, The Arpáds, The Resistance of the Danube Slavs, Pansláv, Holub, Batory, Striga, the so-called "The Resistance of the Danube Slavs", the "The Last Days of Great Moravia", the "The Last Days of Great Moravia", the "The Last Days of Great Moravia", the "The Last Days of Great Moravia", the "The Last Days of Great Moravia", the "The Last Days of Great Moravia". Lžedimitrijád, etc.). He wrote an extensive historical work History of the Kingdom of Hungary from the beginning to the times of Sigismund. The main themes of his work are historical facts and autobiographical elements.

Source: csfd.sk
Photo source: By Jonáš Záborský - Jonáš Záborský, Free Work, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19141314