Village Silent Stream lies in the eastern part of Levoca Hills, in the upper part of the valley of the river Torysa, at an altitude of 520 m. But the chotár reaches a height of up to 1 090 m in some places.
The first report about Tichy Potok is in the inventory of villages of Šarišská stolice from 1427. It states that the village belonged to a noble family from Brezovice. Documents from this period mention the village under the name Stelbach, or Stillbach. It is the original German name meaning Tichý Potok, which was created by the owners of the village, noblemen of Spiš-German origin. The local inhabitants gave this German name its Slovak form Stelbach. In the village you will find a well-preserved „Šteľbaská wooden house“, where there is a museum of Rusyn folk culture.
Above the village is the Levočské vrchy mountain range, which includes Bišar Nature Reserve in the administration of the state nature protection, with an area of 1.6741 ha. If you follow the red hiking trail from the village, it will lead you to undiscovered beauties of the Šariš region. On the marked trail you can reach the beautiful meadows with hay trees. The hayfields above the Tichý Potok (Šariš: Štelbašské šeniky) once served the local population for storing hay directly on the mountains. There were dozens of them scattered around the meadows, but many of them are history. They have been lost in the hazel trees, others have succumbed to the ravages of time. To save at least a few objects, that remained whole, were taken care of years ago Forest conservation group VLK.
At present, the most accessible and probably the best preserved hay meadows for tourists are Hazel or also Ladzirka (Lazisko). In the past, such meadows were mowed to prevent overgrowth and this had a beneficial effect on the emergence of specific plant communities. This was the impetus to bring in In 1979 it was declared a Protected Site of Bishar, the main reason for protection being occurrence of the rare bulbous lily (Lilium bulbiferum) in montane flowery meadow communities. Each hay tree is approximately 3 x 4 metres. The perimeter walls are not designed to protect against wind; on the contrary, there are large gaps between each hayloft for ventilation - due to the original purpose of storing hay. The roofs are wooden, which, although it will protect from direct rain, is probably not the most reliable. The floor is just packed dirt, possibly with hay residue.
There is a quite abundant spring nearby. You can find it by going up to the meadow ridge and looking southeast, there is a hut in the woods with the spring. The view back to the meadows and hayfields is truly incredible.
Photo: Tibor Šarišský and hiking.sk
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