Please meet the FIS hotel

In Štrbské Pleso, the highest located village in the Tatras, the winter season begins sooner than anywhere else. And it was this location with great winter sport conditions where the story of a hotel with a sport spirit began, motivated by the desire to show the world the best that we have in Slovakia. All this in a magical setting with the mountains on the doorstep.

A special sports event that meant a huge progress for the High Tatras. The Nordic World Ski Championships 1970 went down in the history of the villages of the Tatras and winter sports like no other event before or after.

Štrbské Pleso hosting World Championships

The first ideas about the High Tatras applying to organise Nordic World Ski Championships appeared already in the early 1960s. However, skiing officials in the Tatras succeeded with help of the highest state and party authorities only after several years of efforts. In connection with the candidacy, the Slovak national council adopted a resolution about building not only the main championships venue but also hotels, alternative sports grounds and about modernising transport.

After it was finally decided at the FIS congress in Beirut in 1967 that Štrbské Pleso would definitely host the championships, the construction process had to be sped up considerably.

Based on a project of one of the then eminent architects – Ing. arch. Eugen Kramár, a unique facility was built in the High Tatras in 1969, became the epicentre of sport and also culture. The FIS hotel was named after the International Ski Federation (French: Fédération internationale de ski).

The FIS hotel was on the priority list of 31 objects in the High Tatras that were necessary to organise the WM 1970 successfully. Besides the hotel, the sports stadium included a ski jumping and a cross-country skiing area. The Czechoslovak Physical Education Association was the investor of the construction process. The sports complex was named the Area of dreams and became one of the top modern and technically advanced Nordic skiing complexes in the world at that time.

The construction process of the whole sports complex and the FIS hotel was managed by Valér Pobeha, who later became the first hotel general manager. The complex was finished in 1969 and a pre-championships event (5^th Tatra Cup) was held there in the same year to test it. The FIS hotel, ski jumps and cross-country skiing trails were the basic elements of the top skiing complex. With five hundred athletes from 25 countries participating in the championships, the attention of the whole world was focused on Štrbské Pleso. The ten Czechoslovak President Ludvík Svoboda was there among the spectators as well.

Hotel opening

Shortly before the championships beginning, the hotel was officially opened by Marc Hodler, the president of the International Ski Federation. A triumphal arch of wood made by national artist Tibor Bártfay was built in front of the hotel and after the championships finished, the names of all winners were written there. It was colloquially nicknamed “The gate of chaps” and a cross-country skiing trail ran under it. In 1975, an indoor swimming pool was built next to the hotel to become the highest located pool in Czechoslovakia. The sports complex received the prestigious Dušan Jurkovič Award from the Association of Slovak Architects in 1970.

Film career of the FIS hotel

Children and youth that were growing up in the 1980s must remember legendary Majka from the Gurun planet of the cult Czechoslovak sci-fi series known as She fell from the clouds. The series was shot mainly in Slovakia and many scenes were made at the FIS hotel. Today, there is a special corner where hotel guests and tourists can remember the shooting.

Near the hotel or inside, scenes of several Czechoslovak films were shot, e.g. Fair Play (2014), Pan Tau (1988), Štipku soli / A pinch of salt (1976), Orlie pierko / Eagle feather (1971).

Why the FIS hotel?