Szepes County

Szepes (Slovak: Spiš; Latin: Scepusium, Polish: Spisz, German: Zips) was an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary, called Scepusium before the late 19th century. Its territory today lies in northeastern Slovakia, with a very small area in southeastern Poland. For the current region, see Spiš.





== Geography ==



Szepes county shared borders with Poland and with the counties as follows: Liptó, Gömör-Kishont, Abaúj-Torna and Sáros. After the late 18th century dismemberment of Poland, the border was with the Austrian province of Galicia. Its area was 3,668 km2 in 1910. The county became part of Czechoslovakia, apart from a very small area now in Poland, after World War I, and is now part of Slovakia (and Poland).





=== Capitals ===

The original seat of government of Szepes county was Spiš Castle (Hungarian: Szepesi vár), which was constructed in the 12th century. Unofficially from the 14th century, and officially from the 16th century, until 1920 the capital of the county was Lőcse (present-day Levoča).





== History ==



This article only covers the history of Szepes when it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary (approx.