On April 20, 1945, the most disastrous tragedy of the Second World War within the Kysuce region took place in Semeteš. The Vlasov patrol ran into a mine near the settlement and two members of the commando were regrettably. In the rage of anger, the Germans invaded the village and set 13 houses on fire. They used weapons to prevent the local people from extinguishing their houses. To make things worse, they dragged all 22 men between the age of 16 and 61 on the far side of the village and shot them mercilessly. All of them perished, except for the only one – Štefan Cipár. The bullet injured him only on the shoulder and the second bullet of “certainty” penetrated through his neck and got through his face. After the fascists left, he dug himself out from under the pile of dead bodies and crawled to a safe place. He became the only eyewitness to this crime and later testified against the fascists. In memory of the victims, a small stone monument was erected under the Semeteš saddle on the road from Turzovka to Bytča in the Region of Považie.

The family roots of Eugen Cernan and Miroslav Cipár are related to this settlement

Miroslav Cipár, a notable Slovak artist, a legend of the Slovak artistic and cultural life, was born in the Semeteš settlement in 1935. Interestingly, he is the son of the only survivor of the Semeteš tragedy, Štefan Cipár. The academic painter and sculptor Miroslav Cipár is the author of a compelling work of art called "Sem sa teš!".

This name of the work of art is rather a play on words derived from the name of the settlement. In Slovak, it conveys the meaning “This is the place you should look forward to visiting” and it is thus an expression of the author´s relationship to the unique place set in the middle of stunning nature scenery and picturesque original buildings. The native house of Miroslav Cipár is not the only building preserved in the settlement. There is a former one-classroom school built in 1913 but serving as a chapel these days, there is a wooden building serving as a pub and as a shop, both of which are welcoming guests to this day. Every visitor of the settlement will surely notice a large area of the facility that provides social services under the administration of the Žilina district office.

The building used to serve as a centre of culture, but it became unnecessary and was thus rebuilt into the social services facility which was really needed. The saddleback Semeteš is one of the intersections of the Javorníky Trail, which is exceptional within the European context. There are two lookout towers near the Semeteš saddle. The Luby lookout point above the village of Veľké Rovné (910 m above sea level) and Mikovčák´s Lookout on Kamenité hill directly on the Javorníky Trail (834 m above sea level). Throughout the history, the Semeteš saddleback was the mountain pass used by tinsmiths from the upper Kysuce who used to cross the saddle on their journey abroad. It is then hardly surprising that it is just below the Semeteš seddle in the region of Považie, where you will find the village of Veľké Rovné which is considered the cradle of tinsmithing. Semeteš and the village of Vysoká nad Kysucou clearly rank among the villages of the legendary tinsmith tradition…

Autor: OCR Kysuce