Marian Rybansky, Juliana Krokusova
This paper documents the factors and specifics of the location of the military cemeteries in the physical earth's surface. Military cemeteries represent a specific category of cemeteries. Their creation is linked to dramatic historical warfare. Our research shows that they are a source of historical and geographical information, which does not affect their primary functions, namely funeral, pious and spiritual. Military cemeteries must also be seen as an integral element of cultural and physical landscape, as part of its identity and a site of memory. The location of the military cemeteries is dependent on specific physical-geographical preconditions of the site. So far, military cemeteries have not been considered as military landforms. However, we argue that they are part of military area, have their own characteristics and typical features and fulfil the criteria to be defined as anthropogenic landform. From a spatial point of view, in our research we focused on the area of âânorth-east Slovakia where the majority fighting took place on the Eastern Front during the First and Second World Wars. The historic military region of the Dukla battlefield is also part of the study area. This area is particularly interesting from a physical-geographical point of view because it is located in the Carpathians. The rough mountain relief and dense forests determined not only the progress of the army and the course of military operations but also the location and character of the military cemeteries in the studied area.