Juraj Jánošík or Juro Jánošík (1688-1713), (modern pronunciation: ), Polish: Jerzy Janosik (modern pronunciation: /'jɛʒɨ ja'nɔɕik/) was a famous Slovak bandit, sometimes known as the "Slovak Robin Hood." Janosik means son of John.

This Slovak equivalent of Robin Hood has been the topic of many Slovak and Polish legends, books and films. According to the legends he was stealing from the nobles and gave the stolen things to the poor people. The Janosik myth was also known in Poland and the Czech lands.

Jánošík was born at the village Terchová in northern Slovakia, was fighting with the kurucs in 1706-1708, then with the imperial army, and in 1711 he became the leader of a forest robber group in northwestern Slovakia. He was captured in 1712 in Hrachov , but managed to escape. Finally, he was captured again and imprisoned in 1713 in Liptovský Mikuláš and sentenced to death by hanging (attaching rope around one of left ribs) in December 1713.

External link

• http://www.iarelative.com/history/janosik.htm

Jánošík is also the name of several films and one TV series:

• Jánošík (1921) – Slovak film (black-and-white, silent); directed by: Jaroslav Siakeľ , Jánošík is played by: Theodor Pištěk . This is the first Slovak full-length feature movie and one of the first full-length feature movies in the world. It is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The movie was produced by two Slovak emigrants in Hollywood (the brothers Jaroslav Siakeľ and Daniel Siakeľ), who were one of the founders of film industry in Hollywood (they had several patents for movie technics and were camera operators). The first runs of the movie were on November 25 1921 in Prague, December 1 1921 in Chicago and January 3 1922 in Zilina. Later, however, this very successful movie was forgotten and it was only in 1970 that it was rediscovered in a garage in Chicago. One hour and 8 minutes of the movie were repaired in 1975.
• Jánošík (1935) – Slovak film (black-and-white); the most popular Slovak movie at that time; directed by: Martin Frič , Jánošík played by: Paľo Bielik
• Jánošík I (1962) and Jánošík II (1963) - Slovak action film in two parts; directed by Paľo Bielik (- see also 1935)
• Janosik (1974) – Polish film
• Janosik (1975) – Polish TV series, which made him popular in modern Poland
• Jánošík (1976) – Slovak cartoon by Viktor Kubal
• The True Story of Janosik and Uhorcik (2004?) (Slovak title: Jánošík – Pravdivá história, Polish title: Prawdziwa historia Janosika i Uhorcika) – Polish-Slovak-Czech film, still in production

Jánošík is also the name of a Polish comic strip (1970’s ?) of high artistic quality.