%0 Journal Article
%T Tribute to the father of Slovakian geology, Professor J¨¢n Pettko, who was born in Horn¨¢ Drietoma two hundred years ago
%A Jozef Michal¨ªk
%J Acta Geologica Slovaca
%D 2012
%I Comenius University in Bratislava
%X Johannes Pettko was born on November 11th, 1812, in Horn¨¢ Drietoma. Tren ¨ªn. He was the son of tabular judge Daniel Pettko and Kristina Hradsk¨¢, the daughter of a Lutheran priest. He grew up with his brothers Zigmund and Peter and his sister in the picturesque Drietoma valley on the border of Tren ¨ªn and Wallachia counties. The beautiful scenery of the White Carpathian Mountains with their vast mysterious forests and hamlets, where gypsum, and sandstone building blocks and millstones were mined, proved a rich source of inspiration for his boyhood dreams. From his childhood, he listened to tales of ghosts, witches and forest voodoo, and he was fascinated by rumours of caves and treasures which were thought to be hidden somewhere deep under these Drietoma hills. Johannes and his brothers were first educated by their father, and later they attended elementary school in Tren ¨ªn. When he was nine, he transferred to the high school in Gy r. Talented students, whose parents could afford it in those times, attended studies of either law or theology. Johann also graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Bratislava (Pressburg, 1828¨C1833), where he studied rhetoric, philosophy and theology. He continued his study of philosophy and law at the Academy in Pre ov (1833¨C1835), and worked as a justice probationer in the Tren ¨ªn County Council Office. At that time, in addition to his native Slovak language, he fluently mastered Latin, in which he was educated by his father, Hungarian which he learned in Gy r, German language spoken at the Lyceum in Bratislava and also French and English...
%U http://geopaleo.fns.uniba.sk/ageos/archive/2012_02/michalik_2012.pdf