Marek Sobola

Marek Sobola PhD. was born on July 3, 1981 in the town of Žilina, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) into a Roman Catholic family from Lalinok and Divina villages. He spent the first years of his life in Divina. Marek Sobola is an authorised landscape architect, designer and heraldic artist. Sobola studied landscape architecture at the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra (SUA) at the Horticulture and Landscape Engineering Faculty. He graduated in 2004 and began working in own studio. Alongside the architect’s practice he continued doctoral studies at SUA at the Faculty of European Studies and Regional Development, the Department of Sustainable Development in 2004 – 2007. After finishing his PhD. study he again continued his studies at the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra at the Faculty of Arts as an historian for another five years.

Since 2011 he has been a member of the Slovak Chamber of Architects. From 2017 is a member of the Liturgical Commission of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Žilina. He is also a member of the Scientific Board of the Kysuce Museum in Čadca and a member of the Council of the Episcopal Conference of Slovakia for Science, Education and Culture. Since 2020 is a member of the Heraldry Society of New Zealand and the Orders & Medals Research Society. In 2018 Marek Sobola founded the international initiative “Tree of Peace”. Since 2010, he has been the main representative and head of the NGO Servare et Manere and since 2023, he has held the position of Honorary Consul of Romania in the Slovak Republic.

Awards

  • Medalia_Regală_pentru_Loialitate Romanian royal family: Royal Medal for Loyalty (Medalia Regală pentru Loialitate), 2022.
  • Sacred_Military_Constantinian_Order_of_Saint_George House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies: Bronze Benemerenti Medal of the Franco-Neapolitan-Two Sicilian Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, 2021.
  • Императорская_медаль_В_память_100-летия_Великой_войны_1914-1918_гг House of Romanov: Imperial Commemorative Medal “In Memory of the 100th Anniversary of the Great War, 1914-1918”, awarded for merits in preserving the memory of the WWI soldiers in 2020. Note: currently unworn.
  • Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic: National competition Phoenix – National Cultural Monument of the year 2017, Honourable recognition for exceptional realization of the restoration project of the Statue of St. John of Nepomuk in the village of Divina. 
  • Association for Garden Design and Landscaping of Slovakia: Garden, Park, Garden detail of 2016, III. and II. place for two garden projects in a national competition.