Slovakia Travel Guide

Tucked into volcanic hills in central Slovakia, Banská Stiavnica is a medieval silver-mining town inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. Trinity Square forms its heart, ringed by pastel burgher houses and crowned by a Baroque plague column, while the Old Castle and New Castle watch over the town from above. It was also home to one of the world's earliest mining academies, founded in the eighteenth century and drawing students from across Europe. Today you can wander museums and cafes, don a miner's coat for an underground tour, or climb Calvary Hill for red-roofed panoramas. Allow a full day; the drive from Bratislava takes about three hours.

The Cathedral of St. Elizabeth is the largest church in Slovakia, its Gothic mass rising at the end of Kosice's Main Street since the late fourteenth century. The soaring nave and tall north tower define the city skyline, while inside rests the tomb of Ferenc Rakoczi II, the Hungarian prince who led the uprising against the Habsburgs. The north chapel holds a copy of the Scala Sancta of Turin. Climbing the tower rewards you with the old town's colourful rooftops, and the floodlit cathedral beside the singing fountain is Kosice's loveliest evening scene.

The ruins of Devin Castle rise on a cliff above the confluence of the Morava and Danube rivers, about ten kilometres from central Bratislava, ranking among Slovakia's most important historic sites. First recorded in written sources in 864, the fortress long guarded a strategic crossroads of Central Europe until Napoleon's troops blew it up in 1809, leaving evocative ruins. During the Cold War the border here claimed the lives of people attempting to escape across the Morava, commemorated by a memorial below the rock. From the summit, the Morava valley and Austria opposite unfold in full, and late-spring irises brighten the riverbanks.

St Martin's Cathedral is Bratislava's most solemn Gothic church, its 85-metre spire crowned by a gilded replica of the Hungarian royal crown that hints at its history: between 1563 and 1830, eleven Hungarian kings and eight queens were crowned here, including Maria Theresa. Wedged against the old city walls a slope below the castle, the interior is celebrated for its Baroque high altar and stained glass, and Franz Liszt is said to have conducted his Coronation Mass here. Bronze crowns set into the pavement still mark the coronation route through the old town, inviting visitors to trace royal footsteps.

The Church of the Clarissine Nuns is one of the most graceful Gothic buildings in Bratislava's old town, founded in the early fourteenth century for the Poor Clares. Stripped of later ornament, it retains a lean medieval skeleton and tall windows, with light playing between the clustered piers and acoustics so fine that it now serves as a concert hall for the Slovak National Theatre. Passing by, you may catch a rehearsal; buying a ticket to hear chamber music or opera beneath centuries-old vaults is for many travellers an unforgettable evening. The floodlit facade makes a superb photo backdrop after dark.

Cerveny Kamen, the Red Stone Castle, crowns a rocky hill in the Little Carpathians about thirty kilometres from Bratislava, named for the reddish cliffs beneath it. Founded in the thirteenth century as a border fortress, it passed briefly to Germany's Fugger bankers before the Palffy family reshaped it into a Renaissance-Baroque aristocratic residence. Its vast barrel-vaulted cellars are said to rank among the largest in Central Europe, once storing wine and grain. Tours today weave through knights' armour, historic kitchens and grand halls before descending into those mysterious vaults, making a rewarding half-day for families and history fans.