Slovakia Travel & Tourism Guide
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Slovakia is a landlocked country in Central and Danubian Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about 49,000 square kilometres. The Slovak Republic borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava. Slovakia is a member state of the European Union, NATO, UN, OECD, WTO, UNESCO and other international organizations.
The Slavic people arrived in the territory of present day Slovakia between the 5th and 6th centuries AD during the Migration Period. In the course of history, various parts of Slovakia belonged to Samo's Empire, Great Moravia, the Kingdom of Hungary, Habsburg (Austrian) monarchy, Austria-Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The present-day Slovakia became an independent state on January 1, 1993 with the peaceful division of Czechoslovakia in the Velvet Divorce; it was, with the Czech Republic, the last European country to gain independence in the 20th century.
Slovakia is a high-income economy with the fastest growth rates in the EU and OECD. It joined the European Union in 2004 and joined the Eurozone on the 1st of January, 2009.
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Slovakia History
Before the 5th Century..
Radiocarbon dating puts the oldest surviving archaeological artifacts from Slovakia - found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom - at 270,000 BCE, in the Early Paleolithic era. These ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Read more about Slovakia Before the 5th Century...
Great Invasions of the 4th-7th Centuries..
In the second and third centuries CE the Huns began to leave the Central Asian steppes. They crossed the Danube in 377 CE and occupied Pannonia, which they used for 75 years as their base for launching looting-raids into Western Europe. Read more about Slovakia Great Invasions of the 4th-7th Centuries...
Slavic States..
The Slavic tribes settled in the territory of Slovakia in the 6th century during Avar rule. Western Slovakia was the centre of Samo's Empire in the 7th century. A Slavic state known as the Principality of Nitra arose in the 8th century and its ruler Pribina had the first known Christian church in Slovakia consecrated by 828. Read more about Slavic States...
The Era of Great Moravia..
Great Moravia arose around 830 when Moimír I unified the Slavic tribes settled north of the Danube and extended the Moravian supremacy over them. When Mojmír I endeavoured to secede from the supremacy of the king of East Francia in 846, King Louis the German deposed him and assisted Moimír's nephew, Rastislav (846–870) in acquiring the throne. Read more about The Era of Great Moravia...
Kingdom of Hungary..
Following the disintegration of the Great Moravian Empire in the early 10th century, the Hungarians gradually annexed the territory of the present-day Slovakia. In the late 10th century, south-western territories of the present-day Slovakia became part of the arising Hungarian principality, which transformed into the Kingdom of Hungary after 1000. Read more about Kingdom of Hungary...
Czechoslovakia and World War II..
In 1918, Slovakia and the regions of Bohemia and Moravia formed a common state, Czechoslovakia, with the borders confirmed by the Treaty of Saint Germain and Treaty of Trianon. In 1919, during the chaos following the breakup of Austria-Hungary, Slovakia was attacked by the provisional Hungarian Soviet Republic and one-third of Slovakia temporarily became the Slovak Soviet Republic. Read more about Czechoslovakia and World War II...
Rule of the Communist Party..
After World War II, Czechoslovakia was reconstituted and Jozef Tiso was hanged in 1947 for collaboration with the Nazis. More than 76,000 Hungarians and 32,000 Germans were forced to leave Slovakia, in a series of population transfers initiated by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference. This expulsion is still a source of tension between Slovakia and Hungary. Read more about Rule of the Communist Party...
Establishment of the Slovak Republic..
The end of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989, during the peaceful Velvet Revolution, was followed once again by the country's dissolution, this time into two successor states. In July 1992 Slovakia, led by Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar, declared itself a sovereign state, meaning that its laws took precedence over those of the federal government. Read more about Establishment of the Slovak Republic...
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Slovakia Popular Spots and Tourist Attractions
Bratislava City
Slovakia's largest city and has been the capital since 1969. The Austrian border is almost within sight of the city and Hungary is just 16km away. Many beautiful monuments are there in the old town.
Spissky Hrad
The largest castle in Slovakia. The castle was founded in 1209, wrecked by the Tatars in the 13th century and reconstructed in the 15th century. Although the castle burnt down in 1780, the ruins and the site are spectacular. The highest enclosure contains a round Gothic tower, and a cistern. Instruments of torture are exhibited in the dungeon.
Dunajec Gorge
Pieniny National Park combines with a similar park in Poland to protect the 9km Dunajec River gorge between the Slovak village of Cerveny Klástor and Szczawnica, Poland. The river there makes the international boundary between the two countries.
Trnava
Slovakia's oldest town, the first to get a royal charter as a free borough (from Hungarian King Béla IV in 1238). Though badly marred by modern development, its handsome walled old town, a legacy of almost three centuries as Hungary's religious centre, was spruced up for the town's 750th birthday in 1988.
Slovak Karst
This region of limestone canyons and caves is at the eastern end of the Slovak Red Mountains, a major range that reaches to the border with Hungary. The spectacular landscape includes Domica Cave, said to be one of the biggest in the world. It's a beautiful cave, full of colour and with some stalactites as thick as tree trunks.
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Bratislava City
Spissky Hrad
Dunajec Gorge
Trnava
Slovak Karst
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Travel Quotes: I still make sure to go, at least once every year, to a country where things cannot be taken for granted, and where there is either too much law and order or too little. Christopher Hitchens
“Everyone carries his own inch rule of taste, and amuses himself by applying it, triumphantly, wherever he travels. Henry Adams
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