Grand Tour of Slovakia

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Itinerary

Day 1:

Arrival to Slovakia, accommodation, informal reception.

Day 2:

We will visit Bratislava old town and we will cruise by sightseeing boat to the ruins of the Devin Castle and to the confluence of the Danube and the Moravia rivers.

Bratislava Castle: Built on a Castle Hill it dominates the center of Bratislava and its four towers became symbol of the city.--Inhabited from neolitic Hallstadt and Roman eras. First mentioned in 907. It reached its highest importance during the reign of Austro-Hungarian Queen Maria Theresa. In 1761-66 the fortress was rebuilt into a typical royal residence.-- Today, after reconstruction the castle shelters a historical part of the Slovak National Museum. he Castle was also a residence of the President of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Parliament resides in the new building nearby.

Bratislava Old Town: Saint Martin's Cathedral, The Primatial Palace with historical Zrkadlova sien (The Hall of Mirrors). In the museum visitors admire the famous Bratislava tapestries. Michalska gate. You can go upstairs for a panorama of the Old City.

Devin: The ruins of the ancient Devin Castle tower over the confluence of the rivers Danube and the Morava.The fortress, used as a watchtower by the Slavonic count Rastislav Dovina, was mentioned in the manuscripts as early as the 9th century AD. After the fall of the Great Moravian Empire of the ancient Slavs, the Devin fortress became an important strategic fortification of the Hungarian Kingdom. As early as in the 13th century, a smaller building with a tower (foundation of a later castle) was situated at the top of rocky hill. Advancing Napoleon troops in 1809 blew up the fortress.--Since 1965 an archaeological research has been carried out in the castle area. The castle ruins have been partially reconstructed under auspices of the Municipal Museum in Bratislava.

Day 3:

We will visit Slovak open air museum in village Cicmany and Bojnice castle.

The typical village Cicmany is famous for its original log houses with the typical white ornamentation. The unique and characteristic element of log houses in Cicmany are their exteriors ornamented in geometrical pattern. The authors of ornaments, as rule, were women who originally adorned only the corners of houses first with mud and later with lime. The best-preserved ones include the building of Radenov dom and the neighbouring Gregorov dom, which shelters the ethnographic exhibition where visitors can learn something more about the history and folklore of this region.

Fairy-tale Bojnice Castle is one of the most visited and most beautiful castles not only in Slovakia, but also in central Europe. Collections of artistic and historical museum are concentrated in the interior of the castle. Among them is the original furniture and the artistic collection of the Palffys from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and the most valuable item of national importance is the Late-Gothic altar of Bojnice made by Nardo di Cione Ortagna, artist from Florence in the mid-14th century. The visit to the castle includes that of dripston  cave under the Castle that communicates with the 26-m deep castle well.

Day 4:

We will do sightseeing tour of town Banska Stiavnica and we will visit Open air mining museum.

Banska Stiavnica lies amid the forests of the Stiavnicke Mts. and is included on the List of the World Cultural Heritage of UNESCO. The former mining town is one of the most beautiful and in historical terms one of the most interesting towns in Slovakia. Banska Staavnica progressively became the biggest mining centre in the Habsburg Monarchy in the 18th century. Silver ore prevailed among the mined metals and Banska Stiavnica won the attribute of “silver town”. In 1735, the oldest mining school in the Kingdom of Hungary was founded here, which was promoted to the Banska akademia (Mining Academy) in 1762, the first university of its kind in the world. The buildings in the historic centre are included in the Town Monument Reserve. The Banska Stiavnica reserve comprises as many as 360 structures. Together they present a unique set of high cultural and historical value, which is set into the wonderful environment of the Stiavnicke Mts.

Amidst the Stiavnicke mountains, an open-air museum of a type that is rare in Slovakia, the Open-Air Mining Museum attracts the attention of tourist. In addition to the above-ground exhibits, the tour of the open-air museum includes a very interesting visit to an underground pit. The attractive underground exposition includes installed exhibits showing various ways of mining and mining works that no longer exist,  as well as unique mining mechanisms, thus presenting both past and recent techniques and technologies of metal ore mining.

Day 5:

We will continue to the city Levoca. On the way we will have two stops. One in village Vlkolinec and the second one in village Svaty Kriz.

Vlkolinec- a monument reserve of folk architecture is extraordinary and remarkable oasis of folk architecture. It was included in the List of the World Cultural and Nature Heritage of UNESCO in 1993.
The community was first referred to in 1376. Its unique compound of original folk buildings remained untouched by modern construction. Based in comparative study of ICOMOS (International Council for Monuments and Settlements) it was classified as the best-reserved settlement of this time within the Carpathian Architecture. Originally it was the settlement of loggers, shepherds and farmers.

The wooden articled Evangelical church near the village Svaty Kriz is one of the largest wooden buildings in the Central Europe which was moved here from Paludza between 1974 and 1982. It stands on the border of the territories administered by Svätý Kríž and Lazisko. The ground plan of the church is in the shape of a 43 metre-long cross. The church takes almost 6,000 persons.
The wooden Baroque furniture together with the remarkable wooden Baroque altar from 1693 with the painting of Christ's Transformation were designed to inspire awe. 

Day 6:

We will do sightseeing tour of Levoca and we will visit Spis Castle, Spisska Kapitula and village Zehra.

The historic town Levoca situated in the east of the Spis region is a true cultural and historic jewel among the Slovak towns as it possesses a great number of architectural monuments linked with the glorious past of the town. The dominant part of the old Levoca is the large rectangular square, with the Roman-Catholic St. James church from the 14th century, which is one of the most important sacral buildings in Slovakia. The tall slender church tower from the first half of the 19th century is the most distinct feature in the city's silhouette. The Late Gothic wooden main altar of St. James with the height of 18.6 m is the highest of its kind in the world. It was made of lime wood in 1507-1517 in the workshop of  Maestro Pavol of Levoca.

In the  eastern horizont of Spisske Podhradie towers the Spis Castle. As a National Cultural Monument, Spis Castle with its area of more than four ha, and partially in ruins, is one of the largest castle compounds in Central Europe.   Spis Castle was included in the UNESCO list of monuments belonging to the world cultural heritage in 1993.

Spisska Kapitula is sometimes also referred to as the“Slovak Vatican”. Church life not only  in Spisska Kapitula (The Chapter of Spis) was organised from here by the bishops, provosts, and canonists. The most important building of Spisska Kapitula is the  Late-Romanesque St Martins Cathedral. It acquired its massive form of a three-nave building with two towers in the years 1245-1275.

  The Spis community of Zehra is known for its precious local Roman-Catholic Holy Spirit church that is, along with other monuments around the Spis Castle, included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List. Unique medieval wall paintings that were created gradually, from the second half of the 13th century till the end of the 15th century, were preserved in the church interior.

Day 7:

We will explore beauties of The highest mountains of Slovakia.

High Tatras is in fact the smallest in Europe in terms of area (what explains their attribute of the “miniature Alps”). However, as far as natural assets are concerned they are among the most interesting in central Europe.
A trip to Lomnicky peak by cable car is among the most attractive adventures for tourists in the High Tatras and, indeed, it enjoys the popularity of the public. It reaches the differential height of 1,700 m and carries tourists to a height of 2,634 m above sea level in only a few minutes. In fine weather, you can experience a unique panoramic view of the whole area on top of the Lomnicky peak. If the visibility is good, one can see over the Belianske Tatras, the unending Polish plains, while in the opposite direction one captures perhaps a fifth of the Slovak territory. There is a natural botanic garden on Lomnicky peak since 2008.

Day 8:

We will visit Monastery Cerveny Klastor and we will raft down the river Dunajec on the traditional wooden rafts.

Cerveny Klastor  is a unique cultural and historical relic set in the wonderful natural environment of Pieniny under the majestic mountain Tri koruny. The monastery was successfully restored in the years 1956-1966. The best building, from an architectural point of view, is the Gothic church of St Anton from the end of the 14th century with one nave of unusual length restored in the Baroque style. The main altar is in the Baroque style, built in 1745. In front of the entrance to the monastery is the park declared the Protected Area of Pieninske lipy  in 1972. It protects 19 old and valuable lime trees.

Unforgettable is a ride on wooden rafts through a Dunajec river canyon- largest in Central Europe, in the magnificent scenery of the Pieniny National Park. Raftsmen dressed in traditional goral costumes talk during a raft ride about local history,rare fauna and flora, as well as legends and tales connected with surrounding rocks. Rafting starts at the quay bellow the village ofMajere on the way to Cerveny Klastor. Slovak rafts, steered by two experienced raftsmen, finish their ride at the Slovak-Polish state border in the village of Lesnica. The rafts are actually wooden structures consisting of five small boats tied together. The sail on the winding river is 11 km long, takes 90 minutes and carries ten passengers at a time. 

Day 9:

We will do sightseeing tour of town Bardejov.

Another Slovak town inscribed in the List of the World Cultural Heritage is the historic Bardejov, one of the oldest Slovak towns, rightly awarded the European award, gold medal of ICOMOS Foundation of UNESCO in 1986. The buildings in the historic centre are included in the Town Monument Reserve. Bardejov is spoken of as the “most Gothic of towns in Slovakia”. Its centre consists of a set of historical buildings arranged in the area limited by an almost continuous belt of town fortifications. The principal area of the historical core is the rectangular Radnicne square skirted by rows of antique burgher houses with typical gable facades.
The most significant monument of the square is the Roman-Catholic Basilica of St. Egidius that is located in its northern section. Its construction started at the beginning of the 15th century. It was conceived as a majestic Gothic basilica with three isles. There is an interesting set of 11 Late Gothic altars from the 15th and the 16th centuries and some of those wood carvings are considered to be supreme works of European art.

Day 10:

This last day we will do sightseeing tour of Kosice, the second biggest city of Slovakia.

Kosice is not only the centre of eastern Slovakia but also the core of the Eastern Carpathians where several ethnicities live. Almost all monuments of Kosice are concentrated in the historical core of the town, size of which makes it the biggest Town Monument Reserve of Slovakia. The spindle-shaped Main square of Kosice is the heart of the town and rightly considered one of the most beautiful squares in Slovakia. It is closed to traffic and skirted by numerous wonderful historical buildings. The most valuable monuments are situated in its centre. The dominant of the square and the town is the monumental Gothic Cathedral of St. Elisabeth. This building, rather isolated from the rest of the square, is the largest church of Slovakia and the easternmost situated Gothic cathedral of western type in Europe.

Day 11:

Farewell and departure from Slovakia.