TOP 22 best attractions in Slovakia

Slo­va­kia is a coun­try with a rich cul­ture. There are enough nat­ur­al beau­ties, but most of all, of course, ancient cas­tles.

Things to do in Slovakia

The num­ber of his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ments in Slo­va­kia is amaz­ing. These are numer­ous cas­tles and palaces that belonged to aris­to­crat­ic fam­i­lies. The archi­tec­ture of the cap­i­tal will not leave any­one indif­fer­ent either: the Town Hall build­ing, the Church of St. Stephen and the Church of the Holy Spir­it, the Pres­i­den­tial Palace and the Nation­al The­ater impress with the har­mo­ny that has been pre­served for cen­turies.

His­to­ry buffs and those who want to feel the atmos­phere of the past cen­turies will love the Spis­sky cas­tle, Boinit­sky, Zvolen­sky and Kras­na Gor­ka cas­tle. Muse­ums and edu­ca­tion­al exhi­bi­tions are orga­nized on their ter­ri­to­ries.

You can see the beau­ty of the nature of Slo­va­kia in the Low Tatras Nation­al Park, in ski resorts and in the vast arrays of karst Demyanovsk caves. Out­door enthu­si­asts will find it inter­est­ing to vis­it ice caves, like Dob­shin­skaya.

Ski­ing fans will appre­ci­ate Jas­na and Strb­ske Ple­so, locat­ed in the moun­tains. Those who have a rest with chil­dren will get a lot of pleas­ant impres­sions in the water park “Tatra­lan­dia” and in the ther­mal com­plex “Chai­ka”. There you can improve your body thanks to the ther­mal waters com­ing from the depths.

Interesting places

main square

The cul­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal cen­ter of the cap­i­tal of Slo­va­kia has become the Mar­ket Square, also known as the Main Square. It hous­es build­ings dec­o­rat­ed in var­i­ous styles of archi­tec­ture: baroque, clas­si­cism, goth­ic. Hol­i­day fairs, fes­ti­vals, open-air con­certs are held here. On the first floors of the build­ings there are small cafes and restau­rants.

Bridge SNP

The bridge of the Slo­vak Nation­al Upris­ing, or New Bridge, is locat­ed almost in the cen­ter of the cap­i­tal. It is notable for its engi­neer­ing fea­ture, since it does not have a sin­gle sup­port installed in the Danube Riv­er, and rests on one pylon.

For tourists, it is attrac­tive because of the “fly­ing saucer” — a round and flat struc­ture locat­ed at the top of the pylon. There is an obser­va­tion deck and a restau­rant, which is called “UFO”. A spe­cial­ly installed ele­va­tor leads to the site.

Resort Strbske Pleso

It is locat­ed in the High Tatras, on the shores of the moun­tain lake of the same name. There is a mod­ern ski sta­tion with jump­ing hills and trails rang­ing from 5 to 50 km long for cross-coun­try ski­ing of vary­ing dif­fi­cul­ty. Routes for begin­ners and advanced ath­letes have been devel­oped.

Moun­tain slopes also attract climbers who vis­it Strb­ske Ple­so to climb Kri­van or Mount Bas­ta.

Architecture

Capuchin Church

The tem­ple ded­i­cat­ed to St. Stephen is locat­ed on Zup­naya Square, not far from the Old Town. It is dis­tin­guished by the par­tic­u­lar­ly warm sandy col­or of the walls. The tem­ple was built in the 18th cen­tu­ry and dec­o­rat­ed in neo-Goth­ic style. Above the entrance is a rosette tra­di­tion­al for Catholic church­es, and above it is a wall niche with a stat­ue of St. Stephen. In front of the tem­ple there is a col­umn crowned with a stat­ue of the Vir­gin Mary. The church over­looks Bratisla­va Cas­tle.

Not far from the tem­ple, deli­cious local ice cream is sold in sum­mer, and hot mulled wine is served in win­ter.

Old Town Hall

The build­ing of the Town Hall in Bratisla­va is one of the old­est in the cap­i­tal, and it is locat­ed on the Main Square. It pecu­liar­ly com­bined sev­er­al build­ings of dif­fer­ent cen­turies: the house of Paver, the house of Jacob, the palace of Aponi­ho and the house of Unger, and the tow­er of the 13th cen­tu­ry occu­pies the cor­ner part. For cen­turies, impor­tant deci­sions about the life and life of the city were made here, and in recent years it has housed the City Muse­um.

Church of the Holy Spirit

The tem­ple, unique in its archi­tec­tur­al com­po­si­tion, was found­ed in 1995 with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Pope John Paul II. It is locat­ed in the west­ern dis­trict of the cap­i­tal, Dubrav­ka.

The build­ing is dec­o­rat­ed in mod­ern style. Its main dis­tin­guish­ing fea­ture was a wide dome, par­tial­ly cut through by an arrow-shaped spire direct­ed upwards.

The inte­ri­or of the church is filled with light due to the large num­ber of high win­dows. The altar of the tem­ple is orig­i­nal­ly dec­o­rat­ed with a forged image of a dove, sym­bol­iz­ing the Holy Spir­it.

Presidential palace

In the 18th cen­tu­ry, this build­ing was built as the res­i­dence of Count Gras­salkovich — this his­tor­i­cal name is still used today. In sub­se­quent cen­turies, the palace was the res­i­dence of Arch­duke Fer­di­nand, high-rank­ing offi­cials of the local com­mu­nist par­ty, and is now the res­i­dence of the Pres­i­dent of the Slo­vak Repub­lic.

Near the palace there is a gar­den with a foun­tain, a play­ground and lush flower beds. Here you can some­times see the first per­sons of the state who came out to breathe fresh air.

Cathedral of Saint Martin

The build­ing, which lat­er became a tem­ple with an orig­i­nal archi­tec­tur­al appear­ance, was found­ed in the 8th cen­tu­ry — then it was part of the city’s defen­sive struc­tures. Only at the end of the XIV cen­tu­ry it was con­se­crat­ed and became a church.

The design of the cathe­dral, like many Catholic church­es, tends to spiers up, and com­pletes its quad­ran­gu­lar tow­er topped with a hel­met with the crown of St. Stephen. This sym­bol­izes the for­mer sta­tus of the cathe­dral — crowned per­sons were crowned here from the 16th to the 19th cen­turies.

The inte­ri­or is impres­sive with fres­coes, antique stained-glass win­dows, wrought-iron chan­de­liers, a stat­ue of Saint Mar­tin and a recent­ly installed organ.

Cultural attractions and entertainment

Slovak National Theater

The the­ater is locat­ed in two build­ings locat­ed in dif­fer­ent parts of Bratisla­va. The old­er one is in the Neo-Renais­sance style and has exist­ed since 1886. Its archi­tec­tur­al fea­ture is a log­gia sup­port­ed by columns. On the ped­i­ment there is a sculp­tur­al com­po­si­tion with the muse Thalia in the cen­ter. There is a foun­tain in front of the entrance to the build­ing.

The sec­ond, more mod­ern build­ing is locat­ed near the Apol­lo bridge. In Sep­tem­ber, the the­ater holds an open day, when vis­i­tors can vis­it all its halls and premis­es.

Bratislava Zoo

The zoo has been oper­at­ing since 1960 and is locat­ed in the Mlyn­s­ka Val­ley — the foothills of the Less­er Carpathi­ans. This is a pic­turesque place with a decid­u­ous for­est, a riv­er and spa­cious mead­ows. It con­tains up to 1000 ani­mals, includ­ing rare species: lions, bears, rhi­nos, snow leop­ards, tigers (includ­ing white ones), chee­tahs, hip­pos and pel­i­cans.

A Dinopark is also orga­nized on the ter­ri­to­ry with full-sized fig­ures of dinosaurs that can move around and emit a char­ac­ter­is­tic roar. There are many small cafes in the park where you can order var­i­ous drinks and eat ice cream.

Aquapark Tatralandia

An amuse­ment park was built near the town of Lip­tovsky Miku­las. Its ter­ri­to­ry occu­pies 16 hectares, and it is open all year round. There are many pools and attrac­tions here, but the main fea­ture of the park is the water enter­ing the pools. It is fed from a depth of 2500 m from the relict sea, whose age is esti­mat­ed at mil­lions of years.

The water tem­per­a­ture reach­es +60 °C. Its ther­a­peu­tic effect affects the skin, res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tem and mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem. The pools are equipped with mas­sage chairs, under­cur­rents, slides, tobog­gans and foun­tains. For lovers of a relax­ing hol­i­day, there are saunas and a jacuzzi.

ancient castles

Bratislava castle

One of the most famous sights of the cap­i­tal is locat­ed on a high hill above the city. Its his­to­ry began in the 8th cen­tu­ry with a wood­en struc­ture, which was soon replaced by a stone cas­tle. For some time the fortress had a Goth­ic appear­ance, but in the 16th cen­tu­ry it was con­vert­ed into a cas­tle of the Hun­gar­i­an monarch.

Napoleon’s inva­sion and sub­se­quent attacks by the Aus­tri­an troops led to the destruc­tion of the citadel, and its restora­tion began already in the 20th cen­tu­ry. Here at one time the par­lia­ment of the Slo­vak Repub­lic was locat­ed, but now the premis­es of the for­mer palace are occu­pied by muse­ums — folk and folk music.

Betliar

One of the most vis­it­ed Slo­vak cas­tles was orig­i­nal­ly found­ed as a defen­sive struc­ture. But after pass­ing into the pos­ses­sion of the Andrássy fam­i­ly, it was turned into a real palace.

The cas­tle has 3 floors, the main build­ing is sur­round­ed by tow­ers on four sides. The por­ti­co at the entrance is dec­o­rat­ed with columns, the win­dow open­ings are arched. The archi­tec­tur­al com­po­si­tion of the build­ing com­bines the Renais­sance and Baroque styles.

Betliar is a hunt­ing muse­um cre­at­ed by the Andrássy fam­i­ly and has pre­served its col­lec­tion through the cen­turies. Here are col­lect­ed ancient weapons from dif­fer­ent coun­tries and a lot of stuffed ani­mals. Also of inter­est are col­lec­tions of engrav­ings, an exten­sive old library and well-pre­served fur­ni­ture.

Spis castle

This cas­tle is rec­og­nized as the largest and most sig­nif­i­cant in the coun­try. It is locat­ed near the town of Spišské Pod­gradie and was erect­ed on the upper ridges of dolomite rocks, in the forms of which the build­ing har­mo­nious­ly fit. The begin­ning of its con­struc­tion dates back to the 11th cen­tu­ry, lat­er the cas­tle was strength­ened and expand­ed.

The cas­tle is con­di­tion­al­ly divid­ed into upper, mid­dle and low­er court­yards. On its ter­ri­to­ry you can find the remains of ancient Celtic set­tle­ments, as well as a palace in the Romanesque style. There is a muse­um of medieval ammu­ni­tion and weapons, and guides walk in styl­ized medieval cos­tumes. The­atri­cal per­for­mances and his­tor­i­cal recon­struc­tions are also held in Spis­sky Cas­tle.

Krasna Gorka

Well-pre­served mon­u­ment of medieval archi­tec­ture. The white stone struc­ture was found­ed in the 14th cen­tu­ry on top of a high hill. The ter­ri­to­ry of the cas­tle has a tri­an­gu­lar shape with bas­tions at the cor­ners. In the cen­ter there is a palace, a chapel and out­build­ings. In their design, Goth­ic and Romanesque styles can be traced.

Now the cas­tle is open to vis­i­tors as a muse­um. The local exhi­bi­tions show­case house­hold uten­sils and a col­lec­tion of weapons from the Mid­dle Ages. Par­tic­u­lar atten­tion is drawn to the instru­ments of tor­ture. Part of the premis­es is trans­ferred to the 18th cen­tu­ry, when the Andrássy fam­i­ly owned the cas­tle. Here are paint­ings, antique fur­ni­ture, musi­cal instru­ments.

Castle of Sveta Anton (Saint Anthony)

The cas­tle near Ban­s­ka Sti­avni­ca was built by the Kohari fam­i­ly in the 18th cen­tu­ry, and lat­er passed into the pos­ses­sion of the Coburg dynasty. It is a two-storey baroque man­sion with white walls and large win­dows. The front porch is dec­o­rat­ed with sculp­tur­al reliefs.

The exte­ri­or design is quite sim­ple and devoid of any spe­cial frills, but the inte­ri­or dec­o­ra­tion impress­es with lux­u­ry. Par­tic­u­lar­ly note­wor­thy are the mir­ror and impe­r­i­al halls, as well as the Chi­nese-style hall with silk car­pets and ori­en­tal trin­kets.

A hunt­ing muse­um with an expo­si­tion of weapons and tro­phies has also been cre­at­ed here. The cas­tle is sur­round­ed by a pic­turesque park in the Eng­lish style.

Boinice Castle

One of the most remark­able and beau­ti­ful cas­tles in the coun­try was ten­ta­tive­ly found­ed in the 12th cen­tu­ry, but there is no exact infor­ma­tion about this. Over the cen­turies, its design was replen­ished with new archi­tec­tur­al addi­tions and exten­sions, and in the 19th cen­tu­ry the cas­tle was recon­struct­ed and acquired the fea­tures of the French style.

The inte­ri­or space is occu­pied by lux­u­ri­ous halls. Must-sees are the Gold­en Hall with a gild­ed juniper wood ceil­ing, the Mar­ble and Blue Halls, the Chi­nese Cab­i­net and the Music Salon.

Accord­ing to leg­end, the cas­tle became the abode of many ghosts, led by the spir­it of Count Pulf, the last own­er of the cas­tle. Every spring, the Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val of Spir­its and Ghosts is held here with the­atri­cal per­for­mances.

Zvolen Castle

The archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ment is locat­ed in the town of Zvolen in cen­tral Slo­va­kia — at the con­flu­ence of the rivers Grotin and Slati­na. It was erect­ed in the 14th cen­tu­ry as a defen­sive struc­ture and was of strate­gic impor­tance. To this day, pow­er­ful walls with Ghi­belline bat­tle­ments have been pre­served.

Lat­er, the fortress was rebuilt into the res­i­dence of aris­to­crats, and the inte­ri­or design acquired the fea­tures of the Baroque style. Now in the halls of the cas­tle there is a muse­um, which is part of the Slo­vak Nation­al Gallery. Its expo­si­tions include paint­ings and sculp­tures dat­ing back to the 16th-18th cen­turies, ancient house­hold items, weapons and icons.

Natural attractions and parks

Low Tatras

One of the largest nature reserves in Slo­va­kia. Vis­i­tors are attract­ed by pic­turesque moun­tain ranges and numer­ous karst caves. The high­est moun­tain of the reserve is con­sid­ered to be the Dumb­ert with a height of 2043 m.

The space of the nation­al park is occu­pied by beech and conif­er­ous forests, sep­a­rat­ed by alpine mead­ows. Fir, spruce, beech, maple and larch grow here from tree species. Large preda­tors live in the reserve — bears, lynx­es, wolves, Tatra chamois and alpine mar­mot.

For the con­ve­nience of tourists, var­i­ous hik­ing trails have been laid in the park. The Jas­na ski resort is also locat­ed here.

Yasovska cave

The cave in the Jasov set­tle­ment is locat­ed on the east­ern tip of the Slo­vak Karst. It has been well known since the Mid­dle Ages — in it the locals took refuge from the raids of the Tatars and Turks. The under­ground for­ma­tion is a sta­lac­tite cave with a total length of just under 3 km, but 720 m are open for tourist inspec­tion.

The cave belongs to lime­stone. Its halls are locat­ed at dif­fer­ent lev­els, due to which drops are formed, where you can see mul­ti-col­ored rock lay­ers of bizarre shapes and water­falls of the under­ground riv­er Bod­va.

Dobshinskaya Ice Cave

This cave is locat­ed on the ter­ri­to­ry of the Low Tatras and is con­sid­ered one of the largest ice caves in Europe. Its total length is almost 1.5 km, but a sec­tion of only 475 m is open for inspec­tion.

The icing process con­tin­ues inside the cave until now, and the thick­ness of the ice in the halls is already about 25 m. When vis­it­ing, you can observe ice cas­cades, columns, sta­lac­tites and clus­ters of crys­tals of var­i­ous shapes. For tourists, spe­cial bridges are laid and rail­ings are equipped.

Thermal pools “Chaika”

The com­plex of ther­mal reser­voirs is locat­ed in the cen­ter of the Bojnice spa and con­sists of 5 pools. They are intend­ed for adults and chil­dren, there are also spe­cial ther­a­peu­tic pools.

Ther­mal water comes from a depth of 1200 m or more, and its tem­per­a­ture reach­es +33 °C. It is able to cure dis­eases of the ner­vous sys­tem and the mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem. Water attrac­tions are also orga­nized here, and the pools offer a view of the Bojnice Cas­tle.