Active relaxation

Belianska cave

Belianska Cave is the only publicly accessible cave in the Tatras. It is located on the slope of the Belianske Tatras above the Tatra Basin and is one of the first caves in Europe where electric light was introduced.

The entrance to the cave lies at an altitude of 890 m and is accessible by a serpentine trail from the Tatra Basin, with an altitude difference of 122 m. Currently, the tour of the cave leads along a 1370 m long route – the duration of the tour is 70 minutes.

The entrance parts of the cave were already known to gold diggers in the first half of the 18th century. However, they remained hidden for many years. The entrance hole was rediscovered by L. Gulden and gold prospector Fabry in 1826.

As early as 1896, the cave was lit and electricity was supplied to the cave by a power station built on the Biela stream. Only three visits were allowed per day. However, the guide had to open the cave even if he had only one customer. The sinter waterfalls, pagoda-like stalagmites and several small lakes are the main attractions for contemporary visitors.

The cave is also successfully used for climate therapy. In the acoustically sound area, called the “Music Hall”, concerts of reproduced music are held every August.

Dobšinská Ice Cave

Dobšinská Ice Cave, located in the Slovak Paradise, is one of the largest ice caves in Europe in terms of its length and depth. Nowhere else in Europe outside the Alpine region is there so much ice with a thickness of more than 25 m. Thanks to its significance and unique decoration, it has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Its entrance, also known as the “Ice Hole”, is located below the Duča hill (1 141 m) on the northern side of the Hanesová plateau and is situated at an altitude of 971 m. It is reached by a serpentine trail with an elevation of 130 m from the Dobšinská Ice Cave settlement. The length of the tour route with an elevation of 43 m is 515 m and it takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.

The cave was discovered in 1870 by mining engineer E. Ruffini and the following year local enthusiasts opened it to the public. In 1882 it became the first electrically illuminated cave in Hungary. It has been visited by several important personalities, including the Bulgarian Tsar and the King of Serbia. In 1890, a concert was held in the Great Hall in honour of Charles Louis of Habsburg. In the past, summer skating was organised in the cave. It was originally connected to the Straten Cave, but the collapse of part of the cave severed the natural connection. At that time, the glaciation of the cave actually started.

With its length (1 232 m) and depth (112 m) it is one of the largest ice caves in Europe. Nowhere outside the Alpine region is there more than 110 thousand m3 of ice with a thickness of more than 25 m in places. The greatest ice thickness is maintained in the Great Hall, where it reaches up to 26.5 m.

Of the world-famous ice caves, the Dobšinská Ice Cave is the lowest, which highlights its uniqueness. The ice is formed by the shape of the cave, which descends from the entrance. In its lower part, cold air is kept, which does not warm up above the freezing point even in summer.

Domica Cave

Domica, located in the Slovak Paradise, is one of the largest ice caves in Europe in terms of its length and depth. Nowhere else in Europe outside the Alpine region is there so much ice with a thickness of more than 25 m. Thanks to its significance and unique decoration, it has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The entrance to the cave lies at an altitude of 339 m. Visitors to the cave have at their disposal two sightseeing routes, the longer one measures 1180 m (duration of the tour 60 minutes), the shorter one 780 m (duration of the tour 45 minutes). The tour also includes a boat trip on the underground Styx river.

Although it was discovered in 1926, it was not opened to the public until 1932. Domica is particularly characterised by its large, spacious domes – for example, the well-known Majkov Dome with its cascading lakes called the Roman Baths. It is distinguished by its rich stalactite decoration, dominated by cascading lakes, bulbous stalactites and pagoda-like stalagmites. There are up to 16 species of bats, about 1,500 of them.

Because of its natural beauty, the Domica Cave was also used by filmmakers for the film version of Pavel Dobšinský’s famous fairy tale Salt over Gold. The cave is part of a larger cave system with the Baradla Cave on Hungarian territory with a total length of about 25 km.

Spiš Castle

The eastern horizon of Spiš is formed by the sprawling silhouette of Spiš Castle, which with an area of over 4 hectares is one of the largest ruined castle complexes in Central Europe. In 1993, Spiš Castle and the cultural monuments of the surrounding area were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The construction of the medieval castle on a travertine mound dates back to the beginning of the 12th century. The oldest written mention of the castle dates back to 1120. In the beginning it had the function of a border fortress on the northern border of the early feudal Hungarian state. Then, for several centuries, it became the seat of the Spiš county governor and thus the main centre of secular power in Spiš.

In the second half of the 15th century, the castle was rebuilt by its new owner Štefan Zápoľský, who wanted to create a representative noble residence here. He built a palace, a knight’s hall and the Chapel of St. Elizabeth in the castle chambers.His son Jan, who later became the King of Hungary, was born in the castle chambers.
The last construction works on the upper castle were managed by the Thurz and Csáky family.

In 1780 the castle complex was destroyed by a devastating fire and Spišský hrad gradually turned into a ruin. The complete ruin of Spiš Castle was prevented only by the conservationists, who in 1970 began the technically demanding conservation of the walls and palaces threatened by the instability of the bedrock.

The castle complex currently houses museum exhibitions of the Spiš Museum on the history of the castle, medieval weapons and feudal justice.

A comfortable nature trail Sivá Brada – Dreveník leads through the countryside around Spiš Castle. At eight stops, tourists can learn about the history of the area as well as its natural attractions.

Access: by car to the parking lot under the castle, from there on foot about 10 min., on foot from the village of Spišské Podhradie about 1 hour.

Spiš Kapitula

The Slovak “Vatican” is the church town of SPIŠŠSKA KAPITULA, from which the prefects, bishops and canons have been organizing the church life not only in Spiš for a long time.

The most important building of the Spiš Chapter is the late Romanesque Cathedral of St. Martin. It took the form of a massive three-nave building with two towers between 1245 and 1275. In 1382, the Corpus Christi Chapel was added to it, which was replaced by the present chapel, built on the model of the French Saint Chapelle, between 1488 and 1493. The Baroque alterations were wiped out by the restoration works between 1873 and 1889, which sought to give the cathedral a medieval character in keeping with the tastes of the Romantic period.

The Bishop’s Palace was built at the same time as the cathedral as the Prepostal Palace. In the past, there was a French park next to the palace, which was entered through the Clock Tower, which still stands today and dates from 1739.

In the eastern part of the Spišská Kapitula there are the so-called canons of the chapter canons on narrow Gothic plots, accessible through the only alley in the town. The fortification of the ecclesiastical town with two entrance gates was built by in the 14th century and rebuilt several times.

Spišská Kapitula is an urban part of Spišské Podhradie.

Levoča

The Spiš town of LEVOČA is said to be “the brightest stone on the Spiš crown”. There is the highest Gothic wooden altar in the world and other interesting monuments bordered by relatively well-preserved city walls.

The focal point of ancient Levoča is the large rectangular square. The Roman Catholic parish church of St. James from the 14th century, which is one of the most important sacral buildings in Slovakia, stands here. The tall, slender tower of the church, dating from the first half of the 19th century, is the most striking element of the town’s silhouette.

The interior of the church, which is a unique museum of medieval sacral art, is particularly valuable. The late Gothic wooden high altar of St. James is the highest of its kind in the world at 18.6 m. It was made of lime wood between 1507 and 1517 in the workshop of Master Paul of Levoča. Master Paul is said to have given his own likeness to one of the twelve statues of the Apostles of the magnificent composition of the Last Supper in the front of the altar.

Adjacent to the parish church is the former Levoca town hall with arcades, built after a fire in 1550. It belongs to the top buildings of secular Renaissance architecture in Slovakia.

On the square there is also the so-called Cage of Shame from the 16th century, which used to be used for public pillorying in the past. The central square is flanked by over 50 remarkable bourgeois and patrician houses. Several are named after former owners. Particularly striking at first sight is the Renaissance Thurzo House, which was given a Neo-Renaissance sgraffito façade in 1904.

Vlkolínec

The local part of Ružomberok Biely Potok is the starting point to one of the most visited Slovak settlements VLKOLÍNEC – an extremely remarkable oasis of folk architecture, which has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The settlement, which was first mentioned in 1376, is the only village in Slovakia that has not been disturbed by new construction and represents a unique urban complex of original folk buildings. Based on a comparative study by ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), it was evaluated as the best preserved settlement of this type in the Carpathian Arc. Originally it was a settlement of woodcutters, shepherds and farmers.

Vlkolínec is a typical example of a two-row street with long courtyards. The settlement divides into two streets approximately in the middle. One of them leads to the Baroque-Classical Roman Catholic Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary from 1875, the other one goes down the steeper terrain to the foot of Sidorovo Hill (1099 m).

In the centre of the settlement stand the two most frequently photographed objects of Vlkolínec – a log two-storey bell tower from 1770 standing on a stone base and a log well from 1860. The protected buildings of the settlement include 45 wooden houses with farmyards from the 18th century. The way in which they were arranged was unique. They were painted twice a year with blue, pink and white lime paint.

A typical example of a vlkolín house is the peasant house – one of the exhibitions of the Liptov Museum in Ružomberok. The building, built in 1886, was opened to the public in 1991. Its preserved original interior design and furnishings are a faithful image of the way of life of the inhabitants of the settlement at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The other buildings in the Vlkolínec Conservation Area are inhabited, with 30 inhabitants, so visitors have to be content with just a glimpse of their exteriors.

Vlkolínec is a part of the Veľká Fatra National Park. It passes through a cycling route and the owners of several wooden houses provide accommodation. In the summer, the “Sunday in Vlkolínec”, which takes place at the beginning of August, is one of the most interesting events.

One of the best preserved Slovak wooden sacral buildings is the wooden articular evangelical church in Kežmarok. In 2008, it was inscribed with 7 other wooden churches of the Carpathian Arch on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Museum of Liptov Village Pribylina

Under the southern slopes of the Western Tatras stands the Museum of the Liptov Village documenting the folk architecture of Liptov. It was started to be built in connection with the flooding of a large area to the west of Liptovský Mikuláš during the construction of the Liptovská Mara waterworks.

The most important cultural monuments from the eleven flooded villages were transferred here, which today form the basis of the museum’s exposition. The original buildings were dismantled on site and their precious parts were transported and fitted into exact copies of the original objects. Thus, the youngest open-air museum in Slovakia was created.

The greatest jewels of secular and sacred folk architecture include the Gothic-Renaissance manor house from Parížovce and the early Gothic Church of the Virgin Mary from Liptovská Mara. The manor house is one of the oldest country buildings in Liptov and during the tour you will be impressed by several architectural details and late Gothic wall paintings. The church is much older, its foundations are Romanesque and probably date back to the 12th century. It was rebuilt in the second half of the 13th century, later enlarged and in the 17th century a tower was added. The one-room school with the flat of the teacher from Valaska Dubova and the exhibition of period beehives in the orchard near the school are also interesting.

There is a school of folk crafts at the museum, which in the summer tourist season introduces visitors to demonstrations of folk craft techniques (weaving, mallet making, working with wood, metal and leather, basket weaving from straw, etc.), as well as Liptov customs and traditions.

Regular events organized in the museum include the Sheep Breeder’s Sunday – Ovenálie on the last Sunday in May, Children’s Sunday in June, Native Sunday in July, Beekeeper’s Sunday in August, St. Hubert’s Day in September, Thanksgiving for the Harvest in October and Christmas in Liptov in December.

The museum has its own zoo exhibition focusing on the breeding of domestic animals and poultry. An attraction of the museum is the breeding of Hucul horses with the possibility of riding for visitors.

Wooden churches

ARTICULAR EVANGELICAL CHURCH IN KEŽMAROK

The Evangelical Articular Church was added in 1717 to an older stone sacral building from 1593, which now forms its sacristy. This unique wooden building made of yew and red spruce was built without using a single piece of metal.

Its plan is in the shape of a Greek cross. The Baroque interior of the church is also made of wood. Especially the church organ with its wooden pipes is of great artistic value.

Ski Museum

Visitors of the museum will learn a lot of interesting information about the beginnings of skiing, skating, curling, climbing, sledging or bobsledding in the High Tatras through 19 educational boards. Each thematic circuit is supplemented with exhibits and period photographs, which together with the text part create a perfect picture of what it used to look like in our mountains.

Among the biggest attractions of the museum are certainly the 3.07m long skis from 1885 and the exposition of old racing bobsleds that used to run on the bobsled tracks in Tatranská Lomnica. A feast for the eyes of museum visitors is the workshop for the production of wooden skis, ski poles or leather boots. The little ones will be captivated by the fairytale atmosphere of Gertrude’s Cottage, which used to be at the start of the bobsled and toboggan run in Tatranská Lomnica.