Search for Museums and Paintings

Slovakia

Slovakia ; Slovak: Slovensko [ˈslɔʋɛnskɔ] ), officially the Slovak Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the southwest, and Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5.4 million and consists mostly of ethnic Slovaks. The capital and largest city is Bratislava, and the second-largest city is Košice. The official language is Slovak. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries. In the 7th century they played a significant role in the creation of Samo's Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra, which was later conquered by the Principality of Moravia to establish Great Moravia. In the 10th century, after the dissolution of Great Moravia, the territory was integrated into the Principality of Hungary, which would become the Kingdom of Hungary in 1000. In 1241 and 1242, much of the territory was destroyed by the Mongols during their invasion of Central and Eastern Europe. The area was recovered largely thanks to Béla IV of Hungary who also settled Germans who became an important ethnic group in the area, especially in what are today parts of central and eastern Slovakia. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Czechoslovak National Council established Czechoslovakia . A separate Slovak Republic existed during World War II as a totalitarian, clero-fascist one-party client state of Nazi Germany. At the end of World War II, Czechoslovakia was re-established as an independent country. After a coup in 1948 Czechoslovakia became a totalitarian one-party socialist state under a communist administration, during which the country was part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc. Attempts to liberalize communism in Czechoslovakia culminated in the Prague Spring, which was crushed by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. In 1989, the Velvet Revolution ended the Communist rule in Czechoslovakia peacefully. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia, sometimes known as the Velvet Divorce. Slovakia is a developed country with an advanced, high-income economy, a very high Human Development Index, a very high standard of living and performs favourably in measurements of civil liberties, press freedom, internet freedom, democratic governance and peacefulness. The country maintains a combination of a market economy with a comprehensive social security system. Citizens of Slovakia are provided with universal health care, free education and one of the longest paid parental leaves in the OECD. The country joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 and joined the Eurozone on 1 January 2009. Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. As part of Eurozone, Slovak legal tender is the euro, the world's 2nd-most-traded currency. Slovakia is the world's largest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,110,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2019 alone and the 5th largest car producer in the European Union, representing 43% of Slovakia's total industrial output.

Basilica of St. James, Levoča

Levoča

The Basilica of St. James is a Gothic church in Levoča, Prešovský kraj, Slovakia. Building began in the 14th century. It is a Catholic parish church, dedicated to James the Apostle. The interior features several Gothic altars, including as the main altar the world's tallest wooden altar at 18.62 metres by the workshop of Master Paul of Levoča, completed in 1517. The church, the second largest in Slovakia, also houses well-preserved furniture and art work. The steeple dates from the 19th century. The church was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Levoča, Spiš Castle and the associated cultural monuments in 2009. It is also a National Monument. In 2015, Pope Francis declared the church a Basilica minor.

Slovak National Gallery

Bratislava

The Slovak National Gallery is a network of galleries in Slovakia. It has its headquarters in Bratislava. The gallery was established by law on 29 July 1949. In Bratislava, it has its displays situated in Esterházy Palace and the Water Barracks which are adjacent to each other. The Esterházy Palace was reconstructed for the purposes of the gallery in the 1950s and a modern extension was added in the 1970s. The SNG also manages other galleries outside Bratislava: at the Zvolen Castle in Zvolen, at the Strážky mansion in Spišská Belá, in Ružomberok and in Pezinok. The Mourning portrait of K. Horvath-Stansith is considered one of the most significant acquisitions of the Baroque art collections.

Spišská Sobota

Poprad District

Spišská Sobota is a historic Slovak town that was absorbed in 1946 as a borough of the city of Poprad. It is located in the northeastern part of the city above the Poprad river. The population of Spišská Sobota was 2,909 as of June 2017.

St Martin's Cathedral, Bratislava

Bratislava

The St Martin's Cathedral is a church in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bratislava. It is situated at the western border of the historical city center below Bratislava Castle. It is the largest and one of the oldest churches in Bratislava, known especially for being the coronation church of the Kingdom of Hungary between 1563 and 1830. Together with the castle on the hill adjacent, and somewhat similar in its striking but fairly stark Gothic lines and colouring, St Martin's 85 m spire dominates Old Town's skyline. The tower virtually formed a part of the town's fortifications, built as it was into the city's defensive walls. As with the castle, the surroundings of St Martin's are as memorable as the structure itself. In the cathedral's case, this includes the picturesque remains of outbuildings in a spacious staired courtyard, and a working seminary with robed adepts on a cobblestone side-street. A small but significant neighbour of the cathedral is a monument to the synagogue, which stood next door for centuries until the Communist government demolished it around 1970 to make room for a new Nový Most bridge. The cathedral contains the remains of Saint John the Merciful who died in the early 7th Century.

Prešov

Prešov Region

Prešov , Hungarian: Eperjes, German: Eperies, Preschau, Rusyn: Пряшів/Priashiv) is a city in Eastern Slovakia. It is a seat of the administrative Prešov Region and Šariš as well as the historic Sáros County of the Kingdom of Hungary. With a population of approximately 89,000, it is the third-largest city in Slovakia. It lends its name to the Eperjes-Tokaj Hill-Chain. There are many tourist attractions in Prešov such as castles, pools and the old town.

Bratislava City Gallery

Bratislava

The Bratislava City Gallery is a gallery located in Bratislava, Slovakia, in the Old Town. It is the second largest Slovak gallery of its kind. The gallery is housed at the Mirbach Palace and Pálffy Palace . The gallery was founded in 1961, although the first attempts to collect works of arts began in the 19th century, when the Bratislava City Museum was established. It currently contains approximately 35,000 works of art.

East Slovak Gallery

Košice

The East Slovak Gallery, established in 1951, was the first regional gallery in Slovakia. The mission of the Gallery is the protection and presentation of the collection and documentation of the art scene and artistic life in the region of Eastern Slovakia.