Slovakia

Slovakia climbs from the warm Danube plain in the south-west to the granite peaks of the High Tatras on its northern border. Between them, Carpathian ranges such as the Malá Fatra and the Low Tatras fold the land into wooded ridges, and limestone gorges in the east hide the frozen halls of the Dobšinská Ice Cave. Branches of the Danube enclose Žitný ostrov, a vast river island of farmland, and hot springs feed spa towns such as Piešťany.

In 863 the brothers Cyril and Methodius reached Great Moravia with a Slavonic liturgy and an alphabet to write it. From the eleventh century the land belonged to Hungary, and after the Ottomans took Buda, Hungarian kings were crowned at Pressburg, later renamed Bratislava, from 1563 to 1830. Silver and gold from Banská Štiavnica and Kremnica filled the royal treasury. Slovaks joined Czechs in Czechoslovakia in 1918, Alexander Dubček, a Slovak, led the Prague Spring of 1968, and the federation split peacefully at the start of 1993.

Village crafts survive in the painted log houses of Čičmany and the fujara, a shepherd’s flute almost as tall as its player. Bryndzové halušky, potato dumplings smothered in sheep’s cheese and bacon, is on every mountain-hut menu, followed by slivovica plum brandy. Ice hockey fills the bars when the national team plays. Cars dominate industry: Volkswagen builds them at Devínska Nová Ves, Kia near Žilina, Stellantis at Trnava and Jaguar Land Rover at Nitra, beside the steelworks at Košice.