Štrbské Pleso, Slovakia

Štrbské Pleso is 18 km (11.2 miles) from Tatranská Lomnica.  By train it's an hour away.

Štrbské Pleso is another popular tourist town in the Tatras.  

It was founded in 1872 and today it is home to about 200 residents.

Lots more hiking!

The town is located on the southern shore of Lake Štrbské pleso.

The lake is the second largest lake, in the Slovak side of the Tatras.  It is almost 20 hectares (almost 50 acres).

Nearby is the Veža snov (Tower of Dreams), which is also called Tatras Tower.

The tower is 53 metres (174 feet) tall and has a 15° incline.  We wanted to check out the top but it started to rain a bit.  

Tatranská Lomnica, Slovakia

After getting back from our USA trip we spent three days with Kája's oldest sister and their father in the Tatras.  We took a couple of trains and met up with them in Tatranská Lomnica.  

Tatranská Lomnica is a small tourist town in northern Slovakia.  The town was founded in 1892 and is home to less than 1000 people.  It's about 345 km (215 miles) from Bratislava.

People come to Tatranská Lomnica to go hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter.  

We took a cable car up to Skalnaté pleso, which is a glacial lake located at an altitude of 1751 metres (5,744 feet).

The lake lies at the lowest point of the Rocky Valley that sits under the southern cliffs of Lomnické štít.  The lake has a depth of 4,2 metres (138 feet).

The Skalnaté pleso Observatory was founded in 1943.  It has two telescopes and caries out research about comets and asteroids.

From here, it's another cable car up to Lomnické sedlo which is 2190 metres (7,185 feet) above sea level. 

Here you can visit Lomnický štít which is the second-highest peak in the High Tatras.  

It's 2634 metres (8,642 feet) tall and it is the only peak int he Tatras that's accessible by cable car which were first put in between 1937-1940.

There are some really nice views of the mountains from up here.

In town there's a ski museum that opened in 2013.  It focuses on the history of winter sports in the Tatras up until 1945.

TANAP Museum, the Tatra National Park Museum, opened in 1957 in Poprad before moving to Tatranská Lomnica in 1959.  The museum moved to its current building in 1969.  Most of the exhibitions are about the local animals, flora and fauna found in the Tatras.  

We really enjoyed our visit to Tatranská Lomnica.  The Tatras were worth the wait.  I'm looking forward to our next visit.  

We also checked out nearby Štrbské Pleso.

The Tatra Mountains

Tomorrow we're headed to Tatranská Lomnica, in the High Tatras, in northern Slovakia.  Visiting the Tatras has been on my list for a while so I'm looking forward to doing a bit of hiking.  We're going to meet his dad and sister who are already there.  I'm still not 100% over the jet lag from our USA trip but I'll manage.

The Tatras are the highest mountains in the Carpathians and form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland.  Many of the Rocky Mountains exceed 2000 metres (+6,500 feet) tall.  There are three main parts: the High Tatras, Belianské Tatras, and the Western Tatras.  

The Tatras take up 785 sq km (303 sq miles) with about 78% in Slovakia and about 22% in Poland.  The Tatras are basically the "Slovakian Alps" and a favourite place for hiking and skiing.  

The mountains were a problem for hikers back in the day because it was illegal to cross the border without going through an official border checkpoint and there weren't any checkpoints on the border ridge.  At least until 2007, when both Slovakia and Poland joined Schengen and internal border checks became a thing of the past.

There's a Tatra National Park in Slovakia and a Tatra National Park in Poland.  And both are part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

I hope that we survive.  Slovaks love to joke about Czechs getting lost, or needing to be rescued, in the Tatras.  Usually because Czechs took the wrong equipment, wrong clothes or wrong shoes.  One joke is that the world's biggest Czech cemetery, outside of Czechland, is called the High Tatras.

Slovenská Ľupča, Slovakia

Slovenská Ľupča is a village in central Slovakia, about 10 km (6.5 miles) east of Banská Bystrica.  It sits on the right bank of the Hron River, between the Low Tatras and the Slovak Ore Mountains.

The village was once a royal town and dates back to 1250.  It's home to about 3300 people. 

The Church of the Most Holy Trinity is a Roman Catholic church that was built in early 14th century, between 1330 - 1370.

The church was just renovated last year.

Next to the church is the local plague column.

Nearby is the Kulturne Stredisko, the Slovak equivalent of a Czech Culture House, or community centre.

The Evangelical church is no longer actually an Evangelical church.  After WWII, the church was transferred to the Catholic Church.

There's some street renovation going on around the church now.  

Next to the church is an SNP monument.

There are over 2500 people buried in the town cemetery.  The oldest grave is from 1866.

On a hill, overlooking the city, is the town castle.  It was built prior to 1250 and served as a royal residence. 

It also served as a guard castle and oversaw important commercial routes.  The castle is a Slovak national cultural monument.

It has been owned by a management company since 2002, which offers guided tours to the public. 

From the top of the hill are some lovely views. 

I'm not 100% whether the view is of the Low Tatras or of the Slovak Ore Mountains, but pretty either way.

Hronsek, Slovakia

Hronsek is a village on the left bank of the Iron River about 10 km (6.5 miles) south of Banská Bystrica.  It is home to about 60 people and dates back to about 1250 when it was called Zyklafalu.  

Over the centuries it's been called Czwiklafalwa, Czwiklina, Galowyczfalwa, Galowycz, Czwyklina, Galfalwa, Garanzegh, Cwklina, Garamsseg, Hronec, Hronsek-Skalka, and Garansek, until 1946 when it became Hronsek.

The village and surrounding area used to be royal property.  Hungarian King Belo IV gifted it in 1250, as a reward for fighting against the Tatars.  Today the village is known for three main sights.

The oldest building in the village is a Gothic-Renaissance mansion.  It was a 14th century moated castle.  

Part of the fortifications were removed in the 1920s and since 2002 the building has been owned by a private company.  Renovations have been underway since 2007.

The Soósovsko-Géczyovský castle is in the centre of the village.  The Baroque castle was built in 1775.

Interior renovations took place in the 19th and 20th centuries.  But looking through a window, it might be time for more renovations.

There's a small park surrounding the castle where there's 250-year old linden tree which has been protected since 1984.  

Nearby is the village's town hall.  

Above the door is a plaque that was unveiled on 1 July 2000 to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the first written mention of the area.

The most well-known sight in Hronsek is the wooden Evangelic church.  The church, made completely from timber, was completed in 1726.  It only took one year to build.

The church is made from solid oak and larch wood, without a single nail.  Everything is connected by carpenter's joints and wooden pins.

The church can seat 1100 people and there's supposed to be a rare baroque organ that dates back to 1764.  

Unfortunately it wasn't possible to go inside while we were there.

In 2008, the church was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

Banská Bystrica is a city in central Slovakia and is located about halfway between Bratislava and Košice, the country's two largest cities.  Banská Bystrica sits on the Hron River, encircled by three mountain ranges, and with 76,000 inhabitants it is the 6th largest city in Slovakia.  

The town was founded by German settlers in 1255 and quickly became a copper mining town.  During the Austro-Hungarian Empire it was called Neusohl until 1867 when it took the Hungarian name of Besztercebánya and Banská Bystrica has been the official name since 1920.

During WWII, when Slovakia was a Nazi puppet state, Banská Bystrica became the centre of Slovakian anti-Nazi opposition when the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) began in August 1944.  The SNP was put down a couple of months later before being occupied by the Germans until Red Army and Romanian troops liberated the city in March 1945.

Today, it is a lovely university town and with warm summers and cold winters, the surrounding mountains make it a popular tourist destination.

SNP Square is the town's main square and home to many of the town's historical sights with several cafes and restaurants.

The clock tower was built in 1552 and it leans 40 cm (16 inches).

The plague column was erected in the 18th century.  I read that in 1964 it had to be temporarily moved when Nikita Khrushchev visited because the communists didn't want a religious symbol in the background when he gave a speech.

The town hall was originally built in the 16th century but has had numerous renovations over the years.  The facade has both Renaissance and Baroque features and a modern glass pyramid on the roof.

The "Wolf's Lunch Building" used to the town hall.  It was built around 1400 at the start of the 15th century.  I heard a couple of different stories about where the name came from but more or less that from this spot there was a tradition of feeding the poor and that included the wolves from the surrounding forests as well.  

There's a black obelisk, unveiled in 1945, to commemorate the Soviet and Romanian soldiers that liberated the city.  Somehow it is the property of the Russian Federation but I don't get how.  I heard that the granite used to build it came from the stockpile that Hitler planned to use fr victory monuments in Moscow and Leningrad, which never came about.  Not sure if this is true or not but an interesting twist.

The Thurzo House dates back to the 15th century and it is one of the city's oldest buildings.  It was once the headquarters for a mining company and today it hosts a museum.

The St. Francis Xavier Cathedral was consecrated in 1715 and it has been the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese since 1776.  The exterior was renovated in 1999.   

The St. Elizabeth Church was built in 1303.  It's also known as the Spiral Church because it was built next to the hospital for sick and unfit miners.  

The Central Slovakia Gallery is one of the oldest regional galleries in the country.  The collection focuses on modern art.

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was built in the mid-13th century.  It is also known as the German Church because it had been built by wealthy Germans townspeople on the foundation of a basilica.  It's the oldest building in town.

The Kammerhof building used to be one of the town's three breweries.  The building was renovated in 1954 and since 1958 it houses museum exhibitions.

The Bishop's Palace was built in 1776.  It boggles my American brain that this building is as old as the U.S. Declaration of Independence and this isn't even the oldest building in town.

Apparently we had just missed "American Day in Banská Bystrica."

Józef Dekrét Matejovie Park was founded in 1971.  It's named after a pioneer of modern forestry during the 18th and 19th centuries who contributed to forest improvements that had been devised due to local mining.

The State Opera house was completed in 1929.  It is one of three state opera houses in the country.

The Museum of the Slovak National Uprising was impressive.  It opened in 1955 and it is one of the reasons that I wanted to visit the town.  It did not disappoint.  Very interesting and here's a short video I found on YouTube. 

©goguliver.sk

Banská Bystrica had been on my list of places to visit for more than 10 years.  We really enjoyed it and I'd like to explore a bit more of Slovakia.  We also took a day trip out to visit nearby Hronsek and Slovenská Ľupča.