Insightful information about UNESCO sites in Slovakia and the stories they tell.
This article was prepared for an edition of the Spectacular Slovakia travel guide and was published in the travel guide Slovakia.
UNESCO sites in Slovakia
CULTURAL SITES
- Banská Štiavnica (historical centre and technical monuments in surroundings)
- Bardejov
- Levoča, Spiš Castle and sights in Spišské Podhradie and Žehra
- Vlkolínec
- Wooden churches (Greek Catholic: Ruská Bystrá, Ladomírová, Bodružal; Roman Catholic: Tvrdošín, Hervartov; Protestant: Kežmarok, Hronsek, Leštiny)
NATURAL SITES
- Caves and gorges of the Slovak Karst (Caves accessible to the public: Dobšinská Ice Cave, Domica, Gombasecká, Jasovská, Krásnohorská, Ochtinská aragonitová and Silická ľadnica)
- Carpathian Primeval Beech Forests in Poloniny and Vihorlat (Havešová, Rožok, Stužica, Vihorlat)
Perched on the altar of the wooden articular church in Leštiny, in Žilina Region of northern Slovakia, are two figures unique in Christian iconography. In the early 1990s, after the fall of the communist regime, a spate of looting in some of Slovakia’s historical monuments accounted for the original, priceless versions of two statues of the brothers Aaron and Moses, which had stood in the church for hundreds of years. Wounded by their loss, the villagers of Leštiny commissioned a local carver to replace the artefacts, and he went to work to produce something vaguely akin to the prized and delicate whittlings of his artisan predecessors.