Roundup: Anniversary of the 1930 launch of the President Masaryk into the Danube

The Slovak Philharmonic and Katarína Koščová to stream live concerts at the weekend, starting October 23.

President Masaryk, the largest warship of the Czech-Slovak navy, was constructed in the Slovak town of Komárno.President Masaryk, the largest warship of the Czech-Slovak navy, was constructed in the Slovak town of Komárno. (Source: Wikipedia)

The President Masaryk, above, was the largest warship of the Czech-Slovak navy. Its construction began in 1929 in the Slovak town of Komárno. The ship touched the surface of the Danube on October 19, 1930 for the first time, when First Czechoslovak President Tomáš G. Masaryk visited Slovakia.

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Czechoslovakia owned the vessel in the years 1930-1939. During World War II, the ship was seized by Nazi Germany and renamed to Bechelaren. After the war, it was renamed again, disarmed and deployed for civilian purposes. The ship was scrapped in 1978.

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Travel

Black gold guarded by a chain demon

A demon made of chains by sculptor and architect Stanislav Mikovčák protects an oil spring, a natural monument since 1984, in the Kysuce village of Korňa. The work of art is based on a local legend.

Former mining village turned into living museum

Špania Dolina, a village of about 200 people, is one of Slovakia’s cultural treasures for its mining history, architecture and nature. From here, you can hike to Staré Hory, Donovaly, or to the city of Banská Bystrica.

US website picks video by Slovaks as best

Slovak creators, known as Hike the World, filmed a drone video about Slovakia, which was selected as the best September video by the US website AirVūz. The video presents the top 30 places in Slovakia.

Some of the Slovak mountains are now cleaner

A total of 480 volunteers participated in a clean-up event in areas of the Tatra national park and Pieniny national park, where they collected 355.5 kilos of the rubbish in total. Over 40 years, 64 tons of waste have been collected in Slovak mountains.

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More information about travelling in Slovakia
Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide.

From classical music to potholes: Ambassador Henk Cor van der Kwast on Bratislava

He often cycles with Slovak mayors and plants tulips around the country, most recently in Bratislava.

Dutch Ambassador Henk Cor van der Kwast is, moreover, a huge expert on Bratislava-born composers. If you do not believe it, listen to the Spectacular Slovakia podcast or read the best podcast bits in the summary.

If you love art, the ambassador shares about the ship-shaped art museum Danubiana in Čunovo.

Weekend reads

Halny wind, old lady in black, and tragedies: Karika's new thriller

When the halny wind blows, more suicides and dark moments occur in the Polish Tatras. When writing his new book, Smršť, Slovak thriller writer Jozef Karika was inspired by the mysterious wind. But, after so many thrillers, is Karika scared of anything at all?

Park in Rusovce to get back its historical grandeur

The park surrounding the Rusovce manor house is today one of the best-preserved monuments to the art of gardening in Slovakia. Arborists have worked for almost a year to bring the park back to how it used to look under its last private owners, the Lónay family.

Culture in short [events included]

  • CLASSICAL MUSIC: The Slovak Philharmonic (SF) will play the opening concert of the 72nd season live from its concert hall on Friday, October 23. You can watch it on stream.filharmonia.sk and the SF’s Facebook page. Friday's livestream will also be the inaugural concert of the new principal conductor Daniel Raiskin.
  • MUSIC: Katarína Koščová had to cancel her autumn tour, which was to promote her new album Hranica dažďa (Border of Rain). Yet, she will play and stream a single live concert on her Facebook page at 18:00 on October 25.
  • MUSIC: The Opus publishing house compiled 14 songs by singer Eva Kostolányiová and released them on LP entitled Poď so mnou (Come with Me). The selection includes mostly foreign songs, for which Slovak lyrics were created. Kostolányiová died in October 1975, at the age of 33.
  • HISTORY: A tourist found silver coins from the 13th and 14th centuries under an uprooted tree near Piešťany.
  • THEATRE: The Spiš Theatre is currently moving a large part of its activities to the online space. Viewers can buy a ticket for online broadcasts of performances, as well as see a list of plays available, here.

That is all for this week. Have a lovely weekend!

The next Spectacular Slovakia Weekly: October 30.

Read last week's roundup.

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