Slovakia travel guide

It’s not clear when the Slavs came to Slovakia, but by the 6th century they had crossed the Carpathians. The Great Moravian Empire was formed in 833 between Czech and Slav people but fell to the Hungarians (Magyars) less than a century later. Saint Stephen, the first King of Hungary, brought Christianity to the region at the turn of the first Millennium. Slovakia was known as ‘Upper Hungary’ and the Slavic language and culture survived a thousand years of Hungarian occupation.

The Mongol invasion in 1241 decimated the population in the area, and then Ottoman expansion occupied territories in the south, threatening the Hungarian empire. Slovakia, under Hungarian rule, fortified many of its towns in response – giving it the abundance of castles still seen today. Mining towns grew, thanks to naturally-occurring gold, silver, copper, iron and salt.

The Ottomans had taken Buda, in Hungary, so the Holy Crown of Hungary was actually kept in Bratislava Castle between 1552 and 1784. However, local aristocratic families were powerful, and built their own castles. Two of the most powerful individuals, Amade Aba and Matthew III Csák were responsible for most of the castles we can see today. Bratislava Castle was rebuilt in the Renaissance style – white walls and red roofs – in the 16th century, by King Ferdinand, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

During the Enlightenment, efforts were made to document the Slovak literary language – but it took until 1843 to be codified. Nationalist Slovakia movements started to form around this time. The Slovaks were conflicted about their subjugation to Hungary: in the 1848 Hungarian Revolution, some Slovakians fought alongside the Hungarian Army, whilst others opposed the uprising.

The Austrian-Hungarian Compromise in 1867 wholly strengthened Hungary’s position – it now had its own emperor – and Magyarisation, the spread of Hungarian ideals, meant that the Slovak language became actively suppressed.

The Austro Hungary Empire broke apart at the end of the World War I in 1918 and the Czecho-Slovak Republic was formed.

Czechoslovakia was split up by Nazi Germany and its allies in 1939, and the Independent Slovak Republic was formed, becoming one of Germany’s ‘puppet states’ during the war. A National Uprising in 1944 lead to German occupation, under which many people, and particularly Slovakian Jews, suffered terribly. The end of World War II in 1945 reinstated the state of Czechoslovakia, and it came under Communist Rule as part of the Eastern Bloc.

One of the most famous Slovakians in this period was Alexander Dubček. As First Secretary for a brief period between 1968 and 1969, he attempted to foster a culture of free speech, all whilst Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc. His attempts to liberalise the Communist government during the 1968 Prague Spring won him great public support, but the Soviet Union swiftly brought in tanks to stop it and he was forced to quit as leader. He is still remembered as one of the country’s most popular politicians.

In 1989, Czechoslovakian students triggered what became known as the Velvet (or ‘gentle’) Revolution – a series of protests across Czech and Slovak cities which led to the election of a non-Communist government. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1989.

In 1993 Czechoslovakia split. Slovakia became an independent nation in a move known as the Velvet Divorce for its wholly peaceful nature, making the Czech Republic and Slovakia two of the world’s newest nations. Slovakia joined the European Union in 2004 and adopted the Euro in 2009.