Genealogical tours and searching for ancestors

Many people all around the world have their roots in Slovakia or former Czechoslovakia. Large scale Slovak immigration to the United States began in the 1870s. Between 1880 and the mid-1920s, approximately 500,000 Slovaks immigrated to the United States. Another wave of Slovak immigration was fueled by the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. More than half of Slovak immigrants settled in Pennsylvania. Other popular destinations included Ohio, Illinois, New York and New Jersey. Would you like to meet your uncles or cousins? Would you like to see ancient graves and villages of your great-grandparents? I will help you with your genealogical research and family reunion!
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 Jewish sights and culture

The History of the Jews in Slovakia goes back to the 11th century, when the first Jews settled in the area. In the late 17th century and early 18th century, Jews began to establish first organized communities. After World War I and the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Jews had the right to declare themselves a separate nationality and prospered in industry and cultural life, holding more than one-third of all industrial investments. In the first national census in Czechoslovakia, carried out in 1921, 135,918 people registered as practicing Jews, and 70,522 declared themselves of Jewish nationality. In addition, there were 165 Orthodox and 52 Reform congregations in the country. Before the outbreak of World War II some 5,000 Jews emigrated and several thousands afterwards, but most were killed in the Holocaust. The Germans and their collaborators killed approximately 263,000 Jews who had resided on the territory of the Czechoslovak Republic. After the war, the number of Jews in Slovakia was estimated to 25,000. Most of them decided to emigrate to Israel or the United States to regain their freedom of religion.
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Royal towns of Eastern Slovakia - Prešov, Bardejov, Košice

Prešov is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of the administrative Prešov Region. With a population of approximately 91,352, it is the third-largest city in the country. Košice is the biggest city in eastern Slovakia and in 2013 was the European Capital of Culture together with Marseille, France. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 240,000, Košice is the second largest city in Slovakia after the capital Bratislava. Bardejov is a town in North-Eastern Slovakia. It is situated in the Šariš region on a floodplain terrace of the Topľa River, in the hills of the Beskyd Mountains. It exhibits numerous cultural monuments in its completely intact medieval town center. The town is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites and currently maintains a population of about 30,000 inhabitants.
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Wooden Churches and Andy Warhol Museum

Specific samples of sacred architecture in Slovakia are the wooden churches. Their folk builders expressed the perfect harmony of the human soul with nature and the effort to disengage from earthly worries. The special features of the East Christian rite are reflected in their interior decoration and furniture where the unique Carpathian icons dominate. They are normally fitted into iconostases ornamented in the Baroque and Rococo styles.  Wooden churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area, which were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2008, possess an extraordinary worldwide value. Museum in Medzilaborce as the first museum and art institution dedicated to Andy Warhol - a prominent personality of the 20th century art and the king of pop art - it is devoted primarily to the presentation of the works and life of Andy Warhol. Expositions of the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art showcase not only the unique works of Andy Warhol, with a thematic focus on his nearly whole-life work, but also works of contemporary Slovak and foreign artists.
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The Kingdom of Gorals - Pieniny National Park

On a limestone cliff of 711 m over Stará Ľubovňa in the north-east of Spiš region stands Ľubovňa Castle. The Ľubovňa Castle was built at the turn of the 13th and 14th century, when it became a part of the boundary castles system in the north of the Hungarian Kingdom. Besides the protection of the former Polish-Old Hungarian border, its task was to secure the important trade route passing along the valley of the Poprad river to Poland. In 1412, the historical meeting of the Old Hungarian ruler Sigismund of Luxembourg with the Polish king Vladislav II took place in the Ľubovňa Castle. The National Park of Pieniny is the smallest of the Slovak National Parks, but as far as its beauty concerns, it is in no way less beautiful. It is the second oldest NP in Slovakia. It stretches on the border with Poland; the river Dunajec passes through it. It is possible to hire a raft and admire the wonderful scenery of the NP navigating down the river. The National Park of Pieniny is rich in rare species of plants with several local endemites. The town Kežmarok in region Spiš has been always the centre of education in the region and the starting point for trips in the High Tatras. The medieval Kežmarok originated by merging of the main communities in one municipality. In 1269 it obtained proper municipal self-administration and up to 1348 it was protected by municipal walls.
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UNESCO region Spiš - Levoča and Spiš Castle

The historic town Levoča situated in the east of the Spiš region is a true cultural and historic jewel among the Slovak towns as it possesses a great number of architectural monuments linked with the glorious past of the town. The community, thriving on its advantageous position on the trade route Via Magna, rapidly grew into a town with several privileges. Shortly after, Levoča became the centre of German colonisation in the Spiš region and in 1271 it was even promoted to the capital of the Association of the Spiš Saxons, which eventually lost its influence and Levoča was declared the free royal borough in 1323. In the  eastern horizon of Spišské Podhradie towers the Spiš Castle. As a National Cultural Monument, Spiš Castle with its area of more than 4 ha, and partially in ruins, is one of the largest castle compounds in Central Europe.  Spiš Castle was included in the UNESCO list of monuments belonging to the world cultural heritage in 1993. Construction of the medieval castle on a travertine hill dates back to the beginning of the 12th century. The oldest written reference to the castle is from 1120. At the beginning it was a boundary fort placed at the northern frontier of an early feudal Old Hungarian state. Afterwards, it became the seat of the head of the Spiš region for many centuries.
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Demänovská Cave of Liberty

Demänovská Cave of Liberty is a karst cave in Low Tatras in Slovakia. It was discovered in 1921 and opened to the public in 1924. It is the longest cave system in Slovakia. The public entrance is at an altitude of 870 metres (2,850 ft). Of the total length of 8,126 metres (5.0 mi), 1,800 metres (1.1 mi) are open to the public. Cave bear bones were found in a passage now named Bear's Passage. Large domes have been created with the largest being the Great Dome, which is 41m high, with a length of 75m and width of 35m. It has been captivating the visitors by its rich flowstone fill of various colours, magical flow of underground Demänovka as well as the charming pools for many years. It is the most visited show cave in Slovakia. Traditional tour is 1,150 m long with vertical span of 86 m. There are 913 steps on the path. The length of traditional tour is 60 min. Average cave temperature ranges between 6,1 and 7°C.
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Aristocratic Gemer - tour around castles and caves

The Krásna Hôrka Castle is situated east of Rožňava. It stands on top of the conspicuous unwooded mountain. The main attraction though is the embalmed body of Sophia Andrássy-Serédy. The original Gothic castle was built around 1320. The courtyard of the upper part of a rather small castle with triangle-shaped ground plan has been preserved. Fortifications were added to the castle in time of the Turkish threat. North-west of Rožňava in the east of Slovakia, in the valley of the Slaná river is the fairy tale-like two-storied manor house Betliar with four corner towers. It is a stately hunting manor surrounded by a wonderful English park with romantic structures. Ochtinská Aragonite Cave situated in the mountains Revúcka vrchovina in central Slovakia is a world rarity and unique natural phenomenon. It is interesting for variety and abundance of aragonite filling and a rare development of underground space. Due to its significance and unique ornamentation, it was included into the UNESCO List of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. It is obvious that it is not a large cave, but it is all the more rare and valuable for its aragonite ornamentation, the only of the kind in central Europe. There are not many similar caves in the world either.
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Hiking in Slovak Paradise National Park

Slovak Paradise National Park is one of the nine national parks in Slovakia, situated in East Slovakia. It is located between the towns of Spišská Nová Ves in the north and Dobšiná in the south. It is particularly known for its gorges and waterfalls. The National Park covers an area of 197 km² (76 mi²), and the buffer zone around the park covers an area of 130 km² (50 mi²); 327 km² together. Eleven national nature reserves and eight nature reserves are situated in the park. The park offers about 300 km of hiking trails, often equipped with ladders, chains and bridges. The Slovak Pradise contains about 350 caves, but only the Dobšinská Ice Cave, which is since 2000 a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is open to the public. Typical features are canyons, gorges and ravines, which form picturesque rocky scenes with waterfalls, and which were created mainly by the rivers Hnilec and Hornád. 80% of the area is covered with spruce forests combined with yew-trees.  There were many settlements of woodcutters, colliers and smelters in Slovak Paradise National Park once, which were turned into tourist centers, for example Dobšinská Maša, Dedinky, Mlynky, Stratená.
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Tokaj Wine Region

The Tokaj wine was served at the French Royal court at Versailles, where it became known as Tokay. Delighted with the precious beverage, Louis XV of France offered a glass of Tokaj to Madame de Pompadour, referring to it as "Vinum Regum, Rex Vinorum" ("Wine of Kings, King of Wines"). King of Hungary Franz Josef had a tradition of sending Queen Victoria Tokaj  wine, as a gift, every year on her birthday, one bottle for every month she had lived, twelve for each year. On her eighty-first and final birthday (1900), this totaled an impressive 972 bottles. Tokaj wine has received accolades from numerous great writers and composers including Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert, Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich von Schiller, Bram Stoker, Johann Strauß, and Voltaire. The composer Joseph Haydn's favorite wine was Tokaj. Besides Louis XIV, several other European monarchs are known to have been keen consumers of the wine. Louis XV and Frederick the Great tried to outdo one another when they treated guests such as Voltaire with Tokaj. Napoleon III, the last Emperor of the French, ordered 30–40 barrels of Tokaj at the French Royal Court every year. Pope Pius IV. at the Council of Trient in 1562, exclaimed: Summum pontificem talia vina decent! (This is the type of wine that should be on the papal table). Gustav III, King of Sweden, loved Tokaj - it has been said he never had any other wine to drink. In Russia, customers included Peter the Great and Empress Elizabeth of Russia. It was consumed by Adolf Hitler, his bride Eva Braun and others celebrating their marriage in the bunker shortly before their deaths.
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Battle of the Dukla Pass

The Battle of the Dukla Pass, also known as the Dukla Offensive was the scene of bitterly contested battle for the Dukla Pass (borderland between Poland and Slovakia) on the Eastern Front of World War II between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September–October 1944. It was part of the Soviet East Carpathian Strategic Offensive that also included the Carpathian-Uzhgorod Offensive. The operation's primary goal to provide support for the Slovaks was not achieved, however it concluded the full liberation of the Ukraine in its modern borders by the occupation of the Subcarpathian region as a territory of the former Carpatho-Ukraine. The German resistance in the eastern Carpathian region was much harder than expected. Five days to Prešov turned into fifty days to Svidník alone with over 70,000 casualties on both sides. Prešov that was to be reached in six days remained beyond the Czechoslovaks' grasp for four months. The battle would be counted among one of the most bloody in the entire Eastern Front and in the history of Slovakia; one of the valleys in the pass near villages of Kapišová, Chyrowa, Iwla and Głojsce would become known as the Valley of Death.
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Hiking in Grandioses High Tatras National Park

High Tatras are a mountain range on the borders between Slovakia and Poland. They are a part of the Tatra Mountains. The High Tatras, with their 17 peaks over 2500 m, are, together with the Southern Carpathians, the only mountain ranges with an alpine character in the whole 1200 km length of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountain range borders Belianske Tatras to the east, Podtatranská kotlina to the south and Western Tatras to the west. The major part and all the highest peaks of the mountains are situated in Slovakia. The highest peak is Gerlachovský štít at 2655 m. Many rare and endemic animals and plant species are native to the High Tatras. Large predators, such as the bear, Eurasian lynx, marten, wolf and fox live there. The area is well known for winter sports. Ski resorts include Štrbské pleso, Starý Smokovec and Tatranská Lomnica in Slovakia and Zakopane in Poland. The town of Poprad is the gateway to the Slovak Tatra resorts. The first European cross-border national park was founded here - Tatra National Park in Slovakia in 1948 and Tatrzański Park Narodowy in Poland in 1954.
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