50 Fun Facts About Slovakia

Slovakia borders Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria and which other country?

The two halves of former Czechoslovakia remain close allies and work with Hungary and Poland in the Visegrad Group.

Bratislava is the only national capital in the world with what geographic distinction?

It sits where Slovakia, Austria and Hungary meet; Vienna is only about 60 km away.

What is Slovakia's second-largest city, home to U.S. Steel's eastern plant?

The steelworks is eastern Slovakia's biggest employer with 7,500 workers; Bratislava is by far the largest city.

What is the highest point in Slovakia, at 2,655 metres in the High Tatras?

Krivan is the symbolic peak; the Tatras have 29 summits over 2,500 m and are the highest range of the Carpathians.

The Tatra range appears on Slovakia's coat of arms as one of how many hills?

The double cross above them and the Pan-Slavic white, blue and red make up the flag; the arms are set toward the hoist.

What is the longest river lying within Slovakia, at 403 km?

The Danube is the largest river to pass through but only 172 km of it lies on the Slovak border; the Vah separates the Tatras from the Low Tatras.

How many national parks does Slovakia have?

Tatra, Low Tatras, Slovak Paradise, Pieniny and Slovak Karst are among them, covering 6.5 percent of the land.

How many Slovak caves hold UNESCO World Heritage status?

Dobsina Ice Cave, Domica, Gombasek, Jasovska and the Ochtinska Aragonite Cave; about 30 of the country's hundreds of caves are open to visitors.

Which two Byzantine missionary brothers arrived in Great Moravia in 863 and created a Slavic alphabet?

Cyril's Glagolitic and its successor Cyrillic spread to other Slavic lands; Methodius became archbishop of an independent province in 880.

Under which ruler did Great Moravia reach its greatest extent in the late 9th century?

He overthrew his uncle Rastislav in 870 and took the title of king; the empire crumbled after the Magyar victories near Bratislava in 907.

Slovakia's first known Christian church was consecrated by 828 for which prince of Nitra?

Nitra later merged with Moravia into Great Moravia; Samo had ruled a 7th-century Slavic empire centred on western Slovakia.

What were the Celtic silver coins from Bratislava, bearing Slovakia's first known writing, called?

Their Latin-alphabet inscriptions predate the Romans' Danube outposts at Carnuntum and Brigetio.

A Roman inscription at Trencin records Legion II wintering at Laugaricio after defeating which Germanic tribe?

It marks the northernmost Roman presence in the region during the Marcomannic Wars.

From the 11th century until 1918, the territory of Slovakia was an integral part of which state?

Known as Upper Hungary, it briefly fell to Boleslaus the Brave of Poland around 1001 and 1018.

Bratislava, then Pressburg, became the capital of Hungary in 1536 for what reason?

Buda fell to the Turks in 1541 and Upper Hungary became a refuge for two-thirds of the Magyar nobility.

Czechoslovakia's independence was declared on 18 October 1918 by Masaryk, Benes and which Slovak?

They proclaimed it in Washington DC; the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 confirmed Slovakia's transfer from Hungary.

Who was president of the clerical-fascist Slovak Republic that allied with Nazi Germany from 1939?

A Catholic priest, he was executed for collaboration in 1947; his state paid Germany 500 Reichsmarks for every Jew it deported.

The 1944 Slovak National Uprising was directed against the German invasion and what else?

Germans and collaborators destroyed 93 villages in the reprisals; the uprising is commemorated by a national holiday on 29 August.

Which Slovak communist led the 1968 Prague Spring liberalisation crushed by the Warsaw Pact?

137 civilians died in the invasion; a year later Czechoslovakia became a federation of Czech and Slovak republics.

The peaceful split of Czechoslovakia on 1 January 1993 is nicknamed what?

Prime ministers Vladimir Meciar and Vaclav Klaus negotiated it in autumn 1992 after 74 years of shared statehood.

Slovakia joined NATO and the European Union in the same year. Which?

Schengen followed in 2007 and the euro in 2009; the OECD had admitted it in 2000.

Slovakia adopted the euro on 1 January 2009 at what rate to the koruna?

It was the 16th member of the eurozone; the economy had grown about 6 percent a year through the 2000s.

What world record in manufacturing did Slovakia first claim in 2007?

About 1.08 million cars rolled out in 2023 from four assembly plants; a fifth was under construction in 2024.

Which carmaker's Bratislava plant builds the Touareg, Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and Lamborghini Urus?

Kia builds in Zilina, PSA in Trnava and Jaguar Land Rover in Nitra.

What share of Slovakia's electricity came from nuclear power in 2020?

Plants at Jaslovske Bohunice and Mochovce; the third Mochovce unit in 2023 made the country self-sufficient again.

What is Slovakia's national dish?

Potato dumplings with sharp sheep's-milk bryndza cheese; kapustnica is sauerkraut soup and krvavnica a blood sausage.

Bryndza, the cheese at the heart of Slovak cooking, is made from what milk?

Salty and strong-smelling, it also fills bryndzove pirohy dumplings.

Which Slovak folk instrument, a long overtone flute, is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list?

Wooden pitchers called crpaks and decorated valaska hatchets are the other classic souvenirs.

Slovakia's national anthem 'Nad Tatrou sa blyska' takes its melody from what?

The tune of 'Kopala studienku' underlies the anthem; the Vychodna festival is the biggest folklore gathering.

Which of these fortresses, one of the country's largest ruins, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

Bojnice is a film favourite, Orava hosted the 1922 Nosferatu and Cachtice was home to 'Bloody Lady' Elizabeth Bathory.

The Basilica of St James in Levoca is famed for what world record?

Master Paul of Levoca carved it; the town is a UNESCO site alongside the nearby castle.

Which historic central Slovak mining town became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 1993?

Its silver mines funded one of Europe's first mining academies; Bardejov and Vlkolinec are also listed.

Slovakia's ice hockey team won World Championship gold in which year?

Won in Sweden; silvers followed in 2000 and 2012 and an Olympic bronze came at Beijing 2022.

Slovakia's only World Cup as an independent nation, in 2010, included a famous 3-2 win over whom?

The reigning champions went out; Slovakia reached the last 16 and lost to the Netherlands.

Cyclist Peter Sagan achieved what unprecedented feat between 2015 and 2017?

He also holds the record of seven Tour de France points classifications.

Pop artist Andy Warhol's parents were Rusyn emigrants from which village, now in northeast Slovakia?

Nearby Medzilaborce hosts an Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art.

Slovakia's largest ethnic minority, at nearly one in twelve people in 2021, is which group?

They live mainly in the south, where Hungarian is co-official in municipalities above a 15 percent threshold.

Roughly what share of Slovaks identified as Latin-rite Catholics in the 2021 census?

Nearly a quarter declared no religion; Lutherans were 5.3 percent and Greek Catholics 4 percent.

Slovakia's parliament, the National Council, has how many seats?

Elected by proportional representation for four years; the ruling party won 83 of them outright in 2012.

Which prime minister, in office for a fourth time from 2023, was shot and wounded in May 2024?

He is the longest-serving premier in Slovak history; Pellegrini became president in 2024.

The 2018 murder of which journalist and his fiancee triggered protests and a government's fall?

Thousands filled the streets in the biggest demonstrations since 1989.

Who was Slovakia's first female prime minister, in office 2010-2012?

Her government fell after tying a eurozone bailout-fund vote to a confidence vote; Caputova later became the first female president.

Slovakia was nicknamed what in the 2000s for its rapid growth?

GDP per head grew about 6 percent a year from 2000 to 2008 before the 2008 crash brought its deepest recession.

Which spa town, Slovakia's biggest, draws many visitors from the Gulf states?

There are 21 thermal spa towns on some 1,300 mineral springs; Slovakia has Europe's second-largest drinking-water reserves after Austria.

The name Slovakia (Slovensko) means what?

It is a cognate of Slovenia and Slavonia; the form Slovensko is first attested in 1675.

Slovakia's oldest surviving university, Comenius University, was founded in which year?

Matthias Corvinus had founded a university in Pressburg in 1465, but it closed after his death in 1490.

The Venus of Moravany, a 22,800 BCE figurine found in Slovakia, is the oldest female statue made of what?

It was found in the 1940s at Moravany nad Váhom, near the spa town of Piešťany.

Who became Slovakia's first female president in 2019?

In 2023 she appointed the country's first technocrat government, led for six months by Ľudovít Ódor.

Roughly what share of Slovakia's land surface is covered by forest?

The Carpathians stretch across most of the northern half of the country, with the Danubian Lowland in the southwest.

Which US secretary of state called 1990s Slovakia 'a black hole in the heart of Europe'?

The era of privatisation scandals and weak democracy is remembered at home as the 'Wild 90s'.