A week in Slovakia

Discovery of the Slovak capital. The best way to explore this city, which remains too little known, is to get lost in its maze of narrow streets and medieval squares. Visit the castle overlooking the city for exceptional views of the Danube and Austria in the distance. Back in the centre, go through the Cathedral of Saint Martin, which housed the coronations of the Hungarian kings from 1563 to 1830. Follow the traces of the coronation of the monarchs through the city with the landmarks on the ground (crown-shaped). Finally, sit on the terraces of the many cafés for a well-deserved delicious local beer. While communist architecture may inspire many people with a disgust that is often legitimate, Bratislava represents a unique opportunity to find striking examples of functionalism. Cross the UFO bridge to the Petrzalka district, where you will find yourself immersed in a forest of perfectly identical concrete constructions!

Biofarma Priroda is an organic farm built on the site of the former botanical garden created during the Soviet period and quickly abandoned to settle more in the centre of Bratislava. About 20 km from the centre of the capital, accessible by car and even partially by bicycle, Biofarma's main objective is to supply its owners' restaurants and pubs with organic bread and cheese. However, the estate is now open to the public and welcomes young and old for a breath of fresh air, popular and forgotten Slovak specialities or demonstrations of bread and cheese making. In addition to the French dairy sheep, the area is home to other animals saved from a sometimes tragic fate. An ideal place to escape foreign tourists.

The region around Bratislava is full of magnificent castles and vineyards that are unjustly underestimated.
Walk quietly through the hills of the Little Carpathians, which extend northeast of the capital to Modra, the Slovak wine-growing centre.
Vertiginously suspended on the cliffside, the magnificent castle of Devin represents an ideal stopover to discover a medieval fort.

The university town of Zilina can represent a pleasant drop-out point to explore the wonders surrounding it.
The Natural Park of the Mala Fatra announces the upcoming High Tatras: small mountains inhabited, green nature, fauna and flora. Discover the local Robin Janosikm, Juraj Janosikm, who is an illustrious thief who détroussait the richest to give the poor.

After a detour to Martin, the hub of the patriotic emergence and the first Slovak nationalist upheavals, head to the incredible village on UNESCO's World Heritage List, Vlkolínec. Composed of about forty folk houses all made of wood, the village is nicely hung in the green hills.

A mining town, in the heart of a region that produced 40% of Europe's gold production in the 15th century, Banska Bystrica now extends lazily through a maze of small pedestrian streets. A student city with a relaxed atmosphere, don't miss its main square Namestie SNP and the Matejov dom (house of Matthias), a magnificent six-storey Gothic residence.

54 kilometres from Banska Bystrica is Banska Stiavnica, certainly one of the most beautiful cities in Slovakia, which has earned it a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This ancient mining town, where gold and silver were extracted, was one of the richest in the Hungarian kingdom from the 13th century.