These articles were published in the Spectacular Slovakia travel guide, published annually by The Slovak Spectator since 1996. The latest editions can be obtained from our online shop.

Košice: The thrivingeastern capital

By Stephanie MacLellan

	St. Elizabeth's Cathedral is the Gothic jewel in Košice's crown.
	Photo Stephanie MacLellan

Listening to her, you get an impression of Košice as a kind of underdog city, one that is painfully aware that it has always played second fiddle to Bratislava and striving for a chance to prove that it's not the remote outpost many in western Slovakia think it is.

"People from Bratislava think it's so far to come all the way over here," she told me. "People from Košice will go to Bratislava in the morning and come back the same day."

The project Vachnová and her colleagues are working on is the latest municipal effort to show there is more to Košice than its reputation as an industrial city dominated by its steel mill, and make it a place where people want to spend time. Last decade, then-mayor and later president Rudolf Schuster got the ball rolling with the total reconstruction of the city centre.

Today there is no doubt the efforts have succeeded. Košice is an eminently enjoyable place to spend time. The city centre is always lively and has a distinctly European feel to it, and it offers just about any kind of cultural activity you could hope for.

Košice is located closer to Hungary and Ukraine than it is to Bratislava. Trains from Bratislava leave several times a day, and the trip will take about six or seven hours, depending which train you catch. The discount airline Sky Europe has also started a campaign to promote flights between Bratislava and Košice. There are three flights a day and you can find deals for less than Sk2,000.

From the train and bus stations, it's a pleasant walk through the city park towards the town centre. You'll know you're on the right track when you see the wide walkway and the Jakabov Palace. This neo-Gothic mansion was actually created in 1899 from stones cast off from the cathedral. For two months in the spring of 1945, it was the seat of the president of Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the Second World War.

The heart of Košice is its large central pedestrian area, Hlavná ulica (Main Street). There is a row of three parks and fountains with the štátne divadlo (State Theatre) and Dóm Sv. Alžbety (St. Elizabeth's Cathedral) between them. The biggest fountain is the famed singing fountain, with the water works synchronized to music playing over a PA system and lit up at night. The fountain itself is nice to look at, but its presence means you're never safe from the easy listening sounds of Kenny G if you're anywhere near the park.

The cathedral is the dominant feature of Košice's centre, the largest church in Slovakia, and the easternmost Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral in Europe. Titles aside, the church has incredible stone and wood carvings, and a main altar with 48 Gothic paintings on its wings. But the exterior is just as impressive, and not just the fantastic towers and multi-coloured tiled roof. The carvings portraying Biblical scenes over the western and northern doors are detailed and fascinating. And legend has it that the royal mason also designed the gargoyle on the southwest corner of the church in the form of his wife, to punish her for drinking too much wine.

If you're at the cathedral, make sure to climb the belltower. You get a great view of the city and the surrounding hills. The climb up is steep and narrow, but there are landings every few dozen steps where you can pause and look at the church bells, the clockworks and other distractions. The modest entrance fee gives you half an hour to explore the tower, and you can easily use all of it.

To one side of the cathedral is the Sv. Michal (St. Michael's) chapel, a former cemetery chapel from the 14th century that looks like a toy church in the shadow of St. Elizabeth's. For a while, when the cathedral was only used for German and Hungarian masses, the chapel served as the Slovak church.

On the other side of the cathedral is Urbanova veža (Urban's Tower), built in the Gothic style in the late 14th century with Baroque touches added in later renovations. Around the arcaded bottom, you can see gravestones from the 14th to 17th centuries, and one Roman gravestone from the fourth century, built into the walls.

Today the tower hosts a wax museum featuring important figures from local and Slovak history. The educational and kitsch values are both high, but the quality of the wax figures is not, and the view from the top isn't as good as you'd expect. The one redeeming feature is the current display of religious art and artefacts from places as diverse as Mexico, Thailand and Africa. It's not worth the Sk120 entrance fee, but if you really want to do something connected with the tower, you can have coffee at the ground-level café.

If you are hoping to see a museum while you're in Košice, you have multiple other options. In two of the most attractive buildings in the city, across the street from each other just north of the main square, are the two main branches of the Východoslovenské múzeum (Eastern Slovakia Museum). The white one on the west side has a valuable collection of nearly 3,000 gold coins and a small wooden church in the back.

	The Eastern Slovakia Museum has some of the nicest buildings in Košice.
	Photo Stephanie MacLellan

Probably the most unique museum in the city is underground. The foundations of Košice's 13th-century fortifications were flooded when a moat was built through what is now Hlavná Street in the early 1800s. They were forgotten until the late 1990s, when they were re-discovered during the reconstruction of the main square. Today you can wander around between the stone walls, looking up at people walking past on the sidewalk.

Aside from the official attractions, what makes Košice a great place to hang out is the sidestreets that surround or intersect with the main square. On the east side of the square, Zvonárska Street leads past the beautifully derelict old synagogue (the city website says it "awaits" reconstruction) and a second-hand music store that sells old vinyl. Another, on the west side between the Aida dessert shop and the United Colours of Benetton store, takes you past an outdoor market, the Dominican church and Cafe Veritas, a cafe-meets-gallery-meets-movie house that plays foreign and independent films.

Košice's cultural venues run the gamut from independent to established, with the state theatre, philharmonic and Východoslovenská galéria (Eastern Slovak Gallery) on the upper end. The city also has a Hungarian theatre, Thália, and the only Roma theatre in all of Slovakia: the Romathan theatre on štefánikova Street.

Košice's biggest challenge will be luring visitors who think it's too far away from Bratislava to make the trip. But those who do can find all the culture and atmosphere of the capital without the crush of tourists and stag parties that clog Bratislava's Staré Mesto on summer weekends.

A night at the Romathan

To someone coming from North America, the general Slovak attitude towards the Roma can be startling. It's common to hear people from all walks of life casually warn you about getting robbed by gypsies on the train or complain that an area is unpleasant because there are too many gypsies there.

Slovakia's first and only professional Roma theatre, the Romathan, was established in Košice in 1992. The goal, according to the theatre website, was "the promotion of national identity, self-confidence and pride of the Romanies of their history, their role in the world and their artistic potential." At the same time, the theatre's founders wanted to use drama and music to encourage a greater understanding of the Roma minority, which some estimates put at about 300,000 people in Slovakia.

The theatre building on Štefánikova Street near the Jakabov Palace is easy to miss if you're not looking for it, a simple building set back from the street with a small sign in front. Tickets are sold on the top floor, and I passed performers and musicians caught in the pre-show bustle as I made my way up the stairs. The performance space is modest, a large room with a small stage that looks something you would find in an elementary-school gym. A few rows away from me, members of the orchestra were playing the soundtrack from the audience seats.

The play I saw (Cimbal, tanec, husličky - Ach, tie Rómske pesničky) was scripted in Romany and subtitled in Slovak, but you could still follow the basic plot line: the typical girl loves boy, boy loves other girl, other girl loves other boy, boy kills other boy, boy is exiled, other girl runs away, loses her mind and has a baby story.

But the main draw is the music. The venue itself was very community theatre, but the singing, dancing and musicianship of the orchestra were of the highest quality.

The theatre is a place where you can see Roma culture portrayed in a different light, and see some excellent performances at the same time.

Events

September: Kráľovský Chlmec Vintage Festival in Medzibrožie

October: Hubert's Ride Fox hunting in Betliar

October: Musica Nobilis 12th International Musical Festival

Oct. 7: International Peace Marathon in Košice

November: A Year on Gemer Traditional festival in Slavošovce

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