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.

Land of Jánošík turns to tourism

By Matthew J. Reynolds

	photo: TASR

Imagine you're an 18th century Hungarian sheriff in the Liptov region. Slovak thief Juraj Jánošík could be hiding anywhere.

To the north and east: the 342 square-kilometre High Tatras, which peak at 2,655 metres. To the south: the 810 square-kilometre Low Tatras (today Slovakia's largest national park) rife with caves and dense with forests. To the west: the Veľká Fatra and other smaller mountain ranges.

Jánošík, who legend has it stole from the rich and gave to the poor, used these mountains to elude the law until he strayed into Liptovský Mikuláš in 1713. He was captured (allegedly on a tip from his girlfriend's mother), tried, sentenced to death, and hung by a hook through his ribs.

No longer the haven for bandits it once was, the Liptov region - a 2,100 square-kilometre valley - has over the past 300 years, and especially since communism fell in 1989, become a playground for tourists. The mountains that used to hide Slovakia's Robin Hood, as Jánošík is known, now host skiers, hikers, and sightseers; nearly every Liptov village and city contain some cultural, historical or recreational diversion; and friendly, visitor-savvy locals run a cheap, well-developed tourist industry.

	photo: TASR

Liptovský Mikuláš (population 34,000) is Liptov's largest city and its geographic centre. Most of the city's sites are on Námestie osloboditeľov (Liberation Square), where a monument commemorates the Soviet Army's liberation of the city at the end of World War II. Jánošík was sentenced to death in a building on this square that today houses the Janko Kráľ Literature and History Museum, which exhibits the hook used in the film Jánošík, shot by two Slovak-Americans in 1921.

The museum also documents in stark honesty the tale of the city's Jews, almost all of whom were deported to Nazi concentration camps during World War II. A monument remembers the name of each of the 856 deportees, and an old anti-Semitic leaflet tells a chilling tale of hatred. A few blocks away, a large synagogue (Hollého ulica 810/14, open during the summer) attests to the stature of the Jewish community, which in the early half of the 20th century controlled 90% of the area's business and supported a nationally renowned high school.

Just west of the city sits Liptovská Mara, a 360 million-cubed metre reservoir created with the building of the 1,200 metre long Liptovská Mara Dam in 1975. The massive artificial lake comes alive in the summers, when it offers camping, bike and boat rental, wind-surfing and canoeing instruction, and plenty of accommodation.

Eleven towns were destroyed when the dam was created (villagers - self-titled utopenci, or 'drowners' - still meet once a year), but the most valuable buildings were moved to an open-air village in Pribylina (25 kilometres east of Liptovský Mikuláš), where clothes villagers once wore, the tools they used, and the food they ate are laid out as if the owners had only temporarily left.