Heading east from Žilina , road and rail routes pass through a spectacular gorge - the Domašin meander - as the Váh River cuts through the hills of the Malá Fatra. The town of Strečno, with its hill-top castle, guards the western entrance to the gorge. This area was the scene of the first serious fighting of the 1944 Slovak National Uprising, during which dozens of French volunteers (mostly prisoners of war freed by the rebels who then chose to join their fight) fell alongside their Slovak comrades in a battle for the gorge fought against Nazi German forces. A nearby monument is dedicated to their memory.
