Košice

The region

Get to know Košice

The Košice region, in the southeast of the country, borders Hungary and Ukraine. It stretches from the gorges of the Slovak Paradise and the Volovec Mountains in the west to the Zemplín plain in the east, passing through the limestone plateaus of the Slovak Karst to the south.

Košice, the country’s second city, has its center along Hlavná Street, wide and lined with Baroque and 19th‑century façades. In the middle stands St. Elizabeth Cathedral, Gothic and the largest church in Slovakia, together with St. Urban Tower and the State Theatre, in front of which there is a musical fountain. In the cathedral’s crypt is the tomb of Francis II Rákóczi, who led a Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs in the early 18th century.

Slovak Paradise National Park is known for its narrow gorges, such as Suchá Belá, which are crossed by metal ladders, bridges and chains, and for the Hornád River canyon. To the south of the park, Dobšiná Ice Cave preserves one of the largest volumes of ice in any cave and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing for the caves of the Aggtelek and Slovak Karst.

In the Slovak Karst, near Rožňava, the Domica, Gombasecká and Ochtinská caves — the latter noted for aragonite formations — are also UNESCO sites. In Betliar, the Andrássy family manor house, set in a park, is visited with a guide. At the southeastern extreme, seven municipalities around Malá Tŕňa and Viničky make up the Slovak part of the Tokaj wine region.