Košice

Kosice is the second biggest city in Slovakia and also a metropole of its Eastern part. This city with more than 250 000 haitants is turistically very popular and has a very rich history with a lot of cultural sights.
We can assume that sometimes aout the last ice age a first man came to this area and found a cage overlooking the river Hornad. Before the Slavic tribes this place was inhabited by Celts and Germans. The first settlement dates back 100 000 years ago. Shortly after residents, merchants and craftsmen mingled here, Kosice was always a cultural crossroad. The first written record of Kosice is from 1230 shortly before theyear 1241 when Kosice was wiped out by Tatar invasion. Around the year 1290 Kosice was given a status of Royal Free Townn, that meant that people had the right to elect their mayor and the town council, the right to arrange their own defence system and the right to maage their own judicial system. The 13th and 14th centuries were the time of commercial activity when German merchants moved to the town. In 1369 Ludvig Anjou granted Kosice their own coat of arms, it was the very first time in history that a coat of arms was given as a symbol of sovereignty. If the town had its own judicial system it had to have its own prison, Miklus prison was built sometime in the 16th century annd served its purpose until the beginning of the 19th century, after it became the part of museum network in Kosice. Then, during the 16th century, Hungarians came and their leader Jan Zapolsky occupied the town and forced Germans to move to famous Transylvania. By the way, Hunngarian aristocrats left many beautiful dwellings in our town. The Slovak, Germa and Hungarian ethnic mix was complemented by Jewish and Gypsies in the 19th century, when Jews settled mainly in the cenntre while Gypsies set up their camps outside the town. The year 1867 meant the beginning of Hungarian influence, many Slovaks, Jews and Germans clung to their ethnic roots and they were afraid of discrimination from Hungarians.
Until 1918 Slovakia was the part of Habsburg empire, after the first World War the first partnership with Czechs was established until the Nazi occupation placed Kosice back to the hands of Hungary, and finally in 1945 Kosice was liberated by Soviet Union.
After the first Czechoslovak republic was established in 1918 a small group of Czech workers and soldiers came to Kosice.

In 1938 the town was again under the Hungarian influence, Czechs had to move away and Slovak identity was surpressed, this was until 1945. Five years later, in 1950 the golden age of residential architecture ends and a new style is used while building the new houses – Social realism. Nowadays roughly quarter of million people live mainly in Government built housing complexes around the old town. Early in this decade East Slovak Ironworks employed nearly 20 000 people, many people moved here because of the work and housing.
Kosice is very well known because of the rich collection of monuments and state buildings. No matter how the Tatars attacks, Jan Zapolsky, earthquakes or fire destroyed the town it always managed to build up again. For example, Town Hall moved several times and now it is placed on the Main street. The New Town Hall was built by the Communist government in 1980’s. Among the countless monuments, I should talk about the most famous ones like Dominican Church that is perhaps the oldest building in the town, a relic from the 14th century, the same as St. Michael’s Chapel. Another gothic monument even a generation older is St. Elizabeth’s Cathedral, it shows the skill of Kosice’s medieval architecture, it is one of its kind in the Eastern Europe. Then, we must not forget the Gold Treasure collection of medieval gold coins from all over the Europe discovered in 1935.
Kosice as a crossroad between Eastern and Western Europe have always benefited through exchange of goods, ideas and technology. In late 19th century, the railway was completed, the local industry was born, cigarette, cosmetic and furniture industry sprung up around the town, so the first half of 20th century is marked by light industry and in 1950 iron works, steel works and other factories of heavy industry produced as much as western Europe, this unfortunately failed by communist sluggish planning. Sice 1989 Kosice has become a market place where a completely new shopping network has been established. It is also a decade of renaissance of restaurant industry, hotels and other facilities.
I meant that Kosice is very interesting for a lot of tourists who came here from all the world. They are attracted mainly by some specific signs like Spring festival, philharmonic orchestra when all the world well known composers are performed, then State theatre, Hunngarian theatre Thalia, Puppet theatre and countless folk festivals at amfiteater.

Kosice is also a popular center of Higher Education presented mainly by University of Pavol Jozef Safarik, where the students can reach the degrees in medicine, in law… A generation ago almost everyone in Kosice could speak at least two languages, under the communist rules the languages were suppressed but nowadays there are again many foreign tutors from the USA, France, GB…in Kosice.
Unfortunately we have nno access by ocean or river but there are a plenty of other new private transport services today. By using them we can visit the famous Castle of Krasna Horka, the High Tatras, historical town Levoca or Spis.
Maybe it is hard to believe but in the 17th century Kosice were the same as New York City and in the beginning of 19th century Chicago and San Francisco were the villages. .