Slovakia

The Dukla Pass just over the border into Slovakia. The Soviet Army advancing south from Poland fought the Germans in a bloody battle, late 1944 costing 100 000 lives. A War Memorial at the head of the pass where Czechoslovak General Svoboda had his observation post.....
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The road to Svidnik has an open-air collection of weaponary by the roadside.....

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Svidnik and its functional town square..... This seemingly 'one horse' town packs a punch in terms of cultural sites.....

Svidnik was flattened during a battle lasting from 8 September to 28 October 1944. The Soviet Army Monument (1954) commemorates this......

One of four mass graves where a total of 9 000 Soviet soldiers are buried

Svidnik Military Museum with heavy fighting equipment in its grounds.....

Svidnik - The Skanzen - a village museum to Rusyn (a largley forgotten Eastern Slavic people) culture. The wooden church (1766) originates in the village of Nova Polianka. Rusyn culture has recently revived after years of communist and Nazi oppression; their lands (Ruthenia) being swallowed up by Czechoslovakia and then mainly annexed into The Soviet Union (Ukraine).....

Bardejov with its magnificent square (Radnicne Nam) with its 16th century Gothic / Renaissance Burgher houses - Only four houses have been added since 1600.....

The town hall (1509) and Basilica of St Egidius

Even this preserved town could not escape the scourge of 'panelak' - every Slovakian town is scarred by 1960's built concrete apartments constructed from prefabricated panels

Levoca - Gothic spire of Church of St James which apparently has the world's largest wooden alter. Adjacent is a war memorial to The Red Army who liberated this small town in February 1945

There wasn't much to do here except gawk at Reniassance architecture such as The Thurzov Dom (1532)

Life drifts by in a Levoca back street

Art Nouveau buildings fronting the square in Levoca

Spis Castle at Spisske Podhradie.....

Spis Castle from the village

Zilina - Marianske nam - the Old Market Square, the focal point of a mainly uninteresting town