Stropkov District: Culture, Landscapes and Places of Remembrance

Stropkov District presents Slovakia in a concentrated mix of urban history, religious traditions, small museums and landscapes suited to hiking and cycling. Stropkov itself offers several clearly distinct points of interest: a Renaissance church tower with museum exhibitions, the Franciscan complex and Kaštieľ Stropkov. Outside the town, the attractions range from pilgrimages to Buková hôrka to lookout towers, waterfalls and the Driečna village museum.

Stropkov: Renaissance, Museums and Fair Tradition

The Franciscan complex in Stropkov is a national cultural monument and is listed in the Central Register of Monuments under number 245/1–2. Another important building is Kaštieľ Stropkov, the last surviving secular part of the vanished town castle. Its most valuable part is the so-called Knights’ Hall, which retains Renaissance features. The ground floor and attic are used for museum purposes.

The church tower of the Church of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ also combines architectural history with an unusual visitor perspective. The Renaissance tower dates from the 16th century and was opened to the public after its restoration. It has seven floors and is almost 55 metres high. Small museum exhibitions have been installed on the individual floors, so the ascent is connected not only with the building itself but also with individual displays.

Local festival culture is present in Jubilárny Park. The park includes a lime-tree avenue laid out as a recreational zone and planted in memory of the celebrations held there. For several years, it has also been a centre for craft markets during the Stropkov fair. For families, Family Park Stropkov offers an indoor playground with climbing equipment, a trampoline, a doughnut slide, a slide into a ball pit, a toboggan and other toys.

Pilgrimage, Remembrance and Rusyn Culture

Traditional pilgrimages take place at Buková hôrka every year at Pentecost, on the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord and on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This makes the site one of the religiously significant destinations in the district, with its importance reflected in recurring feast days.

Another chapter of regional history can be explored at the Driečna village museum in the Driečna local part of Vladiča. It presents the history and traditions of Rusyn rural life. The exhibitions are titled “From the Cradle to the Grave”, “Temples”, “The Socialist Room” and “Technology in the Spiderweb”. The municipality of Tokajík is also home to the exhibition “Fascist Repressions in Eastern Slovakia” of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising.

The Jewish cemetery in Tisinec has 1,002 gravestones, which have been numbered, cleaned and re-erected. A dirt road leads to the cemetery; information boards in Hebrew and Slovak stand in front of the site. The grave of the Stropkov rabbi Chaim Yosef Gottlieb (1790–1867), known as the Stropkov Rav, is also located there and continues to be visited by believers from around the world. A war cemetery located above a municipality is also designated as a national cultural monument.

Hiking, Views and Waterfalls

For a landscape perspective above Stropkov, the lookout tower on Ščob is a good option. From there, the view extends across the Ondavská vrchovina. The tower can be reached from the settlement of Baňa near Šandal via an easy, 1 km route in around 25 minutes each way. The time stated is only an approximate guide.

Baňa reaches an elevation of 526 metres and can be accessed via several well-maintained hiking trails. From there, the view extends to the Vihorlat Mountains with Sninský kameň, the Slanské Mountains, the Lower Beskids, the Čergov Mountains, and the Ondavská and Laborecká vrchovina. The Vladičské Waterfalls on the Driečna stream in the cadastral area of the municipality of Vladiča offer a different landscape experience. They are located near a blue-marked hiking trail connecting Driečna and Habura via the Klimov saddle.

Cycling Route and Other Places in the District

The Driečna–Puławy cycling route begins in Stropkov District in Vladiča–Driečna. It is 203 km long and leads to Puławy in Poland; the Slovak section is 53 km long. This also allows the district to be viewed in the context of a cross-border cycling route, without reducing it to a single town destination.

If you would like to explore the selection of places in the district in greater depth, you can also include Havaj, Stropkov and Bžany in your research.

For the wider travel overview: Prešov.

More Destinations

More places within the same destination:

Snina District, Levoča District, Prešov, Humenné District, Medzilaborce District.