Architecture of Slovakia

The architecture of Slovakia has a long, rich and diverse history. Besides Roman ruins (as in the military camp of Gerulata), Slovakia hosts several Romanesque and Gothic castles and churches, most notably Spiš Castle, which were built at the time of the Kingdom of Hungary. Renaissance architecture was of particular relevance in town hall squares, such as in Bardejov and Levoča. Affluent architecture in the following centuries made use of Baroque, Rococo and historicist styles (neo-classical, neo-Renaissance and neo-Gothic), while vernacular architecture in the countryside developed a specific style of wooden houses and wooden churches. In the 20th century, Slovakia knew Art Nouveau and modernist architecture, including socialist modernism, and finally contemporary architecture. Gerulata was a Roman military camp located near today's Rusovce, a borough of Bratislava, Slovakia. It was part of the Roman province of Pannonia and was built in the 2nd century as a part of the frontier defence system. It was abandoned in the 4th century, when Roman legions withdrew from Pannonia. Beyond the remains of the Roman forum, fragments of structures and gravestones, bronze, iron, ceramic and stone pieces are on show in a museum showing daily life. The best preserved object is a quadrilateral building 30 metres long and 30 metres wide, with 2.4 metre thick walls. Castles from the High Middle Ages still dot the hilltops of Slovakia. The most outstanding is Spiš Castle, in eastern Slovakia, dating from 1209. Among the oldest churches in Slovakia are: The Church of Saint Margaret of Antioch, Kopčany, one of the oldest churches in Slovakia, a pre-Romanesque building for which Greater Moravian origin is considered. The church was built probably in the 9th or 10th century and was first mentioned in 1329. The Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Dražovce (Nitra), a typical early Romanesque architecture single nave building with thick enclosure walls and small roundish apse, dating to the 11th century.