Usually, we come to Košice for pleasure, but this time we came to sign the purchase of our new apartment. It was the most exciting visit of the city by far! We've been looking for investment opportunities for long but we couldn't decide where we should do it. We come from different countries and we don't live in either of them, so it was not easy.
Finally, we decided that the best for us would be to get a place in Slovakia. The apartment is located in the old town of Košice, just 500 meters from the main square. There are many trees around the building, it's quiet and the neighbors are very nice. After all the administration tasks connected to the purchase, we finally got the keys to the apartment! We had a glass of bubbles to celebrate but it was a long day and we were exhausted, so we couldn't wait to go to bed.
Next morning, we went for a walk to the main square to get some breakfast and we ended up spending all day in the city. We are not planning to move there, but I must say that it seems like a great place to live!
The city was waking up and there were not many people in the morning, but we could see restaurants and other businesses getting their terraces ready for the customers which was nice as they were closed for too long. It was good to see that they were able to reopen. I remember Košice as a lively city full of interesting places and I'm happy that they were strong enough to survive the long time of strong measures.
Košice is one of the oldest towns in Slovakia and its roots go back to the 13th century. The first written mention of the city comes from the year 1230 when it is referred to as Villa Casa.
It was an important town during the Great Hungary and after the World War II it even became the capital city of Slovakia for a short period thanks to its strong economic growth after the war. Nowadays, it's the second largest city in Slovakia.
There is beautiful architecture everywhere you look and its rich history is strongly present in the entire old town.
There are way too many interesting places that I could talk about, so today I will only show you my favorites not to bore you for too long.
The Immaculata Statue is a beautiful Baroque-style sculpture close to the State Theater. It is also called The Plague Column. It was constructed right after the plaque at the beginning of the 18th century to commemorate the gratitude to Virgin Mary for ending of the plaque epidemic that killed many people. It was damaged during the war and restored by the academic sculptor Mr. Loffler.
It's surrounded by a fence that was reconstructed in 1909. In the below part of the column we can see sculptures of Josef, Sebastian and Ladislav. The sculpture of Virgin Mary is placed on the top of the column.
There is a small park connecting The Plague Column with The State Theater. Although the history of theater in Košice is more than 600 year old, the building of The State Theater is only more than 100 years old. It's designed in Neo Baroque architectural style and it's one of the most impressive buildings in the country.
We used to come to the theater on a school trip almost every year and what I remember from Košice is nothing like what we can see in the city today. The parks are well maintained, there is no trash on the streets and everything looks so clean and lush. It's even more perfect than cities in Switzerland!
All historical buildings are situated close to each other, so it takes about a minute to get from the theater to The St. Elisabeth Cathedral.
It's the largest and most impressive cathedral in Slovakia as well as the easternmost Gothic cathedral in Europe. It's also one of the most valuable Gothic monuments in Slovakia.
The construction of the cathedral started in the 14th century and was realized over several stages. It took more than a century to finalize it!
The legend says that there is one particular stone in the construction and if this stone would be removed, the entire cathedral would collapse. We will never know if this is true as only medieval masters knew the position of this stone.
There are 10 altars placed in the cathedral. The main Altar of St. Elisabeth has a rare double rotating mechanism which is only present in one more altars in the world (in the French city of Colmar).
According to art historians, it was created by Nikolaus Gerhaert von Leyden and his students, possibly by the Nikolaus himself. It consists of 48 original paintings and it was created during the last stages of Cathedral's construction in the 15th century.
The Virgin Mary is holding baby Jesus in the middle of the Altar. To her right is Saint Elisabeth of Hungary. To her left is the biblical Saint Elisabeth, mother of John the Baptist. The altar’s interior portrays the legend of Saint Elisabeth of Hungary. When the altar is closed, it portrays the suffering of Christ. I wished to be able to get closer to the altar to admire the details but it's not possible for public due to obvious reasons.
Right next to the Cathedral is The St. Michael's Chapel.
The chapel comes from the 14th century and it's dedicated to Archangel Michael. Nowadays, it is popular for weddings as it's cozier and more charming that the Cathedral but in the past it used to be a funeral or cemetery chapel.
This should not be surprising as the Archangel Michael is escorting the souls to the other side. It was also surrounded by a cemetery.
The holy mass celebrated in the chapel were attended by the Slovaks. On the other hand, Hungarians and Germans attended services in the Cathedral.
After our visit of the Cathedral, we realized that it was almost lunch time. We were meeting my brother for early dinner but also wanted to get something small before to make our tummies a bit happier.
It took only a short google search to find a place serving vegan donuts just a few minutes walk from the Cathedral. Having something sweet wouldn't be my first choice but why not? And let me tell you that it was a good choice. We entered this cute little bistro with wide choice of donuts. I ordered a sweet raspberry donut with raspberry crunch and my husband tried the strawberry one. They were both delicious!
We also got cappuccino which was served in such a cute way!
My brother finished his school duties earlier than expected, so we left the bistro to meet him. On the way, we passed by The Fountain of Signs that we didn't notice before. The fountain was placed here about 25 years ago during the last renovation of the old town.
There are zodiac signs placed around the fountain and it is said that when you stroke your zodiac sign your wish will come true. I can't confirm that as I had a long term wish 🙂
Time flies and the sun was already setting down. It created a nice scenery around The Immaculata. There were more people, terraces became lively and my stomach was telling me that it was time for dinner.
We had a great time even though we were tired and we knew that there were still tasks to be done.
My mom was coming next morning from my hometown to help us clean the apartment before my brother moves in. We had a quick dinner and returned to the hotel.
The next day was one of the most productive days of my life. We did much more than we planned, and I was proud of my whole family who helped us with the entire process. Even my cousin came to help us assemble some furniture. It's good to have somebody to count on. We also had a lot of fun together, met our neighbors and explored the surroundings with Maxo. But this is a story for another time.
Thank you for joining me!
Cheers,
Martina