Skalica

Skalica sits on the Morava river at the Czech border in the Záhorie region, and it keeps three things worth the trip: a Romanesque rotunda of St George on the hill, one of the oldest buildings in Slovakia, a cultural house of 1905 designed by Dušan Jurkovič in a Secession idiom with folk motifs and mosaics by Mikoláš Aleš, and the trdelník, a chimney cake with protected geographical status that is genuinely local here rather than a tourist invention.

History

The site has been lived on since 4000 BC, the town is first recorded in 1217 as Szacholca, and it grew around a triangular square, rare in the Middle Ages; King Louis I of Hungary granted its town privileges in 1372 (Wikipedia, Skalica).

What you'll find

• The rotunda of St George - a Romanesque round church on the hill above the town.
• The Jurkovic cultural house - a 1905 Secession building with folk-motif decoration.
• The trdelnik - the chimney cake with protected status, baked in the town.
• The town walls - surviving stretches of the medieval fortification.

When to go

April to October is the most comfortable. The rotunda keeps limited hours and may need arranging. Museums close on Mondays.

Things to know

The rotunda is often locked and access can require asking at the museum. Trdelník sold across Central Europe as a local speciality is mostly not; here it actually is. The town is small and quiet.

Nearby

The Czech border is west, and Trnava is southeast.

Key facts