Bardejov - unesco listen (tur3)
Hervartov - woodkirke.
Dødens landevej, Dulka Pass (tur3)
In the 18th and 19th centuries Dukla was frequently used by Russian military caravans destined for various battles against the Hungarian Kingdom. In World War I, the town was completely burnt down, and in World War II battles in the area occurred with such frequency and fury that an adjoining valley was renamed Dolina smrti, or Valley of Death. One of the largest battles of World War II was fought at Dukla, where Hitler placed 55 troops to defend Nazi-occupied Slovakia. The Red Army approached in the autumn of 1944 and a devastating battle ensued.
When the smoke cleared two months later, 85,000 Red Army soldiers were dead, plus several thousand Germans and Czechoslovaks. That’s nearly 1,600 deaths each day, or more than one man killed every minute for 60 straight days.
From Svidník, Dukla is a 30-minute bus ride ending at the Polish border. The area of so much bloodshed in the past is today a sprawling memorial complex, a properly stark reminder of the brutality of war and its enduring effects. Getting off the bus at the border, the first monument you see is a statue of two hands handling a disc, in honour of mine removers. Live bombs are still dug up in this region, and unfortunate farmers have occasionally lost a leg by stepping on an undetonated mine. Down the hill and across the street is the main monument, a triangular stone edifice curving around a poignant statue of an elderly woman crying on the shoulder of a stony-faced soldier. In the memorial’s shadow is a cemetery with six mass graves holding the unidentified bodies of 199 soldiers. The final stop is at the end of a trail leading through the hills to the Dukla lookout tower, where visitors can gauge the lay of the land and imagine where and how the battles unfolded.
Svidnik
Svidnik skansen, krigsmuseeum, (tur 3)
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