Eastern Slovakia's medieval gem — Gothic cathedrals and Tokaj wine country
Košice is Slovakia's second city and the largest in Eastern Slovakia — a place that spent centuries as a key trading city in the Kingdom of Hungary and still shows it in its extraordinary Gothic cathedral (the largest in Slovakia), its immaculate main street, and its fierce local pride. The city is a gateway to the Tokaj wine region and the Zemplín highlands, and the Hlavná pedestrian avenue is one of Central Europe's finest baroque streetscapes. Bryndzové halušky (sheep cheese dumplings with bacon) here is better than anything you'll find in Bratislava.
Košice (Kassa in Hungarian) received its royal charter in 1347 — the first city in Central Europe to be granted one — and became one of the wealthiest trading cities in the Kingdom of Hungary, lying at the crossroads of routes between the Black Sea, the Baltic, and Central Europe. The Cathedral of Saint Elizabeth, begun in 1378, is the easternmost Gothic cathedral of its scale in Europe. After WWI Košice became part of Czechoslovakia; it was briefly returned to Hungary 1938–1945 under the First Vienna Award. It was here in April 1945 that the Košice Government Programme was proclaimed — the p…