Slovakia, the country in the real heart
of Europe

Slovakia is a small middle European country in the heart of Europe. Slovakia has Austria, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland and Czech republic in its neighbourhood. Slovakia is divided into eight main regions. It has about 79 districts. In Slovakia people speak Slovak, but in different regions, they speak with different dialect. Slovakia has an extension of 49.036 squared kilometres, and there lives about 5.356.300 people. Density in Slovakia is about 109 persons per square kilometre. Capital city is Bratislava, but there are other large cities as Kosice, Presov, Banska Bystrica, Nitra, Zilina, Trnava and

History
First settlement in this region was already from prehistoric times, what proved found human skull from Ganovce. Later in the Iron age the culture. In this time there were made the first coins. In 5^th century AD came first Slavs to this territory during the large Slavic migration westward. First national organisation, which worked as a defence union for Western Slavic tribes known as the "Empire of Samo". This was established in 632 AD to protect the tribes against the threats of Avars. In 863 came missionaries St. Constantine and St. Metod to the Great Moravia. They founded the first basic of Slavic alphabet. In 11^th century, Slovakia became part of Hungarian Kingdom and it remained almost for 1000 years. The first university Academia Istropolitana was founded in Bratislava in 1465. It was first university at present territory of Slovakia. During the Turkish expansion into central Europe, after the battle near Mohac in 1526 Ottoman Empire occupied most of the Hungarian kingdom. Because of this Bratislava became the capital and the coronation city for Hungarian kings. In 1735 was founded the first mining college in Europe in town Banska Stiavnica. The first codification of Slovak language by Ludovit Stur in 1843. In 1863 was established Matica Slovenska which was abolished in 1875 by Hungarian authorities. October 1918 is known for establishing of Czechoslovak Republic. From 1948 has changed regime to communist and was abolished only in the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The National Council of Slovak Republic adopted constitution of Slovak Republic. 9^th of September 1992. Slovak Republic has originated after peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovak federation 1^st January 1993.

Rivers and Lakes
Main river in Slovakia is Danube, which comes from Austria and continues to Hungary. Many other Slovak rivers fall into Danube. The longest river is Vah, but Hron, Ipel, Morava, and Poprad have also to be mentioned. There are not very many lakes in Slovakia except some mountain lakes as Strbske pleso, Zelene pleso barriers as Zemplinska Sirava, Liptovska Mara, Oravska priehrada, Krpelany.

Relief
Slovakia has very miscellaneous relief. There are mountains there Vysoke Tatry /High Tatras and Nizke Tatry/Low Tatras, which are part of Carpathian ridge. There is the highest peak of this ridge in Vysoke Tatry called Gerlachovsky stit (Gerlach peak) about 2655 metres high. Than there are lower mountains in Slovakia like Mala Fatra, Velka Fatra a Slovenske Rudohorie. These mountains are mostly situated in the worth, east Slovakia. The largest lowland is Podunajska nizina /Danube lowland/and Zapadoslovenka nizina /Westslovak lowland/. The lowest point above the sea level is 94 metres above the sea level and it is near Hungarian border on the river of Bodrog.

People
In Slovakia lives about 5 365 300 people. Most of this population are Slovaks about 85,7 %, than Hungarians 10,6 %, Gypsies 1,4 %, Czechs 1 % and other. Main religion is Roman Catholic about 60,4 %, Atheists 9,7 %, Protestants 8,4 %, Greek Catholic 3,4 %, Orthodox 0,7 % and other about 17,5 % of all population.

Economy
Currency in Slovakia is Slovak crown, which international code is SKK. Each crown is equal to 100 hellers. There are banknote of 5000, 1000, 500, 200, 100, 50, 20 and coins 10, 5, 2, 1 and hellers 50, 20, 10.Slovak Central bank is Narodna Banka Slovenska. Most of large towns have grown because of industry. Main industries are engineering, metallurgy, chemical, textile and food industry. Most of raw materials as iron ore, oil, coal, manganese ore, chrome ore, bauxite and so on.

Politics
Since March last year 1998, there is no President in Slovak Republic. Prime minister Meciar took over his duties after the end of President's electoral term. Meciar was prime minister till the end of September. In September there were parliamentary elections. SDK /Slovak Democratic Coalition/, SMK /Party of Hungarian Coalition/, SOP /Party of Civil Understanding/ and SDL /Slovak Democratic Left/ won the election and they formed coalition of these four parties. Prime minister is Mikulas Dzurinda. Slovakia is one of countries, which tries to join NATO and European Union. Hopefully we will join EU by year 2004.

Sports
National sport of Slovakia is either ice hockey or football /soccer/. Other popular sports are basketball, volleyball and tennis. Nowadays is fitness becoming very popular, mostly among young people. Some famous players, who could be seen playing tennis around the world, are Dominik Hrbaty, Karin Habsudova or Korda. There are also some good ice-hockey players in NHL. The only gold medal, that Slovakia won in Winter Olympic Games in Atlanta 1996 was for Martikan for Kayaking. Slovakia is also one of competitors for the Winter Olympic Games in 2006. It would be in Vysoke Tatry /High Tatras/. We will see if we get this opportunity or now later on.

Representative Symbols
National emblem consists of an early Gothic shield with a silver double cross erected on the central and highest of three blue hills. National flag has three horizontal stripes, white blue and red. The state emblem of Slovak Republic appears in the upper left of the flag. National Anthem is composed of the first two stanzas of the hymn "Nad Tatrou sa blyska" /Thunder above the Tatra Mountains/. National seal has the national emblem of Slovak Republic surrounded by the inscription Slovenska republika.