In conherent circle you can enjoy the most interesting and valuable gems of the regions Spiš and Gemer. Numerous cultural monuments of Gemer, such as the medieval Gothic churches with appreciable paintings in the quality of authentic fresco and precious furnishing, dominated by altars and pulpits with sophisticated sculpturing decorations symbolize the flourishing of mining a smeltery. Painted church emporas and cassette ceilings serve as an example of outstanding popular artistic creations of the region.
The Gothic Spiš remarkably contributed to establishment of the artistic profile of Europe. Wall paintings in Žehra and Dravce rank among the most appreciable Gothic paintings. The Gothic sculpturing culminated in the period of Master Paul of Levoča, whose extensive works are predominantly concentrated in the region Spiš. The Gothic secular architecture is represented here by the castles and unique town hall in Spišské Vlachy. The Gothic two-nave churches as special and rare architectonic type of construction, had nowhere in the central Europe found as huge application as in the Spiš region. Zápoľsky’s Chapel in Spišský Štvrtok as magnum opus of the Gothic Spiš architecture can be the start point of our journey via the Spiš region.
Valuable historical squares with the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque townsman houses, town halls and churches can be found well-preserved in Rožňava, the centre of the region and other towns like Revúca, Dobšiná, Jelša-va and Štítnik.
This route is 276km long and it is divided into several roundpaths: The Spiš-Gemer circle; The Spiš-Tatra circle, The Spiš-Pieniny circle, The Gemer-Rimava circle. You can visit the castle complexes towering high up in the mountains, well preserved historical town cores, museums and cathedrals, the jewels such as village churches, burgess and craftsman houses as well as romantic stone bridges. Alongside the visiting splendid, both the ecclesiastic and secular constructions in the Gothic style you will get admired by the beauties of fascinating traces of other cultural-historical epochs.
