Levoča

Levoča was first recorded in 1249, after the Mongol invasion, when Spiš was settled by Germans. The town became the capital of the Association of Spiš Germans, which had a form of self-rule within the Kingdom of Hungary, and it was made a royal town in 1317. Rights granted in 1321 drew merchants, craftsmen and mine owners, and by the 15th century, at a crossing of trade routes between Poland and Hungary, Levoča was a rich centre exporting iron, copper, furs, leather, grain and wine.

It was also a centre of learning and art. The English humanist Leonard Cox taught at its school around 1520, a Wittenberg bookseller set up a printing works that lasted 150 years, and the woodcarver Master Paul settled here, finishing the great altar of St James in the early 16th century. Fires in 1550 and 1599 destroyed much of the Gothic town, which was rebuilt in Renaissance style, and Levoča became a centre of the Protestant Reformation before declining during the 17th-century uprisings against the Habsburgs. A feud in 1700 that ended in the murder of the mayor, whose embalmed arm was kept in the town hall, inspired Kálmán Mikszáth's novel The Black City.

From the 16th century until 1922 Levoča was the administrative centre of Spiš county, but in 1871 the main railway was built 8 km to the south, through Spišská Nová Ves, and the town lost its importance. During the Second World War 981 local Jews were deported. In 1995 Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass for about 650,000 people on Mariánska hora, and in 2009 UNESCO added the town to the World Heritage Site it shares with Spiš Castle.

Levoča's identity rests on its past as a free royal town and on its art. The UNESCO listing cites the historic centre, the fortifications and the works of Master Paul, whose altar dominates the Basilica of St James. A plaque on the square records that Comenius's famous picture book, Orbis Pictus, was printed in the town. The square itself is a long medieval rectangle with a ratio of about three to one, and its arcaded town hall, Lutheran church and county hall show the town's wealth and its Protestant and administrative past.

Religion is central to local life. The pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Visitation on Mariánska hora, a site of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages, is held on or around 2 July and still draws very large numbers of pilgrims. As a former royal town Levoča belongs to the Pentapolitana association with Košice, Bardejov, Prešov and Sabinov.

The festival year includes a spring music festival, the Days of Master Paul in summer, with performances and a crafts fair, Mysterious Levoča in late August, an autumn music festival and Christmas markets. Local crafts are sold at the fairs, and an ensemble of brass instruments, Brass Collegium, has played historical and contemporary music in the town since 1988.

About 13,800 people lived in Levoča at the end of 2025, making it the district town of a rural area of Spiš. The Germans, Hungarians and Jews who once shaped the town have largely gone as a result of the upheavals of the 20th century; most residents are now Slovak, with a sizeable Roma minority. Many people live in apartment blocks outside the walls, while the old town mixes homes, offices, schools and tourist businesses.

Levoča is a quiet place. The regional state archives and the district administration sit on the square, and the town serves the surrounding villages for schools, offices and shopping. Tourism brings coaches to the basilica and the castle trips by day, but the town empties early in the evening, and outside festival weeks life follows a small-town rhythm.

The pilgrimage season transforms that rhythm, filling the roads and the hill with visitors. The surrounding villages of the Levoča Hills, such as Levočská Dolina and Závada, offer walking in summer and skiing in winter.

Levoča eats the food of Spiš and of Slovakia as a whole. Bryndzové halušky, potato dumplings with bryndza sheep's cheese, and strapačky, the same dumplings with sauerkraut, are on most menus, along with bryndzové pirohy, dumplings filled with bryndza. Džatky, small balls of mashed potato and flour often served with bacon, are described as a typical Spiš dish.

Soups begin most meals: kapustnica, made of sauerkraut, often with mushrooms, meat and sausage, and cesnačka, garlic soup, which is often served in a bread bowl. Lokše, pancakes of potato dough baked directly on the stove, and zemiakové placky, potato pancakes fried in oil, are everyday sides and snacks. Venison goulash, often served in a bread cup, reflects the hunting country of the hills.

The restaurants around the square serve Slovak meat and fish dishes and a choice of wines, and the cafés offer cakes and beer. Home baking in the region includes buchty, buns filled with jam, plum, curd or poppy seed, and Christmas markets are held in December.