The best family-friendly hikes and walks around okres Hlohovec

Today there is a great cafe in the old synagogue. You can sit either under the old vault or in one of the "booths" in the side aisles.

Typical street along the city wall with beautiful houses!!

A very successful Brutalist building. It fits perfectly into the historic old town.

Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, to whom the church in Trnava is dedicated, is - alongside Saint Martin - one of the most popular saints of all. His memorial day, December 6th, is probably known to almost every child in Germany - and far beyond. On the eve of this day, children used to put their shoes or boots - which had of course been carefully polished - in front of the door so that Saint Nicholas could fill them with gifts during the night. In more agricultural areas, it was also customary for children to put out a small gift of food for the donkey, Saint Nicholas's mount (according to another tradition, it was a white horse).

Saint Helena, to whom the church here in Trnava is dedicated, was the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great (who, after his victory at the Milvian Bridge in front of Rome, recognized Christianity as a religion and ended the long period of persecution with the Edict of Toleration of Milan). In the early fourth century, she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Israel/Palestine) and brought numerous relics back to Europe, including the True Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. She is therefore often depicted in paintings or as a statue with a cross as an attribute. According to Catholic tradition, Saint Helena's feast day in the calendar of saints is August 18, but in the Orthodox churches it is March 6 and May 21.

The Jewish communities in Europe, whose centuries-old tradition is often only evidenced by memorial plaques or monuments, have – especially in these difficult times with a strongly growing, openly expressed antisemitism – been honored by the awarding of the "International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen" to the President of the Conference of European Rabbis, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, and the Jewish communities in Europe. "In recognition of his outstanding work for peace, the self-determination of peoples and European values, for tolerance, pluralism and understanding, and in recognition of his significant commitment to interreligious and intercultural dialogue, the Directorate of the Society for the Awarding of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen in 2024 honors the President of the Conference of European Rabbis, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, and together with him the Jewish communities in Europe. With this award, the Charlemagne Prize Directorate wants to send the signal that Jewish life is naturally part of Europe and that there must be no place for antisemitism in Europe. Jewish life is an important part of European history and the present – now and in the future. (...) With the President of the Conference of European Rabbis, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, and the Jewish communities in Europe, the Directorate of the Society for the Awarding of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen in 2024 honors the outstanding representative of European Jewry and Jewish life in Europe, which has enriched our continent for centuries and will always have and must have its place here."

Muskrats and turtles can be seen here😉

As one of the few cities in Slovakia, Trnava has two well-preserved synagogues, both dating from the end of the 19th century. After the National Congress in Budapest in 1868, after three Jewish currents – Status quo ante, Neologism and Orthodoxy – had formed, a group of the Eastern Church also separated from the original religious community in Trnava in 1881, wanting to live according to original Jewish principles. In the burgher house at the intersection of Kapitulská and Haulíková streets, they founded their own school, and later a synagogue on a plot behind the house. The exact year of construction is not known, but it is already marked on the city map from 1895, so it must have existed by this year at the latest. It is built, just like the Status quo synagogue, in accordance with the regulations at the time, in the depth of the plot, at a sufficient distance from the street line. The Orthodox Synagogue, also called the "Small Synagogue" due to its small dimensions, is a west-east oriented hall building without towers, with women's galleries supported by cast-iron columns in its interior. In addition to these, some original historicized art-craft details and remnants of the original painting have been preserved. The continuity of the Jewish community's existence was interrupted by the rise of fascism in 1939. After World War II, the synagogue was preserved only briefly, and its original function faded at the beginning of the 1950s. Since then, it has been used for various utilitarian purposes, mainly storage, and for many years it fell into disrepair. At the beginning of the 1990s, the village restored the synagogue, and finally it was sold into private ownership. It underwent a complete reconstruction, and after decades it is accessible to the public again. The revitalization of the synagogue, even if not with its original function, but with new cultural and social utilization, is a relatively unique achievement in a peripheral area, like the renewal of Jewish architectural monuments in Slovakia.