Košice is the great city of eastern Slovakia, the second largest in the country and, for many, the most elegant. Its heart is a monumental street-square, Hlavná ulica, a wide, elongated axis that opens up in the middle to make room for the largest Gothic cathedral in Slovakia, a singing fountain, a 19th-century theatre with a Viennese air and a string of palaces, churches and cafés. Walking along it, from terrace to terrace, is the best way to understand why Košice was European Capital of Culture in 2013.
Behind that bourgeois façade lies a remarkably rich history: Košice was one of the most important cities in the Kingdom of Hungary, received in 1369 one of the first coats of arms ever granted to a city in Europe, and for centuries was a crossroads of peoples — Slovaks, Hungarians, Germans, Rusyns, Jews, Roma — whose mark can be seen in its architecture, its food and its cosmopolitan character. The remains of Prince Francis II Rákóczi, hero of the Hungarian struggle against the Habsburgs, rest here.
This guide takes a practical look at Košice: how to get to this far-eastern corner of the country, what to see in its old town — St Elisabeth's Cathedral, Hlavná street, the museums, the medieval gold treasure —, where to eat and sleep, and how to use it as a base for exploring eastern Slovakia, one of the most heritage-rich and least crowded regions in Central Europe.
Košice has medieval roots: it grew up at a crossroads of trade routes and already appears as a town in 1290. It was so important that in 1369 King Louis I of Hungary granted it its own coat of arms, one of the first ever granted to a city in Europe. During the Middle Ages it prospered thanks to trade and the guilds, and built the imposing Gothic St Elisabeth's Cathedral. It was the stage for the struggles between the Habsburgs and the princes of Transylvania, and capital of the Hungarian independence movements; Francis II Rákóczi is buried here. A multi-ethnic city of Slovaks, Hungarians, Germans and a large Jewish community — decimated in the Holocaust —, after 1918 it became part of Czechoslovakia, with a brief return to Hungary during the Second World War. In 1945, the 'Košice Programme' set the course for post-war Czechoslovakia. Industrialised under communism with its huge steelworks, today it is a university and cultural city that was European Capital of Culture in 2013. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The medieval east of the Saxon towns: Košice and its Gothic cathedral, the vast ruins of Spiš Castle, the tallest carved altar in the world in Levoča, the intact square of Bardejov and the gorges of the Slovak Paradise.
Read the history of The east: Spiš, Košice and Levoča →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Košice was born where roads met. It sits in the valley of the Hornád river, at a crossing point between the mountainous north and the southern plains, and on the trade route linking the Kingdom of Hungary with Poland and the Baltic. From the Middle Ages onwards, the city grew on the back of commerce. Settled by Slavs, Hungarians and German colonists (the so-called Saxons), Košice is first mentioned as a settlement around 1230 and soon gained town privileges, which gave it self-government, markets and the right to build walls.
Its rise was swift. By the 14th century, Košice was already one of the richest and most populous cities in the Kingdom of Hungary, with powerful guilds of craftsmen and merchants. The symbolic high point came in 1369, when King Louis I of Hungary granted the city its own coat of arms. It is one of the first coats of arms in all of Europe granted to a city rather than to a person or family, a pioneering heraldic document that Košice proudly keeps as a symbol of its age and standing.
That medieval prosperity was set in stone. Between the late 14th and early 16th centuries, St Elisabeth Cathedral was built. It is the largest Gothic church in Slovakia, paid for by the city's merchant wealth and dedicated to St Elisabeth of Hungary. Around it grew the historic centre we admire today, with its long street-square, its guilds and its palaces.
The 16th and 17th centuries were turbulent for Košice. After the Hungarian defeat by the Ottomans at Mohács (1526), the Kingdom of Hungary split apart and was caught between three powers: the Austrian Habsburgs, the Ottoman Empire and the Principality of Transylvania. Košice was too important not to be coveted. It changed hands several times and became a battleground in the wars between the Catholic Habsburgs and the Protestant Hungarian princes of Transylvania, who sought to preserve their independence and religious freedom.
The city was taken by rebel leaders such as Stephen Bocskai and Gabriel Bethlen, and went through episodes of sharp religious tension. These included the martyrdom of three Catholic priests in 1619, known as the Martyrs of Košice, who were canonised centuries later. Košice became a stronghold of Hungarian resistance to Vienna, and its name became tied to the great uprisings of the Hungarian nobility.
The figure who best embodies that role is Francis II Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania and leader of the great anti-Habsburg uprising of 1703-1711. He died in exile in Turkey, but his remains were brought home in 1906 and buried in St Elisabeth Cathedral in Košice. Today they rest in a crypt that is a place of pilgrimage for Hungarians and Slovaks alike. The city thus became part of the memory of the Hungarian struggle for freedom.
During the 19th century, under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Košice was modernised and made more beautiful. At the time it was known by its Hungarian name, Kassa, and its German one, Kaschau. The elegant State Theatre was built, boulevards were laid out, the railway arrived, and the city took on the bourgeois Central European feel that Hlavná street still keeps. It was an administrative, commercial and cultural centre of Upper Hungary (today's Slovakia).
What stood out most about Košice was its multi-ethnic character. Slovaks, Hungarians, Germans, Ruthenians and a large, prosperous Jewish community lived side by side in its streets. The Jewish community brought trade, industry, professionals and a lively cultural scene, and built several synagogues. There was also a Roma population. This mix of languages, religions and traditions gave the city a richness and tolerance that shaped its identity. It still had national tensions, though, especially under the Hungarian state's policy of Magyarisation.
The end of the First World War and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire redrew the map completely. In 1918-1919, Košice became part of the new Czechoslovakia. It stopped being a Hungarian city and became part of a Slavic state. The change of sovereignty, the new border and the tensions between communities would mark the decades that followed.
The interwar period was fragile. In 1938, under the First Vienna Award, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy handed Košice and southern Slovakia back to Hungary, which occupied the city. Under Hungarian rule and in the middle of the world war, the Jewish community of Košice was persecuted. In the spring of 1944, the vast majority of its members were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were murdered. The destruction of this community, one of the most important in the region, was an irreparable loss that the city remembers with simple memorials.
The war left another decisive mark. In April 1945, just after its liberation by the Red Army, Košice was the provisional capital of Czechoslovakia for a few weeks. It was here that the Košice Programme was proclaimed. This document laid the foundations of the new post-war Czechoslovak state, with growing communist influence and the expulsion and forced transfer of part of the German and Hungarian populations. It was a turning point in the country's history.
Under the communist regime set up in 1948, Košice was transformed completely. In the 1960s, the construction of the gigantic VSŽ steelworks (the East Slovak Ironworks) turned the city into a major industrial centre and multiplied its population, which grew from tens of thousands to more than two hundred thousand. Huge housing estates of apartment blocks went up around the historic core. The old merchant city became an industrial, working-class one, without completely losing its historic centre.
The Velvet Revolution of 1989 ended the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. In 1993, the peaceful break-up of the country gave birth to the independent Slovak Republic, with Košice as its second city and the undisputed capital of the east. The transition brought the restructuring of heavy industry (the steelworks passed into private hands), the growth of universities and services, and the gradual restoration and pedestrianisation of the historic centre.
International recognition came in 2013, when Košice was European Capital of Culture. The title drove the restoration of its heritage, the creation of new cultural spaces (such as old barracks and factories turned into arts centres) and the city's profile across Europe. Košice showed the continent its elegant Hlavná street, its cathedral, its museums and its vibrant cultural life.
Today, Košice is a university, tech and cultural city, proud of its multi-ethnic history and its role as the heart of eastern Slovakia. It keeps some unique traditions, such as the International Peace Marathon, the oldest in Europe, first run in 1924. It is the gateway to the treasures of the east (Spiš, Levoča, Bardejov, Slovak Paradise). Košice combines centuries of history with the energy of a young, open city. It is very different from touristy Bratislava and, for many travellers, more authentic.
