I put Bardejov on our trip itinerary after I read that it's Old Town Square was on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Melanie had additional incentive to see Bardejov - her ancestors on her father's side came from the Bardejov region. Our visit to Bardejov coincided with a festival - the last week of August in 2018 was when Bardejov held its 667th historical and the 47th modern Bardejov Fair. The streets were jammed with pedestrians. Trying to reach our hotel, we encounterd streets were that blocked off to all traffic. Slovakia doesn't believe in street signs, so we were soon lost, despite the fact that the Bardejov is not that big. And then we turned a corner, and Melanie pointed out that the Hotel Artin was directly in front of us! What good luck! We parked the car, checked in, and went walking through the press of people to explore the town on our own. That first evening, we didn't see much of Bardejov. The famous Old Town square was filled with vendors and booths. There was a stage set up for an entertainer who was rapping in Slovakian. There lasers and strobe lights. It gave me a headache. We found a pizza parlor and ate dinner there. The pizza was good! The next morning, we drove out to see the UNESCO wooden church at Hervatov. As we drove on the main road, we saw the fortifications of old Bardejov - an intact wall and defensive towers. It looked intriguing, so later than morning we returned to Bardejov and walked along the walls. Unfortunately, none of the towers were open for exploring. We looked at some houses along a street called Kpt. Nįlepku; Melanie wondered if some of her ancestors might have occupied that site many years ago. A few days later, while we were staying in Kosice, we drove back up to Bardejov for an afternoon - Melanie wanted to visit the Bardejov archives and look for records of her father's family. We photographed many pages of the record books, hopefully she will now have time to investigate all that material and find some clues about her family. After the archives closed, we walked out to the Old Town square to see the famous site. The massive crowds were all gone, the square seemed almost eerily deserted in the late afternoon. I liked the well preserved old burgher houses that line three sides of the square. We didn't have time to go into Saint Giles basilica. We came upon a sign that showed an outline of the walls and towers of Bardejov, but unfortunately, it was painted in white paint upon a glass background, so it made a difficult photograph. Nonetheless, I did get a picture of that map of the old Bardejov defenses, which included a list of the names of the towers that remain standing. On the web I found a drawing at a Bardejov website that had a picture of the old town. I added the names and numbers of the towers to that drawing, which you can see below. If you compare the tower names to the names listed in the Slovak wikipedia webpage, it appears that several of the towers have more than one name. I have seen references to the Goldsmiths Tower, Furriers Tower, Saddlers Tower, Tailors Tower and Brewers Tower. Panorama Photos: |
Single Click on any thumbnail to begin the slide show at that photograph Bardejov Photos |