Standing at the entrance gate of the
Levoča city walls and looking at its large centre will assure you that you are in a town that had a big importance in the Middle-Ages. In the middle of the centre there are three nice looking buildings, typical for every city: a
parish church of St. Jakob - a spiritual centre, a city town-hall - an administrative and a judiciary centre, and a department store - business centre. An Evangelic church with a huge cupola was built later.
The church of St. Jakob is a unique one. Inside you can find 11 gothic and renaissance
altars from the 15-th and 16-th century, including
the highest wooden carved gothic altar in the world(!). Many of them were made by the famous local carver - sc. Master John Paul from
Levoča. In the former town hall with a bell-tower from the 15-th and 17-th century you would find a museum today. It informs about the rich history of the town. In front of the museum, there is a symbolic "cage of shame" that was used for imprisonment of women in the Middle-Ages. Some other churches are interesting, too - such as: an old church and a monastery of minorities with several original rooms including a gothic hall; and a new baroque church of minorities.
Levoča is the most important pilgrims centre in Slovakia. It is symbolised by the church at the Mariánska hora (Mariánska Mountain).
From the year 1922 Levoča was a seat of the
Spiš County. A big classicistic county-house and a small neighbouring house prove this fact. Almost all the houses in the centre still have their original walls from the Middle-Ages. The most precious is the Thurzo´s house, the house of Master John Paul from Levoča, a former building of an Evangelic Grammar school of Ľudovít Štúr and a nicely reconstructed merchant house (today it is the hotel Satel). Very well preserved city walls are really huge and impressive. The local villages offer a lot of folk arts. In the village
Dravce, there are also some precious cultural historical monuments.
Standing at the entrance gate of the
Levoča city walls and looking at its large centre will assure you that you are in a town that had a big importance in the Middle-Ages. In the middle of the centre there are three nice looking buildings, typical for every city: a
parish church of St. Jakob - a spiritual centre, a city town-hall - an administrative and a judiciary centre, and a department store - business centre. An Evangelic church with a huge cupola was built later.
