I knew Slovakia was a bit different from the other countries we have visited, because it never really had a separate existence as a country prior to WWII. It was brought into Czechoslovakia because the languages are very similar, but the cultures were not and they never really got on that well. The Czechs have always been very westward looking, but the Slovaks not so much.
The Slovaks seem to have been much less perturbed by Soviet rule than most of the old Warsaw Pact, perhaps because they'd never really had self-rule before, and the Soviets let them be their own Slovak Republic inside the Czechoslovak one. So the Soviets were better in some ways than their previous rulers, who tried to make the Slovaks into Czechs or Hungarians.
It's the only place we have seen which still has Soviet iconography up on pubic monuments. You can actually see hammer-and-sickle motifs and red stars, even in the centres of towns (often with the original inscriptions removed, so not exactly glorifying, but they haven't scrubbed out the period entirely). The photo above is from Bratislava overlooking the town, and is a memorial to the Soviet liberation. It is massive, which is perhaps why they haven't got rid of it.
Because the Slovakian cities didn't grow much prior to WWII, the Soviets needed to build a lot of housing as the country folk moved in to be in the new industrial factories that the Soviets loved so much. That means that outside the small inner cities there is a massive ring of Soviet era apartment blocks. Most town Slovaks have to live in one, because they completely dominate the housing stock.
Unlike most of the Soviet bloc, the local Communists decided that it would be cheaper to stick to only a couple of building plans, and they really went to town on repeating them. Whole suburbs are the same block of what are called panelaky or panelovy (since they are built of prefabricated panels). At least they seem to have been built rather better than the average Soviet tower block, and have not started to crumble too badly.
The modern Slovaks have done what they can to minimise the damage to the visual environment. They have renovated most of them, and when doing so painted them in a mix of colours and schemes, which does a surprisingly good job of hiding their uniformity. Individually the strength of some of the colours seems odd, with strong pinks and oranges in particular, but the overall effect is as good as can be expected, and a vast improvement over dirty concrete.
The blocks were also generally built back from the road and with decent space between them (this was always the ideal, but in so many places money concerns over-rode common sense). In Slovakia those spaces now have lots of mature trees, which improve the look amazingly. Despite the uniformity of the buildings, it was quite hard to take a photo of the sort I could take easily in Romania or Belgrade, with block after block the same, because the trees shielded them.
The are exceptions, however. In quite a few towns the Soviets decided to build a series of blocks on a hill over town. No amount of trees can hide them looming over the town, and they must have been much worse in the original plain concrete.
Also in smaller towns the apartment blocks built on the outside sometimes end precipitously at the end of town, leading to a wall of them as one approaches.
The lack of infrastructure in the cities extended to administrative buildings. So the Soviets got to build lots and lots of town halls, universities and "houses of culture" as the towns expanded. That gave lots of opportunities for Alison and me to see some more of "Slaka".
The Slovakian buildings are far less grandiose and peculiar than the Romanian or Belgrade version, but they retain the essential parts of "Socialist Realist" style, and that's all good with us.
The Slovaks seem to have been much less perturbed by Soviet rule than most of the old Warsaw Pact, perhaps because they'd never really had self-rule before, and the Soviets let them be their own Slovak Republic inside the Czechoslovak one. So the Soviets were better in some ways than their previous rulers, who tried to make the Slovaks into Czechs or Hungarians.
The thing is huge – the statue on top is 5m high alone
Because the Slovakian cities didn't grow much prior to WWII, the Soviets needed to build a lot of housing as the country folk moved in to be in the new industrial factories that the Soviets loved so much. That means that outside the small inner cities there is a massive ring of Soviet era apartment blocks. Most town Slovaks have to live in one, because they completely dominate the housing stock.
Unlike most of the Soviet bloc, the local Communists decided that it would be cheaper to stick to only a couple of building plans, and they really went to town on repeating them. Whole suburbs are the same block of what are called panelaky or panelovy (since they are built of prefabricated panels). At least they seem to have been built rather better than the average Soviet tower block, and have not started to crumble too badly.
Across the river from old Bratislava
The modern Slovaks have done what they can to minimise the damage to the visual environment. They have renovated most of them, and when doing so painted them in a mix of colours and schemes, which does a surprisingly good job of hiding their uniformity. Individually the strength of some of the colours seems odd, with strong pinks and oranges in particular, but the overall effect is as good as can be expected, and a vast improvement over dirty concrete.
The blocks were also generally built back from the road and with decent space between them (this was always the ideal, but in so many places money concerns over-rode common sense). In Slovakia those spaces now have lots of mature trees, which improve the look amazingly. Despite the uniformity of the buildings, it was quite hard to take a photo of the sort I could take easily in Romania or Belgrade, with block after block the same, because the trees shielded them.
The are exceptions, however. In quite a few towns the Soviets decided to build a series of blocks on a hill over town. No amount of trees can hide them looming over the town, and they must have been much worse in the original plain concrete.
The lack of infrastructure in the cities extended to administrative buildings. So the Soviets got to build lots and lots of town halls, universities and "houses of culture" as the towns expanded. That gave lots of opportunities for Alison and me to see some more of "Slaka".
The Slovakian buildings are far less grandiose and peculiar than the Romanian or Belgrade version, but they retain the essential parts of "Socialist Realist" style, and that's all good with us.
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