A refugee's family helped save the town that took him in This is how the centre of Rimavská Sobota Store signs show that many things could be bought here Just next to the sports shop was a big store called Szoyka in which radio-engineering and electric equipment was sold It is possible that the discreet street lamp hanging above the street was from the store Beer production in Rimavská Sobota is connected with the name of Pavol Nagy from Nagyváta the founder of a family which had a beer-drawing monopoly for more than 200 years Pavol of Nagyváta came to the town from the Baranya district in now Hungary when it was threatened by Ottomans especially the rich– opted to flee northwards His name is first mentioned in this Gemer town in 1520 His relatives managed to establish themselves in the town relatively quickly His son Benedikt was among the area’s wealthiest citizens meadows and fields in Rimavská Sobota donated 290 guldens towards the fees to be paid to the Ottomans He thus helped protect the town that embraced his father fleeing Ottoman attacks This article was originally published by The Slovak Spectator on August 3 Mummy brought to Slovakia over century ago an unusual patient underwent a CT scan at the hospital in Rimavská Sobota The patient in question was a 3,000-year old Egyptian mummy which revealed that she had problems with her legs and pelvis; now it is hoped that new technology will reveal the face of the woman named Tasheritnetiak who lived in the town of Abusir-El-Melek as there are only five mummies in Slovakia Tasheritnetiak died at a relatively advanced age for that era She was around 50-70 years old," explained Éva Kerényi director of the town's Gemersko-Malohontské Museum adding that the results of the CT scan will enrich and make the museum's permanent exhibition more attractive The mummy was brought to Slovakia over a century ago by István Munkácsi head of the hospital's radiology department said that according to preliminary analysis people were much shorter at the time when Tasheritnetiak lived A special software will be used to recreate the woman's skeleton and skull She was mummified following the standard procedure which suggests that she belonged to the middle class There were no artefacts in the wooden sarcophagus Aristos is a Newsweek science and health reporter with the London He is particularly focused on archaeology and paleontology although he has covered a wide variety of topics ranging from astronomy and mental health Aristos joined Newsweek in 2018 from IBTimes UK and had previously worked at The World Weekly He is a graduate of the University of Nottingham and City University You can get in touch with Aristos by emailing a.georgiou@newsweek.com. Languages: English either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content Archaeologists have uncovered a lost medieval settlement and "unique" Roman finds on the site of a future industrial park in the central European nation of Slovakia The researchers made the discoveries near the town of Rimavská Sobota in the southern part of the country the Banská Bystrica Regional Monument Office (RMO) announced in a press release led by Eva Fottová with the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences identified not only the remains of a medieval settlement at the site from the 11th to 13th centuries but an older settlement dating to the late Roman era—around the third to fourth century The medieval village is contained within the area of the settlement from late antiquity although its full extent has yet to be established heritage officer with RMO who is supervising the dig The archaeologists suspect that the medieval settlement could correspond to a place known as Kľačany—the only written mention of which appears in a document from 1557 the settlement is described as defunct—it apparently met its demise after Turkish raids "Due to the archaeological record retrieved at the dig the medieval settlement appears to be agrarian orientated," Brezňanová told Newsweek The name of the historic settlement points to the possibility that it was originally founded as a horse-breeding community The evidence of the medieval settlement consists of pits and wells in which numerous archaeological finds The Roman-era settlement conversely appears to have been based on metallurgy The archaeologists made a "unique" discovery from this period The team also identified associated metallurgical debris and various semi-finished products "Thanks to the furnaces from the late antiquity settlement in Rimavská Sobota archaeological scholars have received a potent record of the iron smelting process" in this period "These finds are the first of their kind in the area." The settlement is the first from the Roman era to be systematically investigated in the southern portion of central Slovakia "The inhabitants of the settlement were engaged in bog ore exploitation and smelting iron in simple furnaces dug into the ground," Brezňanová said "Multiple furnaces were preserved without further disturbance in some instances even with the slag still present inside." Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed Russia's war in Ukraine continues to influence Alyona Yaseneva's and her children's art She is also the daughter of the renowned Ukrainian painter Oleg Yasenev Today they all live and work in Rimavská Sobota Alyona and her husband arrived three weeks after the outbreak of the war in February 2022 they presented their paintings alongside other Ukrainian artists The large black-and-white work evoked a great response faithfully depicted the pain the artist poured into it Each cross symbolised one child killed in the war in Ukraine "Today there are even more of those children," says Alyona "We considered both Poland and Slovakia We asked friends and acquaintances about who would be able to help," Alyona says describing the days before they fled Ukraine they were informed that there was a family in Slovakia ready to take them in The invitation came from complete strangers surprised that someone wanted them all – an entire big family of seven we also had a cat and rabbit," she recalls "We have two dogs so feel free to come." The days before they left were not safe at all Alyona's husband stated in a documentary how shocked everyone was by the war The house they lived in was not built for shelling They did not even have a cellar where they could hide under occupation from the first days of the war There were days without electricity and since they had no gas We don't know if that would have really helped Our older son was the last one to run to us from the top floor 'Don't die without me!'" the husband describes in the film with pain in his voice Alyona sits with her eldest son Ivan in the community centre of the Kŕdeľ civic association on the Main Square in Rimavská Sobota and describes how they fearfully got into cars in March 2022 The parents and their three children – Ivan They arrived in Rimavská Sobota in the evening It all seemed unreal to me that something like this was happening," says Alyona She adds that the family was attentive and kind Having someone waiting for them and supporting them brought them peace "They told us right away that their house was our house they are like parents to us," she describes her relationship with her hosts They not only helped the Ukrainian family with the first accommodation arranging medical care and school for the boys The Ukrainian community in Rimavská Sobota and its surroundings consists of around 200 refugees today a community platform for Ukrainian refugees and local residents The association's symbol consists of wings one bearing the Slovak and the other the Ukrainian legacy The flock for the refugees in Rimavská Sobota symbolises a group that can do something good together "Aleksander encouraged us to go and do something together who herself thought about how she could help after arriving in Slovakia She had her own private studio where she mainly taught children Her husband painted pictures and already had his own clients Alyona brought her passion for the teaching of drawing to Slovakia but also teaches academic drawing classes for children and adults she still teaches some of her Ukrainian students online plans to expand the studio to Kyiv were interrupted by the war The place where she used to teach already served as a military headquarters Alyona has been devoted to art all her life She graduated from an art school in Dnipro she studied painting at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv where her father Oleg is still a professor Although he does not live in Kyiv right now he commutes there from Rimavská Sobota for occasional consultations "I don't like to draw what my mother tells me in class I want to express my opinion and emotions in my paintings I want to add my imagination and put it out there," Ivan describes how he creates "I can leave an emotion on the paper and when a year or two passes and maybe I'm not in Slovakia any more and I'll be able to relive those emotions and remember what was happening that day I drew it," he says Cheerful rabbits and pandas were drawn according to the assignment I was thinking that we could also use them for an exhibition a children's exhibition – how children see the war The war also determined the atmosphere of Alyona's paintings "My first paintings in Slovakia depicted our family stories I wanted to portray all that," she describes The titles of the first paintings she painted in Slovakia speak for themselves – Illusion of Safety or Journey to Nowhere standing by the window during the bombings "I was drawing the reality of what was happening," she says Her paintings also reflected the war in terms of colour Although Alyona perceives Slovak nature as beautiful black or dark colours will take their turn who came to Slovakia in the summer of 2023 my father couldn't work for a long time He only started to create here," says Alyona What he used to create was black and white "The first day at school I understood almost nothing I made my first friends in the classroom – I had real friends by about the third month of going to school," Ivan describes the beginnings in his new reality Before he began to go to school in Slovakia He only met Ukrainian children in Rimavská Sobota "I think my brothers feel a hundred times better than I do in the Slovak school," he says he was talking very well and doing his homework as if he were a Slovak pupil," says the eldest brother there are no accents in the Ukrainian language Ivan is already handling all the other subjects well He says that while children here have six lessons He also finds the curriculum in Slovakia simpler Alyona says with a smile on her face that if she had gone to school herself She remembers how good it was for her when she read a spelling book with Anton when I don't understand or don't know something He already knows everything," she adds I will tell my mum what she didn't say right you can't say this and this like that," he says kindly He says that his grades are sometimes better than those of his Slovak pupils "Yesterday we took a Slovak language typology test I got a B and my friends got Cs," he says A pupil at school told Ivan that Ukraine is s**t "I told him I didn't want to have a conflict with him I told him what I had been through in the war and how hard it was and we shook hands," Ivan describes how calm and almost adult he was He has no such experience in his classroom at all and he also feels support from his teachers They do not make a difference between who is Slovak and who is Ukrainian If there happens to be a pupil at school who says that they wish Russia would win according to Ivan it is something the pupil picked up from home and does not really understand what they are saying it often happens that many Slovak pupils even stand up for children from Ukraine He also experienced such support at the very beginning They saw that I’d come from the war and how tired I was of it That help meant a lot to me then," he recalls of the good experience Alyona adds that it is unpleasant to meet people who do not understand how Ukrainians feel and what they have been through this is happening less and less and as a family they have experienced a lot of humanity in Slovakia I was surprised by the support," she concludes Ivan says that the first months of the war somewhat strained the relationships between the brothers "We didn't have the strength for discussions and they only talk about the war and Ukraine when they have news that something happened back home I can't always think about the bad things Soon I'll be going to secondary school and who knows if I'll ever return to Ukraine," says Ivan they kept asking when we would return to Ukraine and sometimes even say that maybe they will not go back "They already understand that we don't know what will happen This text was produced with support from UNESCO under the Support for Ukrainian Refugees through Media programme The new cycling route with a tunnel connects Poltár and Rimavská Sobota The new cycling route connects two district towns in the south of Slovakia – Poltár and Rimavská Sobota It was opened in stages, and at the beginning of May it is already complete - a 30-kilometre cycling route for € 9.5 million, serving not only locals, but also visitors to the south of the Banská Bystrica Region, reportes the My Novohrad website The route also includes the 160-metre railway tunnel in Ožďany "We are opening the most beautiful cycling route in Slovakia and it is no coincidence that we chose May 1 we joined the EU," said Banská Bystrica Region Governor Ondrej Lunter He emphasised that the route was built mainly thanks to financial support from the EU The region obtained more than €6.6 million from EU funds an attractive connection of the mentioned districts was created Hrnčiarska Ves and the local part of Maštinec while the entire length of the former railway line is being used the Banská Bystrica Region bought a 30-kilometre section from the ŽSR company a state-owned firm managing the railway infrastructure the condition was the construction of a cycling path on the old railway track The purchased railway line was built in 1912 It connected Poltár and Rimavská Sobota The high costs required to reconstruct and preserve the railway finally led to the decision of cancelling it," said Ivana Kapráliková the railroad was removed from the railway network the new project is not only about the cycling path itself It also includes rest areas in Maštinec will certainly make the region more attractive but the important thing is that it's an opportunity for the creation of services in its vicinity," said Tomáš Krahulec director of the Regional Tourism Organisation (OOCR) Novohrad and Podpoľanie He mentioned bicycle rentals and catering services near the new cycling route "It's an opportunity for local entrepreneurs," Krahulec concluded A helping hand in the heart of Europe thanks to the Slovakia travel guide with more than 1,000 photos and hundreds of tourist spots Our detailed travel guide to the Tatras introduces you to the whole region around the Tatra mountains Lost in Bratislava? It's impossible with our City Guide Research takes place on the site of a future industrial zone in Rimavská Sobota where the construction of a new industrial park has begun The initial results of their first research suggested that an archaeological site and trenches may be located in the northern part of the future park. Experts assumed that it is the mediaeval settlement known as Kľačany Regional Monuments Board Banská Bystrica wrote that the only written mention of Kľačany is a document from 1557 its demise said to have been connected with Turkish raids But the preliminary results of the more thorough archaeological research "A unique discovery is furnaces for processing mud ore from the Roman era metallurgical debris and various semi-finished products," archaeologists said they uncovered a mediaeval settlement from the 11th to 13th centuries but also an older settlement dating back to the Roman era "It is the first systematically investigated settlement from Roman times in the region of the southern part of central Slovakia," said the regional monuments board The archaeological research should continue at least until the end of March 2024 The Winkelmann Group will produce storage tanks for heat pumps in the south of central Slovakia A future industrial park in Rimavská Sobota will become an expansion site for the Winkelmann Group The German group plans to build a plant focused on the production of hot water storage tanks The expected investment amount is at least €110 million up to a two-fold increase in the number of jobs in the new plant can potentially be expected by 2030 The company plans to start production at the beginning of 2025 The memorandum of understanding on the planned investment was signed on April 27 in Rimavská Sobota by acting PM Eduard Heger acting Economy Minister Karel Hirman and the head of the company Heinrich Winkelmann The Economy Ministry emphasised that the investor is arriving in a region with the highest unemployment rate The German firm is the first company to build its plant in the future industrial park the company is responding to increased interest in heat pump technologies and the need for alternative energy sources The Winkelmann Group is one of the leading companies operating in the field of metal processing and sheet metal forming for various industrial uses It was founded in 1898 as a family business the mayor of Rimavská Sobota also mentioned the interest of an unspecified Chinese company in coming to the unused premises of the former heavy engineering plant in the town These are located adjacent to the future state industrial park and have been empty for more than two decades Mayor Jozef Šimko told the My Novohrad website that the Chinese visited Rimavská Sobota in March but that they also visited other cities in Slovakia "These negotiations are still ongoing," Šimko said A site of Baden culture has been added to the country The abandoned quarry above Hajnáčka in the Rimavská Sobota district which was also famous as a site for sapphires in basalt A few days ago, Ladislav Oravec, an amateur mineralogist who comes here to look for gems, was attracted by a number of shards and one object in particular, writes My Novohrad "I thought I'd try to find a new deposit of sapphires near the quarry I was particularly interested in the shards," Oravec said He works with the Dornyay Béla Museum in Salgótarján and have participated in archaeological research several times "I knew it would be something really old," he added A helping hand in the heart of Europe offers for you Slovakia travel guide Oravec soon contacted Alexander Botoš an archaeologist from the Gemersko-Malohontské Museum in Rimavská Sobota who is currently the director of the archaeological museum in Horná Lehota was also interested in the location from an archaeological and mineralogical point of view The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.skSubscribe now for full access Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail) PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk The celestial object probably fell to earth north of Rimavská Sobota Reports suggest that the event was visible as a bright flash as far away as Budapest Determining the exact impact location poses challenges due to the event's daytime occurrence and limited data Experts speculate that any recovered fragments will likely be small Astronomer Pavol Rapavý explained that pinpointing the meteorite's location is complicated requiring consideration of factors such as the position of a camera that briefly captured the meteorite's trail and simulating background stars to determine the coordinates accurately additional insights may come from satellite recordings from American sources and the efforts of astronomers at a nearby observatory Rapavý advises that if anyone finds meteorite fragments in their garden or vicinity they should consult the nearest observatory to confirm their extraterrestrial origin and the meteorite probably landed in the south of central Slovakia Hungarian scientist Gucsik Bence shared further details on the meteorite's trajectory stating that it appeared as a fiery ball with fragments in the sky northeast of Budapest at around 15:18:14 local time on July 24 The luminous object was visible at an altitude exceeding 60 kilometres With an estimated entry velocity of 13.75 km/s the actual speed during entry may have been around 14 km/s – more than 50,000 km/h some residents near Rimavská Sobota reported hearing a sonic boom accompanying the meteorite which eventually disappeared from view at an altitude of 29.22 kilometres Three months ago Slovakia already experienced the discovery of an extremely rare meteorite which was observed as a bright flash in June and later found in the Galanta district after an extensive search The 8.6-gram stone is considered a meteorite with a pedigree allowing scientists to trace its origin in space and making it highly valuable for research This is only the second meteorite with a pedigree found in Slovakia showcasing its significance to the scientific community is the time between Epiphany (January 6) and the movable Tuesday before the Ash Wednesday The roots of this tradition go back to Slavonic pagan predecessors of today’s Slovaks Fašiangy was marked by processions with masks or “carolers” walking around local houses this time of year meant balls and dance events The end of Fašiangy depends on the date of Easter – a movable feast depending on the first full moon after the beginning of astronomical spring falling on any Sunday between the end of March (in 2016 Easter Sunday is on March 27) to the end of April The word Fašiangy comes from the old Germanic word ‘vast-schanc’ meaning “Ausschank des Fastentrunks” Pouring the fasting drink symbolized the beginning of the 40 days of fasting during Lent This fasting was very strictly observed in the past and so the last days of Fašiangy – in some places called “ostatky” (the remaining From the era of Great Morava (9th-10th century) it was also called “mjasopust” which is connected to the predominate farming culture Although farmers were in this period already preparing for spring chores and as the processing of feathers and spinning were usually done weddings lasted for days and were a feast not just for family If a young man failed to marry during this brief period of time In a pre-Christian context and in the area of central Europe Fašiangy was rather aimed at inviting spring with various magic rituals used to celebrate this period also as “maslenice” (maslo means butter) which suggests that many substantial meals Slovaks’ ancestors ate modest meals but during Fašiangy Traditional dishes were fánky (sweet squares filled with curd záviny (strudels) and various delicacies – products of pig-killing which usually also took place at this time of year Fašiangy got facelift; with rounds of masked villagers remaining as the only fragment but in the past masks had a ritual meaning: those used for Carnival mostly represented animals and looked ghostly – Turoň (a bovine-like personage) Their role was to deter demons and evil ghosts masked processions are part of Fašiangy in some Slovak regions; but nowadays the dressing up started including a soldier with a sable on which farmers’ wives skewered donated meals Each village had its own traditional well-wishing poems and masks inviting the inhabitants in each yard to dance There was a local entertainer in each procession who managed it Fašiangy culminated at a joint village event in a local pub where a feast was organised from the collected meals The “burial of the double bass” the instrument on a hearse and granny-weepers symbolised that the merry time was over and in order to become more introspective for Lent these traditions are being revived around Slovakia more in the countryside than in cities (where balls have been preserved as a tradition through north and south all the way to the very east the end of Fašiangy was marked by traditional processions with some being more of a masked Carnival (e.g and some of the traditional procession with re-enactment of old habits (in Chtelnica like ski resort Plejsy-Krompach and Levoča there were cooking contests of traditional Fašiangy cakes called pankušky traditions of folk celebrations of Fašiangy virtually perished in the regions of Gemer and Malohont in south-eastern Slovakia a folklore specialist of the Gemer-Malohont Educational and Cultural Centre in Rimavská Sobota folklore ensembles have still preserved them and currently they are even being revived again in villages and becoming more popular “Fašiangy was more generally the time of fun and relaxation as peoples still had some supplies of food so even those who tended to be more serious during the rest of the year let it all hang out freshwater jellyfish have been seen in the water reservoir Teplý Vrch near Rimavská Sobota The dam contains the warmest water in Slovakia They can be easily spotted in the morning or in the evening and they have become very popular among visitors This is the third year that the Slovak Water Management Company registered the presence of Craspedacusta sowerbii or peach blossom jellyfish, originally from China, in the reservoir, its spokesperson Marián Bocák told the MY Novohrad regional newspaper “This type of jellyfish was spotted in Slovakia for the first time in the 1960s in dead branches of the Danube in Gabčíkovo and later in the protected area Štiavnické Vrchy about 30 years ago,” Bocák said adding that this type of freshwater jellyfish is not harmful and it does not produce any toxic substances “It even serves as a small cleaning plant because it eats the plankton.” This type of jellyfish is really not dangerous and people have no reason to be afraid of it according to Denisa Čonková from the Regional Public Health Authority in Rimavská Sobota The new regional governors took over their positions on December 4 Ján Lunter officially assumed his post of the Banská Bystrica Region’s governor on December 4 and took an oath along with 49 regional councillors chair of the far-right People’s Party – Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) The council at its session in Rimavská Sobota did not discuss the new deputy regional chair but the management of the regional road administration company instead It also seemed that Kotleba was sticking to his position and is reluctant to give it up: he summoned the meeting of the regional council at the last possible moment – and for a district town The December 4 meeting was organised under what seemed like a police operation Local TV journalists had problems getting into the room Only after Kotleba himself arrived and ordered the security guards to let the TV crew in was the situation solved “The replacement of Kotleba is good news for all Slovakia,” political analyst Michal Horský commented for Pravda “The fact that Kotleba summoned the session for the last possible date and moved it from Banská Bystrica to Rimavská Sobota indicates he wanted to stay in position as long as possible – even a few extra hours were precious to him.” The meeting was opened by Rimavská Sobota Mayor Jozef Šimko who had openly supported Kotleba as governor Šimko told the new Banská Bystrica regional governor that if he fails to support the development of the entire region and not all 650,000 of the locals can feel it he himself will be an open critic of the new regional administration “The first move will be to meet those working here today,” Lunter said about the incumbent regional representatives “We’ll hold personal talks to establish the degree to which these people have empathy towards our policies The new Banská Bystrica Region’s governor would like to create more job opportunities by making use of regional goods and agricultural land as well as putting farming products in a retail chain Lunter wants to create a social economy with an eye towards tackling long-term unemployment in the southern parts of the region Lunter said he changed his mind and his son Ondrej will not be among the deputy governors who installed an ex-MP for ĽSNS and his close friend Milan Suja of Detva in the post of CEO of the regional road administration company Other new governors also took over the remaining seven regions of Slovakia returning as Slovakia’s Agriculture Minister In 1993 he graduated from the University of Agriculture in Brno In 1993 – 1994 he worked at his family’s farm in his hometown and subsequently he founded Agrotrade company returning as Slovakia’s Agriculture Minister In 1993 – 1994 he worked at his family’s farm in his hometown and subsequently he founded Agrotrade company Simon was elected MP from the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) in 2002 and was appointed agriculture minister In 2006 he returned to the parliament but he left the SMK caucus in 2009 along with other party members led by Béla Bugár and co-founded the Most-Hid party one year before the June 2010 election In 2010 he was elected an MP for Most-Hid and was selected to again take the seat of agriculture minister