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The Košice Region is the easternmost and largest of Slovakia’s eight administrative regions, covering roughly 6,755 square kilometres of varied terrain that stretches from rolling lowlands near the Hungarian border in the south up to the forested ridges and river valleys of the Carpathian mountain ranges in the north. The regional capital, Košice, is Slovakia’s second-largest city after Bratislava, and it sits near the centre of the region in a broad plain crossed by the Hornád river. The region shares borders with Hungary to the south, Ukraine to the northeast and the Prešov Region to the northwest, and this position at a crossroads of central and eastern Europe has shaped its character considerably over the centuries. Historically part of the Kingdom of Hungary for most of its documented history, Košice itself was at various times one of the most important trading cities in the broader region, and evidence of that past is visible in the preserved medieval core of the city, where St Elisabeth’s Cathedral — the largest cathedral in Slovakia — stands at the end of a long pedestrian boulevard that remains the commercial and social centre of urban life in the region today.
Beyond Košice city, the region encompasses a wide range of landscapes and settlements that see considerably fewer visitors than the country’s western regions around Bratislava or the Tatra mountains further north. The Slovak Karst, a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared with Hungary, occupies a significant portion of the region’s southern half and contains the densest concentration of karst terrain in central Europe, with hundreds of caves, gorges and limestone plateaux spread across a protected landscape of beech forests and rocky outcrops. Domica Cave, the largest cave open to visitors on the Slovak side of the border, stretches several kilometres underground and includes an underground boat trip along a subterranean river, while the Zádielska Valley, a dramatic limestone gorge accessible by foot, is one of the more striking natural features in a region that tends to understate what it has to offer. The Slovenský raj — Slovak Paradise — lies partly within the region’s borders as well, a national park characterised by deep gorges, waterfalls and iron ladders bolted into cliff faces that form part of a marked walking route network, though the most frequented sections of Slovak Paradise are accessed from the Prešov Region to the northwest. In the east, the lower-lying agricultural land near Trebišov and Michalovce takes on a quieter, more rural character, with wetlands around the Zemplínska Šírava reservoir providing habitat for a variety of waterbirds and attracting a modest amount of domestic tourism in the summer months.
The population of the Košice Region is just under 800,000, with a significant proportion of the rural population belonging to ethnic Hungarian, Roma and Rusyn communities, each with their own linguistic and cultural traditions that have persisted alongside the Slovak majority. The economy is anchored by US Steel Košice, one of the largest steel producers in central Europe, which has been a major employer in the city and region since the communist era, and whose large industrial complex sits on the southern edge of Košice. In recent years, the region has seen growth in information technology and shared services sectors, with several international companies establishing operations in Košice partly because of the presence of a large technical university in the city. Outside the urban centre, agriculture, forestry and a gradually developing tourism sector make up the economic base of most smaller towns and villages. Travel infrastructure in the region is uneven — Košice has a functioning tram network and an international airport with connections to several European cities, but public transport to smaller settlements can be infrequent and a car is often the more practical choice for exploring the wider region. The pace of life outside the city is noticeably quieter, and villages in the Zemplín area in the east or the highland communities near the Ukrainian border retain a distinctly traditional character that has changed relatively little over several generations.
