What to see in Trnava, plus where to go wine and mead tasting

Trnava surprised me, even though I thought I knew western Slovakia by heart. In town, I wouldn’t miss the walls, the underground crypts and cellars, the city tower or St Nicholas Basilica. Nearby, I’d go wine tasting at Terra Parna and mead tasting at Medolandia. Just not the driver.

Quick factsby Milan Bez Mapy

Where I stayed

In the centre at Apartments 1620yr, in a Renaissance building from 1620, and a year later at the Voderady manor house

Free tour

In July and August, free tours start in front of the city tower and take about an hour (I chose the Trnava sacra route)

Coffee

Synagóga Café in a restored synagogue, one of my favourite cafés in Slovakia

Medolandia

Admission €5 from May to September, free from October to April; roses in summer, mead and gingerbread in winter

Terra Parna

Tasting dinners at the winery in Ružová dolina sell out months in advance

What’s worth seeing in Trnava and around it? I’ll admit it: I thought I had walked every corner of western Slovakia and knew it inside out. When Región Trnava, the regional tourism organisation, invited me for a visit, I thought: ‘Why not? It probably won’t be anything new, but at least I’ll get a trip around Slovakia.’ And guess what? All of it was new to me. Read on for what to see in Trnava.

Trnava is one of the oldest towns in Slovakia. In 1238 it became the first town in today’s Slovakia to be granted town rights. Its historic centre is still ringed by walls that rank among the best-preserved fortifications in Slovakia and in Europe.

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In the past the town was a centre of religion, learning and culture, and you can still feel that today. Then there’s all that excellent wine and mead, which you can taste here from morning till night. Trust me, I’ve tested this. First, somewhere to stay, and then the tour can begin.

Where to stay in the historic centre of Trnava

Trnava has plenty of places to stay, so I can only recommend the one I tried myself. When I choose where to sleep, I like authentic places with real character.

I stayed right in the centre at Apartments 1620yr. They’re in a historic Renaissance building from 1620, a significant example of burgher architecture and a national cultural monument.

The house is typical of the Renaissance, with an arcaded colonnade that gives it a distinctive historic feel. Waking up here was something special. If you have a car, you could also stay at the Voderady manor house, as I did a year later. There’s more about the manor house and the park behind it further down.

Things to do in Trnava and around: Milan Bez Mapy’s picks

1. Why Trnava is called Little Rome, and what’s really behind it
2. Trnava’s underground town: crypts and cellars
3. The town walls of Trnava
4. Holy Trinity Square and the Christmas market
5. Climbing the city tower for a view over the whole of Trnava
6. Synagóga Café and the café in the Ján Palárik Theatre

Why Trnava is called Little Rome, and what’s really behind it

I’d heard the answer ‘because there are lots of churches’ many times, even on my first visit to Trnava. Only on my most recent visit did I get the real explanation, on a free walking tour with the guide Slavomír Dzvonik from the local tourist information centre. I have to admit it’s far more interesting than the number of towers.

In 1526 the Hungarians lost the Battle of Mohács. A few years later the Ottoman Turks took Esztergom, until then the seat of Hungary’s archbishops. The church elite needed a new, safe home and chose Trnava, a town with strong walls. The Archbishop of Esztergom moved his seat here in 1543 and stayed for almost three hundred years, until 1820. Bratislava became the coronation city at that time for exactly the same reason. The Ottomans had occupied the old centres of the country, and everything important moved west.

So for three centuries Trnava was the religious and cultural centre of the whole Kingdom of Hungary. In 1635 Cardinal Péter Pázmány founded a university here, which drew thousands of students. Religious orders such as the Jesuits, Franciscans, Paulines, Trinitarians, Poor Clares and Ursulines built their own churches, monasteries and convents one after another. That’s exactly why the small historic centre has so many towers. It wasn’t chance or fashion, but the result of the whole country’s church administration moving here for three centuries. The university didn’t move to Buda until 1777, and with that Trnava lost its special status. The name Little Rome has stuck to this day.

• Tip from Milan In July and August, Trnava Tourism runs free walking tours of the town. They start in front of the city tower, take about an hour and suit children and foreign visitors too. I joined ‘Trnava sacra’, the tour of the churches and other sacred sites. The guide even wears period costume. There’s also a second route, ‘Trnava svetská’ (secular Trnava). It takes you to places that are normally closed, such as a bastion of the town walls.

Trnava’s underground town: crypts and cellars

Trnava, the ‘Little Rome’ we’ve just met, has as much to discover below ground as above it. Its underground is a labyrinth of historic crypts, cellars and passages that have survived remarkably well. If you’re after something unusual with a touch of mystery, Trnava’s underground town will win you over. Book a guided tour. I’ve visited similar crypts and catacombs in Žilina and in Paris.

There are ancient crypts that served as final resting places, and cellars where wine and food were once stored. They show how skilled and well organised the people who built them were. On the tour you’ll learn how they were used in the past and why they’re still so special. I’ve always loved secret underground places like these.

The town walls of Trnava

The town walls are one of Trnava’s most distinctive symbols. They still stand as an impressive reminder of its medieval heyday and strategic importance. The walls went up in the 13th century, shortly after Trnava was granted the privileges of a free royal town.

At the time they were one of the largest fortifications in Central Europe. They ran round the whole town, with a moat, gates and defensive towers. The surviving sections are among the best-preserved medieval fortifications in Slovakia. And the best part? You can simply walk along the top of them. One set of steps up is right behind St Nicholas Basilica.

Holy Trinity Square and the Christmas market

To my mind, Holy Trinity Square (Trojičné námestie) is one of the finest historic squares in Slovakia. I like the way the traditional architecture sits alongside socialist-era brutalism. The Holy Trinity statue, which gives the square its name, is its centrepiece. Around it stand historic buildings that make a perfect backdrop for the Christmas market.

At the Christmas market you’ll find traditional hot punch, mulled wine, gingerbread and local Trnava specialities. My pick is the hot strawberry wine.

• Tip from Milan I’d go to the Christmas market in the early evening. That’s when the square is at its best, lit up by thousands of lights and smelling of mulled wine. Afterwards I’d treat myself to the view over the whole square from the city tower. Fun fact: in 2025 Trnava marked 100 years of lighting the Christmas tree in the square, and I was there.

The city tower in Trnava and its mechanical clock

The city tower, rising above Holy Trinity Square, is one of Trnava’s best-known landmarks. It was built between 1574 and 1578 and originally served as a watchtower and signal tower. Today it’s one of the symbols of the town, with a fine view over Trnava and the countryside around it.

One of the tower’s biggest draws is its mechanical clock, one of the oldest working clock mechanisms in Slovakia. It went in as early as 1729 and is still working today. It has to be wound by hand every day, which says a lot about the skill of the clockmakers. Ask the guide: they might let you wind it yourself, as they let me.

Synagóga Café and the café in the Ján Palárik Theatre

When it comes to coffee, Trnava is the place. Synagóga Café is one of my favourite cafés in all of Slovakia. It’s set in a restored historic synagogue. The modern café has sensitively kept the building’s original features, such as the ornate ceilings and stained-glass windows. The atmosphere is like nowhere else.

• Tip from Milan Right in the centre, inside the theatre building itself, there’s a stylish café with an artistic feel. The café in the Ján Palárik Theatre serves good coffee and light snacks. It’s a pleasant spot, with a view of the bustle of the historic centre. And do try the cakes.

St Nicholas Basilica and the painting that legend says saved Trnava three times

On my previous visit I barely noticed this place, and that’s a mistake you shouldn’t make. St Nicholas Basilica went up in the late 14th and early 15th centuries on the site of an older Romanesque church. The kings of Hungary themselves helped pay for it: Louis I the Great, Sigismund of Luxembourg and Albert of Habsburg. For almost three centuries, while the Archbishop of Esztergom had his seat here, it served as a temporary cathedral. It was one of the most important buildings in the whole Kingdom of Hungary. Several archbishops and church dignitaries are buried in the crypt below. The church also has one of the oldest organs in Trnava, which is still played at concerts.

Right next to the basilica stands the Renaissance Archbishop’s Palace. Once a grand residence, it’s now, sadly, an empty building falling into disrepair. For years nobody has been able to go inside, not even up the steps. Part of it was simply closed off for safety reasons. It’s a shame, and I hope that changes one day.

The basilica’s most powerful story, though, hangs in a side chapel: the painting of Our Lady of Trnava. According to church tradition, tears appeared on it during the Ottoman threat of 1663. The Turks then unexpectedly turned away from the town. A few decades later, in 1708, during an uprising against the Habsburgs, the painting is said to have wept three times within a few weeks. This event is fairly well documented: a commission of the day heard 32 witnesses under oath. In 1710, with plague raging in the town, the townspeople carried the painting in a procession. The plague is said to have stopped right then. To commemorate this, Trnava still holds a novena every year, nine days of prayer in November. I don’t know whether you believe in miracles, but as part of the town’s story it’s powerful stuff. I can see why the painting became a place of pilgrimage and why the church now also holds the papal title of minor basilica. The guide also showed me a relic of Pope John Paul II’s blood that the basilica keeps. One of the bishops of Kraków donated it a few years ago.

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Trnava’s sugar factory, the industrial heart of the town

Alongside the sights, I have to include one of the most important chapters of Trnava’s industrial history. When I was a child, we often drove through the town on our way to my grandmother’s.

As a small boy I’d sleep in the car, but in Trnava a pungent smell always woke me up. What was it? Sugar beet being processed. Today the buildings are falling into disrepair, but Región Trnava managed to arrange a guided tour. I’m hugely grateful for that.

A short history of the sugar factory in Trnava

Trnava’s sugar factory has a long history. The Vaymár brothers made the first attempts at processing sugar beet, on the site of today’s Družba housing estate. Their first factory closed after a few years. The classic era began with a new plant, the Tyrnauer Zuckerfabrik. The Stummer family later took it over and, over several decades, turned it into one of the largest and most modern sugar factories in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

After nationalisation it became the Peter Jilemnický Sugar Factory, and from the 1990s it was Trnavský cukrovar, a. s. Sugar was made here for almost 135 years, until production stopped for good in 2004.

One of its symbols is the tall chimney, still one of the most visible landmarks in town. Four of the buildings are listed as national cultural monuments: the main production building, both sugar warehouses and the administrative building. Another curiosity: electric trolley carts once ran here, carrying the sugar to the warehouses. For its day, that was advanced technology.

• FUN FACT: The sugar factory was built on the edge of town, outside the historic walls, which matched its industrial character. Over time, though, Trnava spread beyond the walls and around the factory.

Today the whole site is being turned into a brand-new district with homes, culture, green space and amenities. The restored buildings will combine listed industrial architecture with new builds. Hopefully soon.

The English park at the Voderady manor house, the first of its kind in Slovakia

I’ve already mentioned the manor house in Voderady as a place to stay. But behind it lies something that deserves its own chapter. In 1794 Count František Zichy commissioned the German garden architect Bernard Petri to redesign the original French garden. It became an English park in the style then in fashion, a so-called natural sentimental park. The result was the first park of its kind in what is now Slovakia. Foreign gardening almanacs wrote about it at the time. To mark the redesign, the count put up a 12-metre obelisk with a Latin inscription. Incidentally, it’s still waiting to be restored.

The park was given exactly the features the fashion of the day loved: an artificial cave with stalactites, a mock castle ruin with towers and a drawbridge, a hermitage, a chapel and an old mill. My favourite detail involves one of the last owners, the traveller Jozef Zichy. His journey took him through Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, southern India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, China and Mongolia, and he came back inspired to add Chinese pagodas. One still stands, and the other is due back soon on the little island in the middle of the lake. Here are more of my tips for day trips around Trnava.

And then there’s my favourite contrast in the whole park. The hermitage, a small building meant to look like the home of a medieval hermit, has been rebuilt with entirely modern technology: 3D printing. According to the owners themselves, it’s the first building of its kind in Slovakia. The 18th century made with 21st-century technology: that’s exactly the kind of detail I love travelling for.

The lakes in the park used to be fed by gravity from the mill race of the Gidra stream. Now that the inflow has dried up, a pump keeps them topped up. People used to swim in them, there were changing rooms, and you could only reach the little island by boat. When we went to have a look, we ended up on the water ourselves. The rowing wasn’t planned, but I don’t regret it. Under communism the grounds housed an agricultural school with cowsheds and henhouses. After the revolution a private individual even built a house right inside the mock ruin, complete with windows and shutters.

For the last two or three years the Bohdal family has been restoring the park in earnest. They have been working with the restorer Palo Ďurko, who insisted on exact ceramic replicas. It’s a welcome contrast to a similar park in Dolná Krupá, which I’ll come to below. That one belongs to the state, and its restoration keeps getting stuck in red tape. And yet the Voderady park is open to the public, with Thursday barbecues in summer and a tasting dinner at Christmas.

• Tip from Milan Trnava runs free walking tours of the town with the support of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport. They’re guaranteed to go ahead, start at 10.30am on weekdays in summer and are ideal for independent visitors. On Friday and Saturday mornings there’s a market in the square.

Terra Parna, the winery where I finally understood why Modrý Portugal isn’t Portuguese

The Terra Parna winery lies in Ružová dolina near Suchá nad Parnou. The land once belonged to a religious order and served as its summer residence. The little stone tower with a cross, which almost everyone here mistakes for a chapel, is actually a water tower built by a local monk. In the 1930s Trnava’s well-to-do built summer villas here. According to one neighbour, that was because Trnava had no sewers back then and the town smelled awful in summer. Locals looked after their vineyards, and there were three viechy (small wine taverns) and a café, U Viežličiek.

The vineyard was planted in 2003 by Jožo, the father, and today two of his three daughters run it. One studied viticulture, the other Luxury Branding & Fashion in Grenoble, and together they farm almost 8 hectares.

Here I heard the best story of the whole trip, the one about the Modrý Portugal grape (Blauer Portugieser). I’d always assumed the name meant something, that the variety really came from Portugal. It doesn’t. Genetic testing has found no link to Portuguese varieties, and Portuguese ampelographers (grapevine experts) reject any connection. The only clue anyone passes on is a legend about Count Fries of Vöslau in Austria. Around 1770, someone supposedly brought him cuttings from Portugal. Jožo chose Modrý Portugal for his vineyard in a completely different way. He went round asking the grandmothers in the village what had always grown well here. Under communism the variety also got a bad name: growers overcropped it, and the over-fertilised soil gave watery, thin wine.

Just as good is the explanation of why ageing Riesling sometimes smells of petrol. It isn’t a fault. It comes from a compound with the tongue-twisting name trimethyl-dihydronaphthalene. It forms right in the vineyard when the grapes get a lot of sun. And one last small thing. Ladybirds on the grapes can make some vintages bitter if the winemaker doesn’t remove them at harvest.

I also learned to tell an honest barrel from one that only looks honest. A real oak barrique costs €500 or more. Inside it the wine goes through slow micro-oxygenation, and the tannins soften over time. The cheaper shortcut is wood chips thrown into a stainless-steel tank. They give the wine a similar aroma, but not the same process. They pick everything by hand here. They also built the winery right in the vineyard, so the grapes barely travel and don’t oxidise. Their 2025 Sauvignon turned out exceptionally aromatic precisely because they cooled the grapes in a refrigerated lorry during the harvest.

In good years they leave the Alibernet on the vine until the temperature falls below −7°C. That gives an ice harvest with almost 300 grams of sugar. In the last rainy vintage, though, everything rotted before the frost came. The last bottles from the previous harvest ended up in Michelin-starred restaurants in England, exactly the kind of rarity worth writing about.

Most of the business here now revolves around the experience. The tasting dinners sell out months in advance, and in June they throw a party for 400 people. There are weddings too, and even barre with Pilates and brunch. In terms of turnover, wine only comes second. To be fair, I should also mention something that doesn’t work here. The Small Carpathian Wine Route (Malokarpatská vínna cesta) has died as a concept. There was no guarantee of quality, and a lot of wine was poured that nobody paid for. Its successor, Chuť Malých Karpát (Taste of the Small Carpathians), had tickets and only certified winemakers. It won’t take place this year: it didn’t survive either. Compare that with South Moravia or Austria, where vineyard follows vineyard and there are cycle routes everywhere. Here, that kind of infrastructure simply hasn’t caught on yet. The winemakers don’t really compete with each other. Their real rivals are imported wines on restaurant lists, and people who sell Spanish bulk wine as Slovak.

You can feel the drought here too. There’s a 100-metre well with no water in it. Yet a few kilometres away in Doľany, water shoots up like a geyser from 40 metres down. A few years ago Smolenice ran out of water altogether. A region with so many vineyards, and so sensitive to the weather: that’s a detail worth keeping in mind.

Medolandia and the rosarium of the Rose Countess, who loved Beethoven

Dolná Krupá is a village of music and roses, and it really deserves both labels. At the start of the 19th century none other than Ludwig van Beethoven came here to teach the piano. He stayed with the Brunsvik family and taught their daughters. One of the Brunsviks later married a Chotek. From that family line came the woman who draws rose lovers here from all over Slovakia today.

Countess Mária Henrieta Choteková (Marie Henriette Chotek), born in 1863 right here in Dolná Krupá, created one of the largest private rose gardens in Europe. At the height of its fame, around 1910, more than 6,000 rose varieties grew in it. She exported them all over Europe, to the USA and to Canada. Rose growers abroad recognised her as the greatest authority in her field, a truly unusual position for a woman at the turn of the century. She saw herself as a grower rather than a breeder, yet she bred four varieties of her own. The best known is the fiery red, fragrant Ignis from 1934.

The rose garden had been declining since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the Second World War dealt the final blow. After 1945 practically nothing was left of it. The countess died in 1946, abandoned and without family, in the convent in Dolná Krupá, where nuns looked after her. The estate passed to the state, the land was divided into plots, and today ordinary houses stand on part of it. The manor house itself now belongs to the Slovak National Museum.

But the story has a happy sequel. In 2019 the Kudláč family, owners of the Apimed meadery, founded a new rose garden near the original site, carrying on the countess’s legacy. They even managed to get hold of Ignis, her own variety, which had survived only with German growers in Sangerhausen. They planted it back in Dolná Krupá, in a place of honour.

Medolandia and mead tasting

The same family also runs Medolandia, a visitor centre built in the ruins of the countess’s former farm buildings. You’ll recognise them by the tall chimney of the old distillery. Their philosophy is simple: mead is the soul of honey in the form of wine. By law, only a drink made from honey, water and yeast can be called mead. So the alcohol-free mead people sometimes talk about technically can’t be mead at all.

Their flagships are Staroslovanská svetlá, made purely from acacia honey, and the thicker, sweeter Staroslovanská tmavá from forest honey. The favourite at Christmas markets, though, is their spiced Trnavská, made from wildflower honey with cinnamon and cloves. They buy all their honey from about 150 Slovak beekeepers, whom they vet themselves. Before buying, they test the honey in a laboratory. Since honey varies from year to year, the skill of their technologists lies in making sure customers can’t tell one vintage from another. New mead matures for a shorter time, older mead for a whole year, and the result has to taste the same.

Their rarest honeys are forest honey, which isn’t available every year, and chestnut honey. There simply isn’t enough chestnut honey for the volumes they need. They also make their own rose mead. For that they do the exact opposite of what you do when pruning roses. They pick the most beautiful flowers, strip the petals by hand and then soak them in the mead for weeks. It’s called Mária Henrieta.

• Tip from Milan Entry to the grounds with the rose garden costs €5 from May to September. Pupils, students and seniors pay €4. From October to April it’s free. Summer belongs to the roses, winter to mead and gingerbread, and at the weekend the café is open too.

Where to eat and go wine and mead tasting around Trnava

As I hinted above, the Trnava region is a land of wine and mead tastings. Whether it’s Christmas or you’re just cycling around, at every turn you’ll find wineries with tastings ready for passers-by. They offer their own wines, good food and somewhere to stay the night. I’ve already written about Terra Parna and Medolandia, two places that earned a chapter of their own. Here’s the rest of what I’ve visited over the past few years.

Vína z Mlyna winery: roast duck and altar wine

Vína z Mlyna is a winery in Doľany, known for quality wines made in line with local winemaking traditions. They also hold a licence for altar wine, of all things. Do taste it. Altar wine is made under much stricter rules than ordinary wine. Only trustworthy winemakers get a permit to produce it.

Grapes have been grown in this area for a long time. The winery prides itself on natural winemaking methods that keep the character of the region in its wines. Its wine tastings with dinner are a real experience for wine lovers. Besides the wine, you can also enjoy local delicacies that go perfectly with it.

• Tip from Milan It isn’t a restaurant but a winery, so you need to book and arrange your visit in advance.

Mrva & Stanko winery

Mrva & Stanko was founded in 1997 by a winemaker with international experience and a man from advertising. They bring modern wines to Slovakia: light, fresh, fruity and with a clear varietal character. They work with trusted growers and process the grapes themselves, to keep full control over quality. They make about 360,000 bottles a year and deliberately don’t go beyond that, to keep their standards up.

Besides their regular range, they also have a private archive where people can store fine wines. It’s for anyone who doesn’t have the right conditions at home. The archive reminded me of Gringotts, the wizarding bank in Harry Potter. Their rosé won a gold medal in Paris. They also use a concrete tank, which doesn’t give the wine any unwanted flavours.

Karpatská Perla winery

Karpatská Perla sees its wine as a living organism that starts in the soil and ends in the glass. It may sound like a winemaker’s cliché. But after talking to the owner, I could tell he believes what he says and is hugely passionate about his grapes.

Everything rests on the particular character of the Small Carpathians, where the bedrock meets sun, rain and wind. They farm their own vineyards, all within 60 km, with great respect for nature and grow their grapes organically. In their view, wine isn’t made in the cellar but in the vineyard.

‘The soil and the location are the foundation, but the people are what really matter,’ the owner told me. A vineyard is above all manual work that takes humility and the determination to do things properly. They process the grapes only in their own cellar, to keep full control over quality. From the start they pay attention to the soil, the site and the varieties. Wine should be not just a drink but also a cultural experience, where the place and the way you taste it matter as much as what’s in the bottle.

Mead tasting in Smolenice

I’ll stay with that ‘international feeling’ a little longer, just a few kilometres further on. In Smolenice, just below the castle, Nektária Smolenice has a Christmas atmosphere all of its own. This beekeeping centre is decorated for Christmas, and besides a traditional Christmas market there’s a honey theme to everything. You can taste different kinds of mead, honey burčiak (a young, still-fermenting honey drink) and other honey drinks.

There are also food stalls serving burgers, tacos, halušky (small potato dumplings), pizza and other dishes from around the world. Vegetarian and gluten-free options aren’t forgotten either. Nektária also holds themed events such as the Spring, Summer and Night Medokvas. They include tastings of mead and other honey products in the romantic, slightly mysterious setting of a bee garden.

I told the owners they ought to charge more for entry, because what they offer is worth a lot more.

Bistro PERK

Bistro PERK in the centre of Trnava puts the emphasis on fresh, local and seasonal ingredients. The kitchen is open, so you can watch your food being made and find out where the ingredients come from. On Saturdays they serve brunch, perfect for a relaxed weekend.

The menu changes with the seasons, so whenever you come, you’ll taste something fresh and local. Smaller portions on the tasting menu let you try more dishes and turn lunch or dinner into an experience. The bistro felt cosy and understated to me, but with soul: a discreet setting, polite service and a relaxed approach. A good place doesn’t have to be big or packed to offer a worthwhile meal. This one is ideal if you value fresh food and an original setting.

Visiting the Voderady manor house: dinner and an overnight stay

The Voderady manor house isn’t just a backdrop with an aristocratic past. You can actually spend the night here, in surroundings that feel like a quiet bubble away from the world. The rooms are modern but leave room for the character of the historic building. You don’t feel as if you’re in an open-air museum or a sterile hotel. I’d also try their restaurant. I had their Austro-Hungarian menu and it was excellent.

The big advantage is that you stay right in the grounds of the large English park I wrote about above. It feels calming and a little dreamlike. If you need an escape from the city, a creative reset or a romantic weekend, this is the place. And a new spa area is due to be finished soon.

What to see in Trnava? Now you know. Happy travels to Trnava! Región Trnava’s activities are carried out with financial support from the Ministry of Tourism and Sport.

Milan Bez Mapy