Where: Drienčany
County: Rimavská Sobota
Time/Duration: Set aside the whole day.

I grew up on the fairy tales of Pavel Dobšinský. In my eyes, he was someone who wrote and created beautiful fairy tales. After all, you can imagine the perspective of a little girl growing up in a village, running around the garden and the surrounding area all day long.

My childhood years turned into adulthood with the wave of a magic wand, and I forgot about fairy tales—almost all of them. It wasn’t until my children came along that they were brought back to life, and a longing arose in my heart to pass on to my children the magic hidden within books.

And through my passion for writing (including professionally), I one day came across the figure of Pavol Emanuel Dobšinský again and learned that it is precisely the small villages in the south of the Banská Bystrica Region that are closely associated with him. Honestly, I hadn’t the faintest idea about that until then.

That’s when the idea was born to visit those places and discover a piece of literary history through the character of each location. After all, experiencing and exploring authentic places is the best way to learn, remember, and form your own opinion. I’m not even sure if I wanted this more for myself or for my children.

It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that when we planned our summer vacation in Gemer, I immediately added Drienčany and the Pavol E. Dobšinský Museum to the itinerary. And in addition to the museum dedicated to this famous figure, we stumbled upon other interesting and appealing places.

Pavol Emanuel Dobšinský (a Slovak Evangelical priest, folklorist, collector of folk literature, translator, and writer of the Štúr generation) is the most significant figure whose life was linked to the parish in Drienčany for 24 years, beginning in 1861. Until his death in 1885.

When you enter Drienčany, it’s clear at first glance that you’ve found yourself in a land where water poured and sand flowed. The wooden figures from Dobšinský’s fairy tales, found everywhere, will accompany you throughout the village.

A passionate collector, recorder, and writer of folk tales, songs, proverbs, and sayings, he was born in Slavošovce. He attended high school in Rožňava, Miskolc, and the Evangelical Lyceum in Levoča.

We owe him 90 fairy tales in 8 volumes, which continue to be published in various editions and have been translated into many languages. I don’t know exactly how many, but the pastor from Drienčany surely knows.

Well, did you know that Pavol Dobšinský stripped some of them of their original eroticism and risqué humor to make them suitable for young readers? In fact, many of them are really only suitable for adults.

The museum, located right on the premises of the rectory where he worked, is spread across five rooms, furnished with period pieces as well as some furniture dating back to the time when Pavol Dobšinský was working here. We were particularly fascinated by the writing desk at which he wrote his texts. Apparently, he wrote only while standing. I can’t even imagine that.

The pastor and his wife gave us a very colorful and engaging introduction to the life of Pavol Dobšinský. He also shared many interesting tidbits and behind-the-scenes details that certainly aren’t found in school textbooks. It’s no wonder that even our boys managed to listen to him for over an hour. Or could it be the magical world of Dobšinský’s fairy tales?

Near the parish grounds stands a monument featuring a golden pen, a golden horseshoe, and a golden lock of hair—all of which serve as a reminder of the legendary fairy-tale figure whose land you are standing on.

The sundial at the end of the Drienčanský kras nature trail and the fairy-tale maze with a gazebo in the garden above the parish house in Drienčany are also in the same style.

If you want to take a break from fairy tales for a while in Drienčany, head to the beach at Teplý vrch (about 3 km away) to cool off, or treat yourself to a walk along the “Beauties of the Drienčany Karst” nature trail. As we’ve learned, this is another attraction for tourists who happen to wander this way.

The restored nature trail winds through a mix of sun-drenched meadows and dense forest, providing pleasant shade for hikers who have decided to explore the area’s unique karst landscape. We were there on a day that followed a violent nighttime storm, and some parts of the trail were wet and muddy.

But so what? Fifteen stops with information signs, huge ferns that practically begged us to take a beautiful photo with them, and sinkholes along the side of the path kept us moving along the trail very quickly. The biggest hit with my kids was the Malá Drienčanská Cave, which gave us a glimpse of ancient history and revealed that the remains of settlements from the Late Bronze Age, the Eneolithic, and the Middle Ages had been found there.

For the rest of the day, we decided to relax by the water at Teplý vrch, which provided us with a pleasant refreshment and a brief sense of being at the beach. But you can extend your trip—after all, Kraskovo (11 km) and Kyjatice (15 km) are right nearby, where, in addition to unique Gothic churches, you’ll find the mysterious Archeoskanzen, an open-air museum of the ancient Kyjatice culture. We’ve saved that for our next visit to the Rimavská Sobota area.

And if you’re looking for an even more fairy-tale-like experience, head to Kyjatice to visit Ladislav Hedvigi, who makes beautiful wooden toys from Kyjatice. But more on that another time.

Let’s continue exploring our region and its unique figures who have shaped the history of not only Slovakia.