Slovakia document photos online

At midnight on 8 February 1993, Slovakia created its national currency not with a printing press but with glue: brand-new Czechoslovak banknotes were validated by sticking on small adhesive stamps bearing the Slovak coat of arms, printed all the way over in Ottawa by the Canadian Banknote Company. Within four days citizens swapped tens of millions of notes for these stamped "provisional" korunas, and the first true Slovak banknote, the 50-koruna, only appeared that August. It was one of history's most peaceful, lowest-drama currency births, fitting for the only nation ever to dissolve a state entirely without violence.

• Passport power In the 2025 Henley Passport Index the Slovak passport ranks 7th in the world, opening 182 destinations visa-free or with visa-on-arrival to its holders.
• Stamped money Slovakia's first banknotes in 1993 were ordinary Czechoslovak notes upgraded with adhesive stamps printed in Canada, because the new state had no money presses of its own yet.
• Eurozone Slovakia ditched its koruna for the euro on 1 January 2009 at a fixed rate of 30.1260 koruna to the euro, becoming the only Visegrad Four country to use the single currency.
• Velvet divorce Slovakia was born on 1 January 1993 from the "Velvet Divorce" of Czechoslovakia, the only fully peaceful dissolution of a state in the post-WWII era, with assets split two-to-one by population.
• Citizenship Since April 2022 the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of former Slovak or Czechoslovak citizens can claim citizenship without residency or language tests, reversing a decade of strict anti-dual-citizenship rules.
• Schengen edge When Slovakia joined Schengen in December 2007, its frontier with Ukraine became an external border of Europe's passport-free zone, turning a quiet eastern crossing into the edge of the world's largest free-movement area.
• Castle country With around 180 castles and 425 chateaux, Slovakia holds the world's highest number of castles and chateaux per capita, crowned by Spis Castle, one of Central Europe's largest fortress complexes and a UNESCO site since 1993.
• Capital quirk Bratislava is the only national capital on Earth that borders two foreign countries, sitting on the rivers where Slovakia meets both Austria and Hungary.
• Underground Slovakia is honeycombed with over 6,000 caves, including the UNESCO-listed Dobsinska Ice Cave, where ice survives year-round.