The water reservoir Orava is the result of artificial blocking of the river Orava in northern Slovakia as the remedy to frequent floods. It spreads as far as the Polish frontier. There is an island in the middle of the reservoir called Slanický ostrov – the favourite destinations of trippers.
Construction of the dam started in 1941 and was finished in 1954. By impoundment of the valley depression, several villages disappeared. A favourite point in the reservoir is the Slanický ostrov island or Ostrov umenia, which used to be a village. The church standing there is the Roman-Catholic church built in 1766 – 1769. It shelters a permanent exposition of folk art with an out-door exhibition of stonemason art works. A boat ensures a regular communication between the shore and the island.
The Orava dam became an important holiday and sport centre with lodging, catering facilities and the usual services to the holidaymakers. Sport and recreation facilities are concentrated on the southern shore of the water reservoir in two resorts: Slanická osada and the Goral Hotel.
Numerous restaurants, hostels, hotels, two camping sites, sport facilities and sport equipment rental services contribute to the satisfaction of visitors.
The summer tourist season starts in the middle of June and ends in September. There is also the possibility of a sightseeing tour by boat. Boats with regular departures every day during the summer season serve tourists.
Roháče are often and justly praised as the most beautiful part of the West Tatras. A crown of wonderful peaks dominated by the majestic Baníkov Mt. surrounds the extensive Roháčska dolina valley. In turn, the Ostrý Roháč and Volovec Mts. are the princes of the Roháče Mts. They form an indivisible couple of slender rock mountains in the principal ridge and look like two devils horns, expressed by their names (Ostrý Roháč means a sharp horn and Volovec means an ox).
The villages Prosiek a Kvačany in region Liptov are generally known as starting points for the trips to the most beautiful and most visited of the Slovak valleys - Prosiecka dolina and Kvačianska dolina.
The mountain Veľký Choč towering above the dividing line between regions Liptov and Orava is one of the most beautiful in Slovakia. Prevailingly spruce woods cover the mountain and in the highest parts a continuous growth of dwarf pines (unique in this whole mountain range) can be seen. For well-conserved forest bioncenoses with rare flora which in places acquire the nature of virgin forest, it was designated the National Nature Reserve.
The modern thermal park is built in the wonderful surrounding of Orava, close to the border with Poland. The highly mineralized thermal water, which springs in the depth of more than 1 kilometre, works curing/healing on psychic and stress and is used/utilised in balneotherapy.
AquaRelax is a modern aqua park in Dolný Kubín, outstanding for its unique pyramid architecture. It uses only crystal-clear water in stainless steel pools.
The birthplace of the first man to codify the literary Slovak - Anton Bernolák -disappeared under the level of the Oravská priehrada dam. A church was the only building to remain of the village. It stands on the Slanický ostrov island. A memorial was built there to commemorate its famous native.
Permanent expositions of the traditional folk art from the collections of the Orava Gallery (Oravská galéria) have been located in the beautiful natural scenery of Slanica Island of Art, in the centre of the Oravská priehrada dam.
The pride of Tvrdošín and its oldest preserved building is the Gothic wooden Roman-Catholic All Saints church (Kostol Všetkých svätých) situated in the local cemetery. In 2008, along with seven wooden churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area, it was included on the UNESCO Word Heritage List.
PODBIEL is a typical village lying in the region of Orava (north of Slovakia) with interesting compound of original log houses called Bobrova rala built in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the vicinity of the distinctive village of Podbiel, with its unique complex of folk-architecture buildings, located in the region surrounding the Orava dam, we can find the precious technical monument Františkova huta (Francis’s Smelting Plant).
The most attractive tourist locality of the northern Slovakia is the Orava Castle lying on the river Orava near the village Oravský Podzámok, below impressive cliffs. In 1370, it became a county castle and the seat of the Orava Castle estate, which included almost the whole region of Orava.
Three kilometres away from Zuberec, at Brestová, a unique open-air Museum of the Orava Village (Múzeum oravskej dediny) can be visited. Over an area of about 20 hectares, and on both sides of the crystal clean Studený potok brook, is a village containing the typical folk buildings moved here from various regions of Orava.
The Late Gothic wooden church of St Elizabeth is the dominant structure in the Museum of the Orava village - open air museum situated only 3 kilometres away of Zuberec near Brestová. It stands in cemetery in the middle of wonderful mountain scenery. The church was originally built in the 19th century and moved here in the 20th century from village Zábrež.
The Orava Museum established the exposition of the Orava Logging Railway and the Orava Co-ownership Association in the reconstructed premises of the service building and it will be pleased to welcome anybody coming to this beautiful part of Slovakia to spend their time in a pleasant manner and to have some new experience.
In practice, the logging railway in Oravská Lesná in Orava was not only cheaper with respect to the construction and operation, compared to the conventional railways, but it also could cope with a very rugged terrain. Nowadays, it is not used for the original purpose – the transport of timber, but it serves as an attraction of the Orava Museum.
