2. 1................... Region Spiš 2................... Spiš Castle 3................... Zoological garden 4................... Sources 5................... Ending

3. Spiš is a region in north-eastern Slovakia, with a very small areain south-eastern Poland. Spiš is an informal designation of the territory,but it is also the name of one the 21 official tourism regionsof Slovakia. The region is not an administrative division in its own right, but between the late 11th century and 1918 it was an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. The region is situated between the High Tatras and the Dunajec River in the north, the springs of the Váh River in the west, the Slovenské rudohorie Mountains (Slovak Ore Mountains) and Hnilec River in the south, and a line running from the town of Stará Ľubovňa, via the Branisko mountain (under which lies the 4,822 m long Branisko Tunnel, currently the longest in Slovakia), to the town of Margecany in the east. The core of the Spiš region is formed by the basins of the rivers Hornád and Poprad, and the High Tatra Mountains. Throughout its history, the territory has been characterized by a large percentage of forests - in the late 19th century, as much as 42,2% of Spiš was forest. Spiš today is one of Slovakia's 21 tourist regions. It no longer however represents, as did its predecessor, an administrative region. Since 1996, Spiš has been divided between the modern Košice Region and Prešov Region and is covered approximately by the following six administrative districts: Poprad, Kežmarok, Stará Ľubovňa, Spišská Nová Ves, Levoča and Gelnica, except for the eastern half of the Stará Ľubovňa District and three villages of the Poprad district (Štrba including Tatranská Štrba, Štrbské Pleso, and Liptovská Teplička from Liptov county.) The present population of the Spiš region is about 320,000; almost half the population lives in towns, the largest of which are Poprad (55,000), Spišská Nová Ves (39,000) and Kežmarok (17,000).

4. The ruins of Spiš Castle in eastern Slovakia form one of the largest castle sites in Central Europe. The castle is situated above the town of Spišské Podhradie and the village of Žehra, in the region Spiš (It was included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1993 (together with the adjacent locations of Spišská Kapitula, Spišské Podhradie and Žehra). Spiš Castle was built in the 12th century on the site of an earlier castle. It was the political, administrative, economic and cultural centre of Szepe County of the Kingdom of Hungary. Before 1464, it was owned by the kings of Hungary, afterwards (until 1528) by the Zápolya family, the Thurzo family (1531-1635), the Csáky family (1638-1945), аnd (since 1945) by the state (Czechoslovakia, and since 1993 Slovakia).In 2006, the castle attracted about 170,000 visitors.The castle is also frequently used as a location for films, including Dragonheart (1996), Phoenix, Kull the Conqueror (1997), The Lion in Winter (2003), The Last Legion (2006).

5. Zoological garden in Spišská Nová Ves spreads out on the area of 8 ha, in the southwestern part of the town. It is the youngest among ZOO´s in Slovakia (Košice, Bratislava, Bojnice), but it is no less beautifull. A stream flows through the ZOO area, which beautifully decorates a scenary of the ZOO. Many plants offer pleasant coolness to the visitors and animals. The lake is a sagnificant part of the ZOO garden and creates a natural development of ducks species and the individuals of free living species. It protects them and conserves their biotop. There are approximately 250 animals and 70 species at present in our ZOO. Among the most attractive animals, which are written in the Red book of endangered species are leopard or tiger ussurian. Another interesting living creatures in our ZOO are: camel, mandril, chimpanze, lama alpaka, ponny shetland, jaguar and others.

6. - www.wikipedia.org - www.museum.sk - www.onlineslovensko.sk

7. Alexandra Mosejová Barbora Hlavatá