Article Unfinished railway

Since most people, as well as me, don't like to return the same route with a friend, we came up with a circuit to the tunnels. We started in the village of Chyžné, where we climbed Ostrý vrch along the yellow tourist route and then descended along the same sign to the village of Slavošovce, where the passage through tunnels and an aqueduct begins.

The unfinished railway tunnel connects Revúcka with the Štítnice valley and measures 2,400 meters. The construction of the tunnel began in 1941. It was broken in 1944, work continued until 1949, when a change in political and social conditions lost its completion. The construction part of the tunnel arches is made of hand-worked granite blocks, some of which weigh up to 200 kilos. They were imported from a quarry above the village of Čierna Lehota. 700 workers worked on the construction site. Their quality work has also been checked by time, and to this day you have the impression that the work stopped only recently, not seventy years ago. The tunnel is 6.5 meters high, 4. wide. The tunnel was built as a so-called Gemer connection. He was to unite the territories cut off from Slovakia, after part of Gemer fell to Hungary. Five such tunnels were to be built using the new technique. The tunnel was supposed to turn in Štítnik and continue to Slavošovka, pass to the Magnezitoviec area towards Revúca, because Jelšava was already Hungarian territory at that time and was to be fed to the Brezno – Tisovec railway and from there the route led to Banská Bystrica. The construction of the tunnel was also of strategic interest to the then management of Slavošovské papierní. In order to easily import raw materials for paper production here – pulp from Gemerská Hôrka and shipped finished products all over the world. After 1949, however, the completion of the tunnel lost its significance. The territory occupied by the Hungarians returned to Slovakia. Likewise, the railways no longer showed interest in its completion.

The passage through the tunnel itself takes about 45 minutes, and if you leave Slavošovice you gradually descend. Necessary equipment during the transition is a headlamp, or other light as the tunnel measures up to 2,400 meters. Near the village of Magnezitovce, you can continue towards another shorter tunnel, which in the past served as a fruit warehouse and then a railway bridge.

A view of Magnezitovka and the tourist route, which has been lost since the beginning.

Throughout the trip you can see the remnants of the wind disaster from a few years ago, which was removed but no new trees were planted.

When descending from Ostrý vrch towards Slavošovka, it is necessary to rely on common sense, because the tourist route passes through an area where calamitous wood has not been removed and which is significantly overgrown with bushes. Locals claim that a bear also lives there, which is easy to believe due to the nature of the surroundings.

In the lower parts, it is more reasonable to follow the forest roads, which are very difficult to overlook in the country and descend to the village Slavošovce.

Even at the entrance to the tunnel, you can feel a welcome coolness in the summer months. During the transition itself, one feels that the building was not abandoned in 1949, but only a few years ago.

A cycle path passes through the shorter of the two tunnels and it is possible to cross it even without headlights.

Finally, it is crossed over the already mentioned railway bridge, which can be easily bypassed in case of disinterest. The bridge itself is the last of the technical monuments that were supposed to connect two Slovak cities in the past.