AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Just outside the hill village of Telgárt in central Slovakia, the Chmaroška Viaduct (Chmarošský viadukt) sweeps across a green valley on nine pale stone arches, so perfectly framed by the road that most visitors first see it through a car window and stop dead. Built in the 1930s as part of the remarkable Telgárt railway loop, this 113-metre-long, 18-metre-high curve of masonry is one of the most photographed technical monuments in the country—and one of the easiest to reach.↗↗
It makes a memorable stop on a drive through the Horehronie valley between Brezno and the Slovak Paradise, a short walk from Telgárt itself, or a highlight on the educational trail that climbs to the source of the river Hron. The viaduct sits in active railway service, so on a good day you can stand beneath its arches and watch a train glide across the curve above you.↗↗
A stone curve built to out-climb a hill
The viaduct is the showpiece of the Telgárt Loop (Telgártska slučka), an ingenious stretch of single-track railway on line 173 between Červená Skala and Margecany. When Czechoslovakia planned this east–west link in the 1920s, the steep ground around Telgárt posed a stubborn problem: how to gain height quickly in a tight space. The answer was a spiral of tunnels and bridges. Construction began with a ceremonial first dig on 31 May 1931, the local section was completed by the mid-1930s, and the whole line opened to public service on 26 July 1936.
