Treasures of Austria-Hungary - Košice/Kossa

At the beginning of The World of Yesterday Stefan Zweig conjures up the secure world of his childhood, which he spent in Vienna, a citizen of the pre-war Austro-Hungarian empire. Zweig then proceeds to describe how that sense of security he and his fellow citizens experienced was an illusion:

Despite Zweig's persuasive arguments, plus those of quite recent history, ever since I first started visiting the territories that were formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, it has struck me that, the sense of security its citizens felt, the idea that the civilisation that they were part of was something special - possibly even unique in human history - could surely not have been entirely misguided. Even in the depths of Ceaucescu’s rule, the central square of Timisoara, for example, lifted the heart with its hint that things could be beautiful. Today, visiting Košice, Slovakia’s second town - but little known outside the country - I was again overwhelmed by the loveliness of what Zweig’s so-called World of Yesterday has left behind. Here are the photographs I took of just the first fifteen minutes - I promise this is merely the initial impression, no more than the surface - that I spent in the town - and here are a few, if the link does not work, as sometimes links don't, in my experience: