Baku, November 3, AZERTAC Located in the centre of Slovakia, Vlkolínec is a remarkably intact settlement of 45 buildings with the traditional features of a central European village.It is the region’s most complete group of these kinds of traditional log houses, often found in mountainous areas.It was historically referred to as a “street” of Ružomberok, yet is situated about 7 kilometres from the town itself, in the mountains of the northern part of central Slovakia. It is a remarkably well preserved rural medieval settlement featuring wooden architecture typical of hillside and mountain areas. Its layout, defined in part by the hilly terrain of the mountains of Veľká Fatra, features log houses situated on narrow lots with stables, barns and smaller outbuildings in the rear. A canalized stream flows through the centre of the village. The surrounding landscape is formed by narrow strips of fields and pastures with haylofts, protected from the north by the Sidorovo Hill.Although the settlement has roots in the 10th century, its first records date to the late 14th century. The urban layout can be traced to this era as records indicate five streets in place by 1469. Most of the surviving buildings here, however, date from the 19th century. These include 43 nearly intact homesteads that retain a multitude of archaic building elements, the Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary built in 1875, a bell tower built in 1770, and a school.The settlement and its surrounding landscape form a balanced urban unit with a significant interaction between nature and humans. Vlkolínec represents the region’s best preserved and most complex urban unit of original folk architecture consisting of wooden houses and outbuildings, the wooden bell tower and mural buildings of the church and school.Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, Vlkolínec is a remarkably intact rural settlement of a characteristic central European type with log-built architecture.