Slovak paradise is a photographic essay about a Gypsy settlement in middle Slovakia, situated on the northern border of Slovak Paradise National Park. With an estimated population of over 700, Letanovský Mlyn lacks electricity, heat, telephones, running water, transportation services, and other basic infrastructure standard in modern European countries. For more than one hundred years a Romany camp has existed at the site of Letanovce Mlyn. Then Czechoslovak president Vaclav Havel visited the Letanovce Romany settlement in 1990 stating that these living conditions are shameful for the whole republic.
In the next years the inhabitans should move into houses which are being built in the locality of Strelnik, few kilometers from their current location, and the cottages in the settlement will be bulldozed.
I visited the settlement twice and was kindly hosted by a family where I stayed for a period of time.
Martin Ilcik is a photographer living in Bratislava, Slovakia.
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Photos by Martin Ilcik.
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