Set off for culture by train! European Culture Summer is the best time to discover Trenčín – food, music, history, art, and the evening atmosphere of the city await you.
🚆 What is the Culture Express
The Culture Express is a special train carriage with its own cultural programme, taking you straight into the heart of the action.
17 July 2026 – Train Ex 621
Bratislava 13:15 → Košice 18:53
18 July 2026 – Train Ex 618
Košice 13:07 → Bratislava 18:45
🎟️ Free return ticket
On both days, 17 and 18 July, thanks to ZSSK you can travel to Trenčín with a free return ticket – valid on all their trains, not just the Culture Express.
Programme in the Culture Express carriage
Throughout the whole ride, a supporting programme awaits you in the carriage – it runs continuously along the entire route, so you don’t need to go anywhere.
- Vegetable Puppet Diorama Workshop with Marianna Ambrušová (17–18 July) – a creative workshop where miniature puppet scenes are made from vegetables and fruit.
- Houže Theatre: The Terribly Thick Forest, or Hansel and Gretel (18 July only) – a detective theatre adventure for young and old alike, 40 minutes, suitable for ages 6+.
- What Does Trenčín Taste Like – brownie tasting (17–18 July) – a dessert by chef Pavol Žiška, inspired by a taste survey about the city.
You’ll find more about each activity below, in the section “More about the carriage programme.”
What can you experience over the weekend of 17–18 July?
Friday 17 July
- Za stolom (At the Table) – a festival about people, food, and everything in between | from 16:00 | Hviezdoslavova Street
- Night tours of the castle – When History Speaks… | 17:00 – 22:00 | Trenčín Castle
- Music picnic – Pavel Čadek (CZ) | 19:00 | Átrium pod vežou
Saturday 18 July
- Za stolom (At the Table) – a festival about people, food, and everything in between | from 16:00 | Hviezdoslavova Street
- Night tours of the castle – When History Speaks… | 17:00 – 22:00 | Trenčín Castle
- Summer Saturdays at the Castle – Katovňa z Turca | 11:00 – 17:00 | Trenčín Castle Opening of the Ora et ARS symposium | 15:00 | Veľká Skalka Monastery grounds
- Summer Classics – Ana Vyparinová Krsmanovič (accordion) and Eugen Prochác (cello) | 16:00 | Átrium of the Piarist Grammar School, Trenčín
- Vojtík concert | 20:00 | LUMó HUB
More about the carriage programme
🥕 Vegetable Puppet Diorama – workshop with Marianna Ambrušová (17–18 July)
What happens when a carrot, a pepper, or a broccoli turns into a bizarre theatrical creature? The Vegetable Puppet Diorama workshop invites participants to discover a playful world somewhere between sculpture, puppetry, stage design, and photography.
Under the guidance of visual artist Marianna Ambrušová, participants will create original miniature creatures from pieces of fresh vegetables and fruit. Intuitive shaping, simple wire constructions, and small modelling techniques open up space for imagination, humour, and unexpected transformations.
Each object then becomes part of a carefully prepared stage-design environment – a miniature diorama with a layered background that gives it atmosphere and a story. The result of the workshop is not just an ephemeral sculptural composition, but above all its photographic record – an image resembling a theatre scene, a collage, or an illustration.
Vegetable Puppet Diorama combines working with natural materials, experimental creation, and the principles of stage design into a unique creative experience, in which even an ordinary vegetable can become the main hero of its own imaginary world.
🎭 Houže Theatre: The Terribly Thick Forest, or Hansel and Gretel (18 July)
Who doesn’t know the story of Hansel and Gretel? This time, however, Houže Theatre brings a detective adventure that will appeal to young and old alike.
It’s told by none other than forester Peter Martinček himself, a caring woodsman who suddenly has to get to the bottom of where the famine came from, why the Egg never set off on its travels, and why a great, terribly thick shadow has fallen over the fairy-tale land!
The production won the Children’s Jury Award at the Virvar 2026 festival in Košice and was created with support from the Slovak Arts Council.
Concept, text and direction: Matej Truban
Dramaturgy: Hana Launerová
Set, puppets and costumes: Michaela Zajačková and Michaela Urbanová
Performed by: Lukáš Takáč
Duration: 40 minutes
Age suitability: 6+
🍫 What Does Trenčín Taste Like – brownie with cherries, coffee and elderflower-acacia syrup (17–18 July)
During the ride on the Culture Express Trenčín 2026, the programme will include a tasting from the “What Does Trenčín Taste Like” activity – an edible portrait of the city, created from residents’ ideas about its taste, gathered through a survey focused on ingredients and taste associations connected with Trenčín.
Passengers will be able to taste a brownie with cherries, coffee, and elderflower-acacia syrup, a dessert created as a sweet interpretation of this collective recipe for the city. It combines the intensity of chocolate, the bitterness of coffee, and a delicate fruity-herbal note of cherries and elderflower-acacia syrup into a unique taste that carries the character of Trenčín – layered, local, and surprising.
The recipe for this dessert was created by Trenčín chef Pavol Žiška, who is behind the culinary interpretation of the “What Does Trenčín Taste Like” activity.
The brownie is not just a dessert, but a sensory record of the city – its ideas, landscape, and flavours, which can be tasted for a moment during the train journey.
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We are the largest passenger rail operator in public railway transport, carrying more than 200,000 passengers daily on over 1,800 trains across Slovakia. As the largest provider of electromobility, we transport more than 70 million passengers annually, including 50 million by electric trains. We invest in modern carriages, skilled professionals, and sustainable transport. With us, every journey is comfortable, safe, and environmentally friendly.
