Verona in Italy is known for the fictional story of Romeo and Juliet. But the unrequited love story from Banská Štiavnica is real.

The picturesque medieval town in central Slovakia is especially popular during Valentine's Day. Both local and foreign visitors come to the Love Bank, the only vault of this kind anywhere.

The love bank in Banská Štiavnica not only harbors the longest love poem in the world, entitled Marína, but people can store items that remind them of their loved ones, friends, family, and even pets, be it photos, letters, rings, or cinema tickets from their first date. It is open to people from all around the world.

The poem Marína was written between 1844 and 1846 by acclaimed Slovak poet Andrej Sládkovič, when he learned that his beloved Marína was going to marry someone else. Unfortunately, the love was not meant to be.

Andrej Sládkovič was from a poor family and had to interrupt his studies several times in order to earn money for his education. During one such break he became the tutor for one of the richest families in Banská Štiavnica, the Pischl family, meeting his muse. While he was absent, she was forced to marry a wealthy man. Heartbroken, Sládkovič finished the 2900-verse poem a year after his beloved's wedding. For more than 170 years it stood as the longest love poem and in 2017 it was officially recognized as such by the World Record Academy. Marína was translated into eight languages, including English and German.

 The poem is regarded as a Slovak national treasure. In schools, children memorise verses from Marína, and Slovakia has named streets, and even a town, after Sládkovič.

The vault, located in the historic House of Marína where she lived and secretly kept the manuscript, contains 100,000 tiny boxes. Each bears a single letter, punctuation mark or space from the original manuscript of the poem. People can preserve their items in the vault forever, or as long as they like. Each box is safe, protected by a special seal.

Couples on Valentine's day pour inside to archive important and cherished tokens that represent their love.

Once the boxes are full, the bank will become the "Epicenter of Love", or the place with the densest concentration of love in the world.

The love vault is not the sole tourist attraction in the House of Marína. There are talking images that tell the story of both lovers. Couples or even families can measure their love by using the world’s one and only LOVE-O-METER. The strength of their bond is represented by a verse from the poem. Visitors can also see the verses come to life and take a closer look at the copy of the original manuscript, which is as true to the original source as possible. The original is kept in the Slovak National Library. And there are more attractions to see in Banská Štiavnica as it is a protected Unesco World Heritage Site.

Whether you decide to open an account in the Love Bank or visit other monuments the town and its surrounding have to offer, traveling to Slovakia is always a good idea.