Even though the name of my Bachelor thesis is “Jelšava – The Republic square”, the aim is to tackle urban as well as socio-economic problems of Jelšava and use its potentials to make the town a better place for living. The priority is to redesign the main public space: The Republic square, which will trigger the revitalization of the whole town.Jelšava is located in one of the richest Slovakian cultural regions, Gemer. In the past Jelšava was one of the most important and most prominent towns but today has only 3000 citizens with more than 20% unemployment. It was well known for people being talented in handcraft and later for its healing bathhouse. Moreover, this small place has a rich historical value for the region and Slovakia itself and that can be seen especially through the remains of the architectural pieces mainly located in the heritage conservation zone. These buildings, despite the quite bad condition, have an authentic architectural character which make Jelšava unique. Most of them are without function and in many of them lives marginalized Roma population. The air pollution is a problem that has raised in the past few years and that can be noticed on the hills around the town where it used to be forest all over. Moreover, an interesting fact is that despite the adequate weather conditions and the good agriculture land, people are not even producing food for their needs.The Republic square plays an important role in the urban organism of Jelšava. First of all, it behaves as an entrance door to the town, secondly it is the main representative public space and third, it is part of heritage conservation zone. Around the square are most of the National Cultural Heritage buildings but the most dominant are the Roman Catholic Church, the castle Coburgovcov, the museum and the Local Authority building. The challenging part of the whole design is the terrain since it has big height differences from to another side.My proposal is to separate mainly the traffic from the pedestrian free zone by making the bigger part of the square at the same level. Simultaneously, I felt the need to create bigger entrance space in front of the Local Authority building by creating stairs towards the two biggest surfaces: In front of the Church and in front of the Castle. This is how the building can easily “breath” – showing off its representative function and at the same part being part of the atmosphere of the new public space. The space in front of the church has also a water element – an atypical fountain that makes the place more alive especially in the summer. Whereas, the space in front of the Castle is more thought to be a multifunction surface, offering variety of different usage: portable café, stairs for sitting, expositions etc. An additional value for this space is its connection to the atrium of the castle and to the castle’s gardens which makes the public space even more vibrant flexible. The castle itself is going to transform into handcraft studios as well as touristic info points. This is how local people can get knowledge about restoration and later apply it while fixing the facades of the buildings. The road that passes right between them is visually “camouflaged” by putting on both sides flowerpots.From south, the square is connected to a small “largo” space – another public space with a water element as well. It is like a transition space to the area in front of the Evangelic Church or the area of commercial and services. And from the north side, the representative part starts to change to a local chill – habitable street - like space. It has the pear trees which are a cultural heritage and a urban gardening pavilion which is supposed help in raising people’s awareness about agriculture and its benefits. It continuous with a few play stops such as play yard for kids and elderly a small outdoor sport and recreational zone. It ends with the Baptist Church from where transforms into a street.Architecture can be defined by the three dimensions of volume; urban space is formed by three dimensions of void. As we move through such space we can also experience the fourth dimension of time. - GREAT PUBLIC SQUARES – Robert F. Gatje