Long before anyone drew a border here, the Morava valley was a road. It runs almost due north from the Danube toward the Moravian Gate, the low pass that lets traffic cross from the Danube basin onto the north European plain, and traders used it from the Bronze Age onwards — the route later called the Amber Road came this way. People farmed this stretch of the river from the Neolithic. The frontier of the Roman Empire lay far to the south on the Danube, so this bank was outside the empire and no town stood here yet. Everything Skalica later becomes — a market, a customs post, a walled border town — grows out of that road.Dávno predtým, než tu ktokoľvek nakreslil hranicu, bolo údolie Moravy cestou. Tiahne sa takmer priamo na sever od Dunaja k Moravskej bráne — nízkemu priesmyku, ktorým sa dá prejsť z Podunajska na severoeurópsku nížinu — a obchodníci ním chodili už od doby bronzovej; tadiaľto viedla trasa, ktorú neskôr nazvali Jantárová cesta. Ľudia tento úsek rieky obrábali od neolitu. Hranica Rímskej ríše ležala ďaleko na juhu, na Dunaji, takže tento breh bol mimo ríše a mesto tu ešte nestálo. Všetko, čím sa Skalica neskôr stane — trh, mýtnica, opevnené pohraničné mesto — vyrastie práve z tej cesty.
