Medzilaborce

Andy Warhol's parents came from Miková, a Rusyn village a few kilometres from Medzilaborce, and after 1989 the family supported the founding of a museum here that holds original Warhol works, family material and pieces by his brother Paul. It is an odd thing to find in a town of a few thousand in the far northeast, and that oddity is the point. Wooden Greek Catholic churches stand in the villages around, and Poloniny is east.

History

The oldest record dates from 1543; the village belonged to the Drugeth, then the Csáky and later the Andrássy families, lay on a trade route to Poland over the Lupkov Pass from the 17th century, and became a town in 1860 (Wikipedia, Medzilaborce).

What you'll find

• The Warhol museum - original works and family material in a small northeastern town.
• The family connection - Mikova, the village his parents left, a few kilometres away.
• The Rusyn country - Greek Catholic villages and wooden churches around the town.
• The contrast - pop art in a remote Carpathian border town.

When to go

May to October is the most comfortable. The museum closes on Mondays and keeps shorter winter hours. The town is quiet year round.

Things to know

The collection is small by Warhol standards and some works rotate out. The town is remote and there is little else. Labelling is in Slovak with some English.

Nearby

Poloniny is east, and Humenne is south.

Key facts