Museum of the Kysuce Village

The museum at Vychylovka combines a skanzen of Kysuce log buildings with a surviving section of the forest railway that once linked Kysuce and Orava, and the railway is the reason most people come: to climb the hillside it uses reversing switchbacks, where the train runs forward up one leg, stops, and reverses up the next, a system of which very few working examples remain anywhere. Steam and diesel trains run the line in season.

Highlights

• The switchback railway - reversing sections used to climb the hillside, rare anywhere.
• The steam trains - locomotives running the line on scheduled days.
• The Kysuce buildings - log houses and farms relocated to the valley.
• The valley setting - the museum strung along a forested Kysuce valley.

When to go

May to September is the season; the railway runs on a schedule that should be checked, with steam only on certain days. The museum closes in winter. Weekends are busiest.

Things to know

The railway runs to a limited timetable and steam days are fewer still; turning up without checking often means no train. The site is spread along the valley and involves walking. Labelling is in Slovak.

Nearby

Cadca is west, and Orava is east over the ridge.

Key facts