Museum of the Slovak Village

The museum at Martin is the largest open-air collection in Slovakia, covering some fifteen hectares of hillside with buildings arranged in groups representing Orava, Liptov, Turiec and Kysuce: farmhouses, barns, a church, a school, a pub and a fire station, furnished inside and set in gardens planted as they would have been. It sits within the wider Slovak National Museum in Martin, which also holds the ethnographic collections in the town.

History

Ján Geryk, secretary of the Slovak National Museum, proposed an open-air museum on Scandinavian models on 16 April 1931, and it was finally founded by the Slovak National Museum in Martin in 1961 (Wikipedia, Museum of the Slovak Village).

The main sights

• The regional groups - Orava, Liptov, Turiec and Kysuce buildings in separate clusters.
• The furnished interiors - houses fitted with tools, textiles and furniture.
• The wooden church - a timber church relocated to the site.
• The gardens - plots planted as the households would have kept them.

When to go

May to October is the main season and when buildings are open. Winter opening is limited. Craft and folklore events run through the summer.

Before you go

Many interiors are closed outside the summer season. The site is large and hilly with a lot of walking. Labelling is largely in Slovak.

Nearby

Martin is nearby, and the Velka Fatra rises east.

Key facts