Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art, Medzilaborce

Pop art in his parents’ homeland

Medzilaborce is a small town in north-eastern Slovakia, in the Rusyn region near the Polish border. It was from here, from the nearby village of Miková, that Andy Warhol’s parents, Julia and Andrej Warhola, emigrated to the USA in the early 20th century. In 1991 the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art opened here — the world’s first museum dedicated to the “king of pop art”. It was founded on the initiative of the artist’s brother John Warhola, Michal Bycko and Fred Hughes, with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York; on 9 September 1991 the first 13 original works arrived, and on 5 October the exhibition “Andy Warhol in the Country of His Parents” opened. Since 2002 the museum has been run by the Prešov Self-Governing Region.

In 2023–2026 the building was completely reconstructed at a cost of almost €16 million. The museum reopened on 3 September 2026 with renewed exhibition and education spaces, interactive features, a digital iconostasis and a green roof with an amphitheatre.

What to see

• Works by Andy Warhol — loans from the Warhol Foundation and private collectors, plus the museum’s own holdings. The permanent exhibition has included, among others, Campbell’s Soup, Marilyn, Camouflage, Flowers and the early coloured pen drawing “In the Bottom of My Garden”. The museum also owns two original issues of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine from November and December 1974 — one signed by the artist — and screens have looped excerpts of his films, including the “Screen Test” of Warhol eating a hamburger. Andy’s own clothes complete the display — a snakeskin jacket, a jacket, a shirt and a tie.
• The exhibition on the artist’s origins — documents and objects testifying to the family’s Rusyn roots: the christening gown in which the sons Paul, John and Andy were baptised, and Andy’s personal belongings — a camera, a cassette player, sunglasses, a prayer book and clothes.
• Pop art and street art — works by artists who knew Warhol personally or were inspired by him.
• In front of the museum stands a statue of Andy Warhol with an umbrella, and on the hill opposite the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit.

The line-up of exhibitions after the reconstruction may differ — the museum website publishes the programme.

Practical information

The museum stands in the town centre on Andy Warhol street. A branch railway runs to Medzilaborce, and with a ZSSK ticket to the town you get 20% off admission. By car you reach the town up the Laborec valley. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–17:00, last entry 16:00, closed on Mondays (as of October 2026). Adult tickets cost €10; pupils from 6, students, seniors and disabled visitors €5; family ticket €20; under-6s free; a guided tour can be booked for €20. All the galleries are in one building, so the museum is a good choice for a rainy day too.

Nearby

To the south lies the Krásny Brod monastery, an old centre of Rusyn spirituality. To the west, near Svidník, stand the UNESCO wooden churches of Bodružal and Ladomirová, and to the south-east the Starina reservoir in the Poloniny.

Official website: muzeumaw.sk

Photos: Ben Skála, Benfoto, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Lowdown, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Goku122, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Scotch Mist, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Goldi Wwa, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.