Ethnographic Museum of the Slovak National Museum, Martin

The Ethnographic Museum of the Slovak National Museum in Martin (SNM – Etnografické múzeum) is the main building of SNM – Museums in Martin and holds the most complete collection of folk culture in Slovakia. The museum stands in the centre of Martin, on Malá hora street, in a monumental functionalist building with "Slovenské národné múzeum" written across the façade. It is a good starting point for understanding how Slovak villages lived before heading to the open-air museum on the edge of town or into the Malá Fatra mountains.

The museum's history is closely tied to the Slovak national movement of the late 19th century. On the initiative of the priest and scholar Andrej Kmeť, the Slovak Museum Society was founded in Martin in April 1893 with the aim of creating a national museum. The first building was erected in 1906–1907 to a design by the architect Milan Michal Harminc, and the first exhibitions opened there in 1908. The collections grew fast, and with money raised in 1928–1932 by what was essentially a nationwide collection, Harminc designed a second, functionalist building. It opened in 1933, and the exhibitions installed by 1938 covered 4,620 m² — at the time one of the most modern museums in Europe. The museum was nationalised in 1948 and since 1961 has served as the national ethnographic museum; from 1964 it began building the open-air Museum of the Slovak Village, Martin.

What to see

The permanent ethnographic exhibition, opened in 1974–1975, consists of three thematic parts: "Man and the Land", "Man and Material" and "Man and Clothing".

• Man and the Land — traditional occupations: ploughing, harvesting with sickles and scythes, the harvest festival with a wreath for the farmer, storing crops, as well as livestock and sheep farming. On show are shepherds' vessels — ladles, moulds for oštiepok cheese — shepherds' axes, bells, leather belts and moccasins, and shepherds' instruments, including the fujara, inscribed on UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2005.
• Man and Material — how villagers worked wood (a boat hollowed out of a single trunk, oil presses, a beehive, moulds for gingerbread and butter), wove baskets from willow, straw and maize husks, and wove and knitted textiles; pottery from dozens of Slovak centres, Habán faience, smithwork, folk jewellery, glass and stone gravestones.
• Man and Clothing — folk costumes from mountain and southern regions, work and festive dress, headwear of girls and married women, wedding costumes from western, central and eastern Slovakia, and widows' dress.

The objects are complemented by large photographs by the classics of Slovak photography Karol Plicka and Pavol Socháň, as well as proverbs and sayings. The museum also holds temporary exhibitions, and from April to October the museum garden next to the building is open.

Practical information

Martin lies in the Turiec basin between the Malá Fatra and Veľká Fatra; the museum is in the town centre and easy to reach on foot. The exhibitions are open Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Mondays. An adult ticket costs €5; children over 6, students and seniors 62+ pay €3, and there are family tickets; details are in the "At a glance" box. You can pay by cash or card.

Allow 1–2 hours for the permanent exhibition. A guided tour must be booked in advance for an extra fee, and organised groups of more than 10 people should book at least two working days ahead. With a museum ticket, entry to the garden is free. The museum is easy to combine with the Museum of the Slovak Village in one day, as both belong to the same institution.

Nearby: trails and peaks

Above Martin rises the Martinské hole massif of the Malá Fatra. From the Stráne district the Martin, Stráne – Krížava, transmitter trail climbs to Krížava summit with its TV tower, and from neighbouring Bystrička there is the Bystrička – Martinské hole, cottages trail. A few kilometres from the centre, in the Jahodnícke háje woods, lies the Museum of the Slovak Village, Martin, an open-air museum of folk architecture from all regions of Slovakia.

Official website: snm.sk

Photos: Kamil Korecz, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; I would appreciate being notified if you use my work outside Wikimedia. More..., CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Michal Jakubský, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Mariusz Raniszewski, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Ing.Mgr.Jozef Kotulič, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.