Ľubovňa Open-Air Museum below the castle

A village where Rusyns, Gorals and Slovaks lived side by side

The open-air museum below Ľubovňa Castle (Ľubovniansky skanzen) opened in 1985 on the meadows beneath the castle hill in Stará Ľubovňa. The curators’ idea was to show the “lordly” life of the castle next to the peasant life at its foot. The exhibition presents a traditional village of upper Spiš and Šariš, where Rusyns, Gorals, Slovaks, Germans, Jews and Roma lived together for centuries. There are 32 dwellings and farm buildings, mostly from the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, moved here from surrounding villages.

The highlight is the wooden Greek Catholic Church of St Michael the Archangel, built in 1833 in the village of Matysová. It is a single-nave log building with a tall tower over the narthex and shingle roofs; inside is a three-tier Baroque-Classicist iconostasis from the first half of the 18th century. The church was moved to the museum in 1979 and reconsecrated in 1991: on major feast days liturgies are held here in Church Slavonic.

What to see

• Houses from different villages: a house from Veľký Lipník (1885), the Goral house of a village mayor from Veľká Lesná (1909), a shepherd’s cottage from Litmanová, a farmstead from Údol, and a house from Jarabina with a wooden gallery.
• Seasonal field dwellings from Litmanová — a small hut and a byre on distant meadows, where families spent the whole summer with their livestock to make hay for the winter.
• Scenes of family life in the interiors — a birth, a wedding, a funeral, a Christmas table — with explanations of old customs.
• Crafts: a smithy from Torysa, a joiner’s workshop, a roller mill from Sulín and an exhibition on the tinkers (drotári), travelling craftsmen who went to work in Hungary, Romania and Subcarpathian Ruthenia.
• A school of the First Czechoslovak Republic with the teacher’s flat, in the house from Údol.
• Farm animals — sheep, goats, poultry, rabbits, cows and horses — and a children’s corner with folk toys.

Practical information

The museum lies right below Ľubovňa Castle on the northern edge of Stará Ľubovňa, next to the shared car park. A visit takes about an hour and you walk round on your own; groups can book a guide, including in English or Polish (groups of more than 20, at least two days ahead). The grounds are level grassy meadows with earth paths, so it suits families with children; in summer you can have a picnic here.

In 2026 the open-air museum opens from May to 13 September daily 9:00–19:00, in the second half of September until 18:00 and in October Wednesday to Sunday 10:00–17:00; from November to March it is closed, while the castle opens Friday to Sunday (as of October 2026). Tickets: adults €5, children aged 6–19 €3, students and over-60s €4, family €10. If you plan to see the castle too, the combined ticket at €13 (family €24) is better value. Dogs are not allowed.

Nearby

Above the museum rises Ľubovňa Castle with its keep and replicas of the Polish crown jewels. The region’s other large open-air museum is in Bardejovské Kúpele, and to the west, in the Pieniny, is Červený Kláštor.

Official website: hradlubovna.sk

Photos: Miro Svorc, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Peter ivancik, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Jiří Komárek, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Henryk Bielamowicz, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Georges Jansoone (User:JoJan), CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.