Spiš Museum in Spišská Nová Ves (Provincial House)

The Spiš Museum (Múzeum Spiša) in Spišská Nová Ves is one of the most comprehensive regional museums in eastern Slovakia. It was founded in 1951, has been run by the Košice Self-Governing Region since 2002, and its collections hold about 150,000 items: history, ethnography, art, the history of music and technology, numismatics, archaeology, mining, mineralogy, palaeontology, botany and zoology. It collects across the whole of historic Spiš, so it tells the story of the Tatras, the Slovak Paradise and the mining towns above the Hornád.

The museum occupies one of the town's most beautiful buildings – the Provincial House (Provinčný dom), a national cultural monument in the middle of the long main square. From the 15th century until 1775 it was the town hall, and in 1775–1876 the administrative centre of the Province of the 16 Spiš Towns. During the rebuilding of 1775–1776, led by the master mason F. Bartl, the façade was decorated with lavish Rococo stucco and six cartouches whose allegories recall the virtues that should guide public officials. The tin shield with the province's coat of arms was added at the end of the 19th century, when the building housed the Savings Bank of the 16 Spiš Towns. The museum has been in the building since 1954.

What to see

• The historical exhibition (2021) in four parts: the building history of the Provincial House itself, the Province of the 16 Spiš Towns, the history of Spiš and the history of Spišská Nová Ves.
• "Nature of Spiš" – a new natural history exhibition. The first part (2022) presents the museum's unique natural history collections and introduces the region; the second (opened on 29 February 2024) covers the Tatras, the Poprad Basin, the Kozie chrbty ridge and the Levoča Hills. The guiding thread is the rivers Poprad, Dunajec, Hornád and Hnilec; the rooms show characteristic habitats, rocks and minerals, palaeontological finds and typical animals and plants.
• Temporary exhibitions – the museum holds them regularly; in 2026, for example, there is a family nature exhibition about the European ground squirrel with a model of its burrow.

The Spiš Museum also runs branches nearby: the manor house and the Dardanely summer palace in Markušovce, with exhibitions of historic furniture and keyboard instruments, and an ethnographic museum in Smižany. The Renaissance manor of the Máriássy family was built in 1643, and the Rococo Dardanely palace has a hall with frescoes of Greek mythology; its collection of pianos, positive organs and harmoniums is the only one of its kind in Slovakia.

Practical information

The Provincial House stands in the middle of the main square, in the pedestrian zone; from Spišská Nová Ves railway station (Košice – Poprad – Žilina line) it is about a 15-minute walk. The museum is open every day except Saturday; a full visit costs 7 €, and there is a good-value family ticket (details in the "At a glance" box). Allow an hour to an hour and a half. For children, the nature hall with animals and minerals is the most exciting part. You can pay in cash, by card or by phone. The square is easy with a pushchair; for the museum rooms, check in advance.

Nearby: trails and peaks

Our trails Spišská Nová Ves, square – Meadow below Muráň and Spišská Nová Ves, square – Spišská Nová Ves, station start on the square right by the museum. Spišská Nová Ves is the main gateway to the Slovak Paradise: half an hour's drive away are the Hornád River Gorge (Prielom Hornádu) and Kláštorisko – Carthusian Monastery Ruins. On the same day you can easily combine the museum with the Basilica of St James, Levoča (12 km) and the Spiš Museum in Levoča.

Official website: muzeumspisa.com

Photos: Marekkacir, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Ing.Mgr.Jozef Kotulič, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.