Annual awards of
the Monuments and Museums magazine for 2016
Dušan Buran
Unknown Flemish grisaille
manuscript from Betliar
The circumstances
that led to the discovery of the rare, 15th century illuminated manuscript in
the Betliar Manor House were bizarre: it was found in the drawer of a baroque
chest that was unopened for decades. The value of this miniature script of Ilona
Andrássy’s Book of Watches, attributed to Willem Vrelant’s Flemish studio, is
priceless in our public collections, as it could not be compared to anything
similar. It even includes a dedication: “To my most beloved granddaughter,
Ilona Andrássy. June 1934,” so we know its last owner.
The term “watches” in this case meant the medieval collections of
prayers, mostly pocket-sized, intended for praying in privacy. They were
amongst the most widespread types of book painting in Western Europe’s
handwritten collections. The book usually started with a calendar, followed by daily
Marian prayers (officium Beatae Mariae Virgines), often accompanied by night
prayers for the deceased ones (officium mortuorum). They were usually inherited
from generation to generation, which can be explained by the fact that quite a
large number have been preserved in the West up to this day in excellent
condition – e.g. the Livre d’heures by Jeanne d’Évreux (1324-1328), Très Riches
Heures du Duc de Berry (1412-1416) and Grandes Heures de Rohan (1430-1435).
The Betliar’s miniature codex was written and illuminated at the same
time, approximately between 1460 and 1480. Its leather binding, which protects
276 films, is probably from the 19th century (85 × 65 × 30 mm). The calendar is
on the films 2r – 13v. The list of
saints, or diocese patrons, helps us to recognise the local liturgical customs.
In this case, it seems we are talking about the Ghent – Bruges region. The
films contain 15 illuminated double-sided pages with figural scenes that worked
as breaks between the prayers. The films with more modest decoration only have
pen-drawn initials, also called fleuronée, highlighted in blue and red, and
sometimes in gold.
The highlights of the decoration are figural scenes that the
illuminator set either in a mountainous landscape with a vast horizon (King
David, Visitation, Annunciation to the Shepherds, Flight into Egypt, etc.) or
the interior (Judgment of Solomon, Annunciation, Introduction in the Temple,
St. Jerome in his Study, etc.). Also unique is the specific painting style with
reduced colour, in grey tones – grisaille.
In a wider context, Ilona Andrássy’s Book of Watches from Betliar will
soon become the subject of international research. This will no doubt help to
expand the knowledge on Flemish book painting in the third quarter of the 15th
century.
Ján Aláč
Collection of
diving gear of Peter Ferdinandy from Revúca
The Gemer-Malohont
Museum in Rimavská Sobota had its first contact with the large collection of
the historical diving gear of Peter Ferdinandy from Revúca in 2005, when
organising the exhibition Diving Yesterday and Today. A year later, the museum
managed to secure the finances needed for acquiring this remarkable and unique
collection in Slovakia.
The beginnings of
cave diving in the Gemer-Malohont region go to the 1950s. The collector Peter
Ferdinady (1948) from Revúca was one of the founders of the diving sport in the
1970s. He helped to initiate the Club of Sport diving – Vega Lubeník (1976) and
was a diving instructor mainly in eastern Slovakia. He was also active in cave diving
and up to this date has helped with researching flooded caves in the Tisovec
and Muráň karst area.
He co-published
a number of books on diving, diving gear and cave diving. He became the
instructor with the highest diving qualification in Slovakia with three CMAS
stars (Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques – World Underwater Federation).
He is one of the founding members of the Historical Diving Society in Czech
Republic (HDS CZ), which also studies the history of diving in Slovakia.
Peter Ferdinady had
been collecting the diving gear while still actively diving and also, thanks to
his professional and friends contacts in Slovakia as well as abroad. He had
collected and exhibited these items for over four decades. The collection
contains original diving gear from Europe as well as other parts of the world,
including various DIY items such as knives, batteries, snorkels, masks and
depth gauges. There are quite a few boxes used for shooting photos and videos
under water. An interesting addition is the homemade subaquatic scooter from
1990.
The collected items
represent diving gear of the second half of the 20th century, mainly the 1960s
and 1980s. There are diving suits, vests, gloves, shoes, breathing technique
and flippers, as well as pressure bottles and resuscitation apparatus, with
inflatable boats. Also included are gear manuals, diving instructions and other
related printouts. In total, there are 504 collection items.
Peter Barta – Anna
Gondová
Celts from
Bratislava
The exhibition Celts from Bratislava (Slovak National Museum-Historical
Museum Bratislava, December 14, 2016 – October 1, 2017) offered an impressive
insight into the times, when the first known name of an ethnicity who lived in
the territory of today’s Slovak capital – the Celts. More than 2,000 years ago,
the Celtic oppidum was situated in the place of Bratislava and its borders even
exceeded the size of the later medieval city. The existence of this settlement
is recorded by a number of archaeological finds – authentic items or
architectural remains. The richness of the oppidum can be seen in the findings
from the Bratislava Castle. The castle hill, then the Celtic Acropolis,
contains remains of buildings that carry signs of unprecedented luxury that
were by then unknown in the region. The Roman craftsmen probably built them for
the Celtic people, as the analogies in the floor of the opus signinum type used
on the northern terrace of the Bratislava Castle were found in Pompeii,
Herculaneum and Paestum. The Celts brought inventions unknown in the territory
of Slovakia: potter’s wheel, scissors and rotary mill. They were skilful smiths
and artists, who often drew inspiration from their rich mythology. The Celtic
coinage started its era in Slovakia, so the coin of the Biatec type from
Bratislava is also the symbol of the National Bank of Slovakia.
The Celtic exhibition in Bratislava had its premiere in Perugia,
Italy, in 2016, when Slovakia presided over the Council of the European Union.
In the course of four months it was seen by more than 30,000 visitors.
Subsequently, it was transferred to the basement areas of Bratislava Castle,
which are in situ connected with the life of the Celtic elite living in the
Celtic city acropolis. The installation of the exhibition naturally encompassed
the conserved remains of the walls and floors of Celtic-Roman architectures
from the 1st century BC, preserved under the inner courtyard of the castle.
Zuzana Koblišková
Dream × Reality.
Art & Propaganda 1939 – 1945
When the walls of Bratislava’s Slovak National Gallery were bursting
at the seams in 2012, as the visitors flocked to see the exhibition Interrupted
Song that displayed the art of socialist realism, the enormous interest was
anticipated. It was a tradition that the same people would come to the
exhibition openings and Sunday public lectures. Those times are long gone but
the Slovak National Gallery now knows how to attract visitors. Instead of
luring them with world’s famed artists, it focuses on the locals. Most
importantly, its larger projects go beyond the gallery’s bounds and map the
wider historical and social context of fine art in selected periods or themes.
In addition to art, it also presents non-art, kitsch, as well as aspects of
everyday life. The exhibition Dream × Reality. Art & Propaganda 1939 – 1945
(20th October 2016 – 26th February 2017) was seen by 26,000 visitors. Over 30
accompanying programs helped to explain and educate the public about the
exhibition’s legacy during the 114 days it was on.
The era of the wartime Slovak state (1939-1945) collaborating with the
Third Empire is still that part of our history we have not managed to come to
terms with yet. That is why it was necessary to present this art in a sensitive
way, with respect to the dangerous pitfalls of the propaganda that produced it.
Even today, it can still evoke ideologically devious resentments. Curators
Katarína Bajcurová, Petra Hanáková and Bohunka Koklesová did not moralise, on
the contrary, they created a space, which made the period’s paradoxes clearly
legible. It is commendable that the galley created the web pate
http://senxskutocnost.sng.sk, which explains the Slovak state’s history in four
chapters: Half way to creating the Slovak state; One nation, one party, one leader;
70,000 victims; and Sobering up from the Dream. The chapters refer to
multimedia links, explain the terminology and encourage visitors to explore
other contexts.
Katarína Kolbiarz Chmelinová
Levoča – new part
of the “monuments list”
Just recently, a new, third issue of the edition National Cultural
Monuments in Slovakia – Levoča appeared on our book market. It was published by
the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic in cooperation with the Slovart
publishing house, and financially supported by the Slovak Culture Ministry and
the Research and Development Agency.
After the introduction of the historical development of the monitored
site, the authors offer an overview of its urban, architectural and
artistic-historical progress. In the case of ancient Levoča, which was declared
a municipal monument site in 1950 and added to the UNESCO World Heritage List
in 2009, these introductory sections cover almost 80 pages. After them we learn
basic facts about the town’s historical names, coat of arms and the town’s
monuments with their locations. The monuments, arranged in groups from public
buildings, through immovable and movable sacral monuments, burgher houses and
historical monuments to art and technical monuments, are identified by a number
from the Central List of the Monuments Fund and pictogram characterizing the
relevant type of monument. The publication is richly illustrated with colour
and black-and-white period photographs and maps. It also lists the used
literature and other sources, name and local register and used abbreviations.
The editors of the publication are Norma Urbanová, Barbora Kosová and
Ľubica Szerdová-Veľasová, the latter an expert guarantor of this long-term book
edition of the National Cultural Monuments. An extensive team of professionals
from three generations of the Slovak conservationists worked on the book. Its
680 pages, illustrated by hundreds of archive documents, maps, period and
contemporary photographs, offer to the professional as well as lay public the
most complete overview of the monumental values of Levoča, which is one of
the most preserved historical urban units of Slovakia, as well as the gem of
the world’s cultural heritage.
Viera Drahošová
25 years of Záhorie
homeland magazine
The Záhorie magazine originated in Skalica, a town
in western Slovakia with a rich cultural, publishing and printing tradition. At
its birth in 1991, the magazine partially substituted the popular homeland
magazine Malovaný kraj (Painted Landscape), which, after successfully covering
both sides of the Morava River for decades, the Slovak as well as Moravian
(Czech), confined its function to Moravian territory only.
The magazine was founded in the grounds of the Záhorské
Museum in Skalica,
in addition to its basic activities. Renowned personalities of social science,
including Konštantín Palkovič, Jozef Novák, Rudolf
Krajčovič and Eva Fordinálová, guaranteed the expert level of the magazine in the
first years. Since its start, the magazine has focused on presenting the history,
traditions, culture and nature of the Záhorie (western Slovak) region. It
publishes entries from archaeology, history, ethnology, linguistics,
musicology, natural science, as well as artistic, literary, theatrical, musical
and religious life. It introduces important personalities of the region,
highlights important anniversaries, reports on significant cultural and social
events, informs about new research results of the Záhorie Museum as well as
other fund and cultural institutions, presents museum collections, reviews
museum editions and other publications from the region.
The magazine is published bi-monthly, with 2,000 copies, in A5 format
on at least 32 full-colour pages. The result of the 25 years of work is
reflected in the magazine’s 148 issues, as well as several separate supplements
dedicated to the municipalities of the Záhorie region, which amass over 4,500
pages and almost a quarter of a million of copies.
Ivan Staník
Town fortification
of Trnava and its restoration
The first report on the construction of the fortification defence
system of Trnava city, or rather unidentified urban ditches, comes from the
document dated 1258. However, the diplomatic criticism proved the document’s
younger origin, probably from the beginning of the 14th century. The defence
system consisted of about thirty square-plan towers, built of burnt bricks and
regularly arranged in an almost symmetrical rectangular scheme, interconnected
with a ground walled structure.
The idea to preserve and present the Trnava town fortification
appeared at the end of the 1960s. At that time, the historic built-up area
within the city fortification was still preserved to its original extent,
however, in a relatively bad construction-technical condition. The younger
additions to the fortification did not allow for more accurate estimation on
conserving the original structures. After removing the undesirable additions,
the fortification was to be lined with public green areas on both sides.
Geodetic survey mapped the actual state of a three-kilometre long
fortification with various degrees of preserved (or non-preserved)
architectures in 1969. The methodology and project documentation was prepared
for the construction renovation. The works were first complicated with the
deconstruction of the additions, and later it was the wrongly used technology
in the implementation phase. This caused the reconstructed parts to later fall
apart.
In 1990, the City of Trnava replaced the conservation institutions, as
an investor of the demanding restoration and revitalization of the town
fortifications. They have continued to cooperate with the conservationists,
carrying out architectural-historical researches of each individual
construction or fortification section, as well as architectural research of no
longer existing parts. Today, as the renovation of this remarkable monument
reaches completion, the individual sections of the fortification are gradually
being opened to the public, such as galleries, towers, bastions and areas near
walls. The extensive fortification is being integrated back into the city’s
organism.
Jozef Dorica
Restoration of St.
George’s rotunda near Nitrianska Blatnica
Rotunda of St. George stands on a rocky tip, under the foot of the Marhát hill,
amidst the woods of Inovec Mountain. It was built as part of an unknown
settlement, which lasted for about five centuries. Based on the archaeological
research, it originated at the beginning of the 9th century and gradually
disappeared in the 13th century. The rotunda is located about 5 km northwest of
Nitrianska Blatnica and accessible by a forest path.
The building consists of a nave and apse and its original masonry has
been preserved to a large extent. The younger part of the rotunda is a simple,
one-room addition of the hermitage. It is the only preserved structure of this
type in Slovakia. The revitalization of the rotunda in the 16th century turned
the building into a pilgrimage place and the tradition continues to this day.
It is associated with worshiping the Rotunda patron – St. George. With over 400
years of tradition, it is one of the oldest pilgrimage places in Slovakia.
The rotunda of Nitrianska Blatnica began to enjoy more attention in
1973. Two large Great-Moravian estates were discovered in the wider area of
the locality. The research has confirmed that the rotunda was built around
the middle of the 11th century at the latest. Some crucial construction and
historical indications point to an even older origin. Moreover, the results of
the archaeological research suggested that the rotunda was built on older Great
Moravian foundations. This called for a thorough research of the walls that was
to be immediately followed by restoration works.
The results of the restoration research only revealed a torso of the
baroque coatings preserved on the original walls of the rotunda’s interior,
with no art decoration. Restorer Jozef Dorica enforced his intention to present
the restored baroque architecture alongside the oldest preserved parts of the
rotunda. This concept made it possible to completely remove the baroque remains
from the building’s original walls, and reveal the interior’s oldest look,
without interfering into the baroque’s building constructions and their
decorative details.
The restoration of the rotunda’s interior helped to specify the date
of the construction. One of the most important findings was the discovery of
the original window and two consecration crosses, which have moved the rotunda
origin into the pre-Roman period.
St. George’s rotunda near Nitrianska Blatnica with its largely
preserved original masonry is the oldest standing rotunda not only in the
territory of Slovakia but also Central Europe.
Anton Števko
Požitava annual
customs in Zlaté Moravce
The Nitra Museum has been organizing the Požitava
annual customs in
its branch in Zlaté Moravce for several years. The aim is to keep the
traditional folk customs alive especially for young generations. In 2012, they
started experimenting with creative workshops, when before Christmas the local
schoolchildren guided by the museum lecturers baked gingerbread cookies. In
2013, they added the fašiangy (Shrovetide carnival) to Christmas traditions and
the following year the project gradually developed into a series of events
running throughout the year, like we saw in 2016.
The organizers chronologically organized the cycle of events according
to the calendar or traditional date when the customs or relevant activities
took place – from feather plucking, spinning and weaving, through fašiangy
carnival, Easter customs, harvest and plum festivals, to pre-Christmas and
Christmas traditions. This procedure was chosen based on the results of the
ethnological surveys in the area and availability of folklore groups
participating in the programme.
Each event included an introduction of the given custom, usually
presented by an ethnologist, creative workshops for school kids, and preparation
and tasting of traditional meals related to the topic. The activities took
place in the museum’s exhibition space, which could only host 70 to 80 people,
so the performances had to be repeated several times a day.
The Town Centre for Culture and Sport in Zlaté Moravce manages the
courtyard of the manor house, where the museum is located. The museum and the
centre actively cooperate, for instance during the harvest festival and
performances portraying the life of the noble Migazzi family. The local
community largely participates in the traditional plum festival, spending hours
cooking plum jam the good old way.
The Požitava annual customs helps the inhabitants of Zlaté Moravce
to recognize the old traditions and accept the local branch of the Nitra Museum
as their “own”.
Gabriella Jarábik
“Malenkiy robot”
The Slovak National Museum-Museum of Hungarian Culture in Slovakia
carried out research in 2015 that mapped the migration waves of the
Czechoslovak population after the Second World War. The results were to be
presented to the public in a thematic exhibition in 2016. The research
encompassed the entire territory of Slovakia, and amongst the many people moved
between 1945 and 1949 by the decisions of those in power, due to persecution or
feeling of endangerment were also tens of thousands of Hungarians from
Slovakia.
The researchers met with local historians, who informed them about the
past events in some regions of southern Slovakia and put them in contact with
the living witnesses. Discussions with them revealed what consequences this
modern migration had on the lives of these involuntary migrants. Under the
influence of their testimonies, the museum’s director Gabriella Jarábik
decided to present the personal stories as part of the upcoming exhibition
through the documentary Innocent Guilty, The Gemer locals in Soviet Camps (in
Hungarian Ártatlan bűnösök, Gömöriek and szovjet lágerekben) ..
The research was carried out in Kolárov, Komoč, Nové Zámky, Košice and
Hungary, continuing in Gemer Tornaľa, Držkovce and VeľThe inhabitants of the latter village were
not only the victims of the displacement, but many were deported to the Soviet
Union for forced labour, under the pretext of short-term job of ruin clearing,
the so-called “malenkiy robot”, after which they would allegedly soon return
home. But many never returned and were buried in the cemetery of one of the
Soviet labour camps.
Local historian Aladár Lehotai has been researching the
stories of his deported relatives and friends for forty years, as this event
affected him as a child. In 2011, he spent two weeks in the Luhan area in
Ukraine. He looked up the places with former labour camps, mines, cemeteries,
and prison hospitals. He photo-documented the findings and acquired original
items relating to these events. Lehotai organizes lectures and smaller
exhibitions to educate the contemporaries about the labour camps in the former
Soviet Union that had been taboo for so long.
Jana Maříková –
Peter Baxa
Heritage of Charles
the Great
The exhibition entitled The Heritage of Charles the Great at the
Bratislava Castle was linked to the project Cradles of European Culture, which
took place during the European programme Culture 2007 – 2013. The exhibition
concept was presented in multiple variations at two major exhibitions in Ename
(Belgium) and Prague (Czech Republic), as well as several smaller installations
in Ravenna, Montmajour and Ljubljana. The Monuments Board joined this European
project along with twelve other academic and museum institutions from nine
European countries.
For Slovak visitors, the concept of the exhibition held in Bratislava
in 2016 was modified in cooperation with Prague’s Archaeological Institute and
other institutions from Slovakia and Hungary. The main part of the Bratislava
exhibition was based on the principle of unity in diversity and diversity in
unity. The first part introduced five European regions and their differences.
Central Europe was shown as a new territory that accepts cultural incentives,
while intensively trading with various goods, including slaves.
The principle of unity was presented through the themes of
administration, religion, economics, culture, education, arts and architecture.
These individual phenomena could be inspected in selected significant
locations. The main focus was on Central Europe, especially Slovakia. Besides
the Czech Republic and Moravia, Nitra was analysed as an independent region. It
originated in the first half of the 9th century and became an important
cultural and political centre at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. New
interpretation maps, themes and exhibits helped to perceive the Nitra region in
the wider Central European and European contexts.
The exhibition, installed in the restored basement of Bratislava
Castle, displayed unique items borrowed from local as well as foreign
institutions, such as the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic,
Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary.
The exhibition showed the period of the Europe’s early Middle Ages,
when the contemporary cultural Europe was formed. It opened up a discussion on
the modern meaning of the past, which combines the interaction of the memory,
identity and location.
Gabriela Podušelová
Slovak Gothic treasures. The art of the late Middle Ages in Slovakia
The exhibition of the best of our late gothic art opened on the 29th
of September 2016, at the Italian president’s residency, the Quirinal Palace in
Rome. The presidents of Italy and Slovakia, Sergio Mattarella and Andrej Kiska,
respectively, attended the ceremony. Also present were the Minister of Culture
Marek Maďarič, representatives of the Roman-Catholic Church, Slovak and Italian
diplomats and other guests.
For the cultural environment of Italy, the Slovak National
Museum-Historical Museum prepared an exhibition, with the subtitle Vita Christi
in the work of Master Paul of Levoča. The exhibition curators, art historians
Mária Novotná and Alena Piatrová with the exhibition commissioner Gabriela
Podušelová, chose a story that is omnipresent in European culture. Since Italy
knows little about the cultural heritage of Slovakia, they decided to introduce
it through the work of our most famous late-gothic artist – Master Paul of
Levoča. Almost 50 exhibited artworks represented the master’s sculpture work
and paintings of his contemporaries and co-workers. The collection also included
samples of the most significant goldsmith works from the beginning of the 16th
century, ecclesiastical fabrics and one incunabulum. The selection of works
also took into consideration their connection to Italian art.
The original sculpture from the Nativity Altar of St. Jacob’s Basilica
in Levoča and table paintings with the Passion (Pascha) theme from the main
altar of St. Martin’s Church in Lipany were presented for the first time
outside the territory of Slovakia. The exhibition also included the monumental
table painting of St. Anne (Mettercia) from Rožňava, a collection of
late-gothic monstrances from Spišská Nová Ves, Poprad-Veľká, Prievidza and
Bojnice, as well as the altar cross and chalice from Spišská Belá. The chalice
from Nitra attracted attention with the gold Roman and Byzantine coins applied
to its decoration.
The Slovak National Museum brought to Rome a modest selection of our
finest late gothic works that best represent the quality and richness of
Slovakia’s cultural heritage.
TRNAVA
Darina Fridrichová
Trnava city
fortification as recorded in documents until mid 16th century
Trnava was one of the most important settlements in the whole
Hungarian Kingdom, and as one of the first was granted extensive rights in
1238. This meant an early start for its urban development, part of which was
the construction of the fortification wall in the 13th century. The defence
system consisted of about thirty square-plan towers, built of burnt bricks and
arranged at regular intervals into an almost symmetrical rectangular pattern,
interconnected with a ground walled structure. This earliest phase of the city
walls had been systematically re-built with masonry from about the 1270s, after
the Hungarian-Czech wars and attacks on Trnava in 1271 and 1273. This fortress
system, with added towers and bastions, was finally completed with many
interruptions after several decades. From the 14th century it worked as the
permanent defensive urban system of the city throughout the Middle Ages.
The Trnava burghers, as well as the regional or county nobility, were
responsible for maintaining the Trnava walls, which in the case of danger
provided necessary protection for its inhabitants and also worked as an
important border fortress. In 1467, we record three mandates of King Matthias
I, ordering the nobility of the Trenčín, Nitra and Bratislava counties
to send their liege people to help clean the castle walls and moats.
Similar documents on the maintenance of the city walls and moats were
preserved from the 16th century, specifically from 1543, 1544 and 1548. An
important document that records the construction works carried out by the city
during the city wall maintenance comes from 1548 to 1554. It lists the details
of larger and smaller building interventions, as well as repairs to the city
gates and access bridges.
Lucia Duchoňová –
Daniela Čambálová
Western Slovak
Museum in Trnava after renovation
The West Slovak Museum in Trnava underwent reconstruction and
modernization of its building in 2015. Since its origin in 1954, it has been
situated in the former Monastery of the Order of St. Clare, which together with
the adjoining church is a national cultural monument.
The large territory
between the Small Carpathians and the river Váh, including the city of Trnava,
was given as a wedding gift to Constance of the Arpád family, the aunt of King Béla
IV of Hungary. Her marriage to Czech King Otakar Přemysl I was to resolve the
long lasting disputes on the frontiers. After her death, Béla IV became the
owner of Trnava. In 1238, he promoted it to an independent royal city. The
medieval society supported the mendicant orders that settled in the outskirts
of the economically prosperous cities. In respect to his sister, Elizabeth of
Thuringia, who was declared a saint in 1235, he ordered the construction of a
small Chapel of St. Elizabeth. He thus created a place for a group of young
girls and women to follow the teaching of Saint Clare of Assisi.
The nuns of the St. Clare order are mentioned in the document of Béla IV in
1240. The building of the monastery and church dedicated to the Assumption of
the Virgin Mary and All Saints started around 1256. Initially, the complex
consisted of the church and only one residential building – today’s central
monastery wing. The building had at least two floors. A large fire damaged part
of the monastery and church in 1325. The complex was newly rebuilt in gothic
style in the last third of the 14th century. Throughout the 16th century,
Hungary experienced the Estates’ uprisings, Ottoman war, rapid advancement of
the Reformation and the decline of religious institutions caused by the
secularization of their property. At the beginning of the 17th century, the
monastery was in a desolate state. During the unsettled atmosphere of the 17th
century, the nuns left the town several times. This meant the early baroque
reconstruction of the monastery did not continue until 1622, when they returned
to Trnava.
The building served
as the monastery of the Order of St. Clare until 1872, when Joseph II abolished
the order and gave the building to the army. Subsequently, it became a hospital
and after 1850 a military hospital specializing in mental illness. When the
museum took over the building, it was in a desolate state. Gradually, it began
with the repair works. The reconstruction and modernization of the Western
Slovak Museum in Trnava in 2015 helped to improve the area of the former
Trnava monastery, which carries an extraordinary urban value. It also helped
other monumental values and was followed by landscaping the surroundings and
entrance interior.
Jaroslava Žuffová –
Milan Kazimír
Renovation of the
city house No 5 at Trinity Square in Trnava
The National cultural monument, the city house No 5 on Trinity Square
in Trnava is situated on the main square, which is the natural centre of the
city’s historical zone. It sits in the fully preserved area of the square,
which was built in the 13th century after the city received its privileges and
the place became the main city market.
House No 5 is
located in the centre of the square’s northern side. It has undergone a complex
constructional development, the result of which is a three-wing, two-storey
structure with a passage in C-shaped ground plan. After the last reconstruction
in between the wars and nationalization process in the second half of the 20th
century, the house was neglected and the courtyard’s statics seriously
disrupted. It was the right time to start with the complex renovation. This was
preceded by architectural-historical and artistic-historical research, which
brought a number of findings and new insights into the period-style development
of the house.
The aim of the
restoration was to return the building to the classicist style and preserve the
historical interior elements. The house was preserved in its entire historical
range, including many original period-style elements (stone-masonic, carpentry,
stucco and blacksmith’s), coming from the different development stages of the
building since the Middle Ages. The reconstruction of the Renaissance passage
portal can be described as unique, untraditional. The renewed portal received a
gate, which was built according to the period-style analogies of the monument
fund of Trnava’s historical zone.
Adrián Lančarič
Former water mills
of Trnava
The prosperous and functional economic background, or the food
self-sufficiency of the city of Trnava, helped to boost its social and economic
growth in the past. The milling of grain has been the fundamental manufacturing
activity in the processing of agricultural produce. In Trnava, the flour was
milled in the Stone Mill from the Middle Ages to the second half of the 20th
century. The mills boundary walls can still be seen up to today. The Inner
Mill, which was situated in the fortified centre of Trnava, was unique in
Slovakia. Unfortunately, after four centuries of its existence there are no
remains. Today, a new stylized construction commemorates this monument in its
original location. The Pažitný mill is also just a distant memory. The
only preserved original mill is the Hrnčiarovský mill, which was rejuvenated by
its owners and today is an attractive place for relaxation and gastronomy.