Ethnographic Museum SNM, Martin

The oldest and the largest branch of the Slovak National Museum, the Ethnographic Museum of the Slovak National Museum in Martin originated with the establishment of the Slovak Museology Society (1893), and in particular with the work of SNM’s founding father Andrej Kmeť and other important personalities from Slovak museum history. In subsequent years the museum acquired collections of a national geographic and historical nature (ethnography, archaeology, history, numismatics, art history, art and sculpture, archive and library) from the whole territory of Slovakia and from abroad. By 1948 it had become a Museum of Societies, and in 1961 it was merged with the Slovak Museum in Bratislava to become the only specialised ethnographic museum operating throughout Slovakia. The seat of the Ethnographic Museum was designed by Harminec in Martin and built in 1933.

The Ethnographic Museum SNM currently operates as a nationwide specialised museum geared to the documentation of folkloric culture in Slovakia, including that of ethnic groups, Slovaks living abroad and ethnomusicology from antiquity to the present. It also functions as the headquarters and storage facility for numerous other museums, including the Andrej Kmeť Museum, Karol Plicka Museum, Martin Benka House, the Museum of Czech Culture in Slovakia, the Museum of Roma Culture in Slovakia and the Slovak Open Air Village Museum, and incorporates a Library, an Archive and an Archaeology and Cultural History Store.