Stará Ľubovňa and surroundings

Museum of Ľubovňa – Ľubovňa Open-air Museum

The population living in the surrounding of the town of Stará Ľubovňa was characterized for long centuries by its national variety what resulted also in the diverseness of the folk architecture. In 1985 the ethnological exposition at the foot of the castle was open to public. This exhibition contains 25 objects in the present. The most valuable building is the rustic Greek-Catholic church from the close Šariš village of Matysová from 1833, dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel. It belongs to the Lemkov type of three-naves´ churches from the East Carpathian region. It contains also the iconostas with the decorative Baroque-classicistic wooden three-ranked architecture. The icons in the interior are older than the church itself and they date from 17th and 18th centuries.

The most represented type of the exhibits in the open-air museum are the rustic dwelling houses from the first third of 20th century. Besides them there are some outbuildings which used to be component parts of a homestead, such as a barn, a stable or a granary. The seasonal field dwellings so called (majdany) which are presented in the ethnologic exhibition used to be built far from usual settlements. From the industrial buildings there is a forge, a gristmill and a carpenter´s workshop to be seen.

Each individual dwelling house presents the way of folk habitation. You can see the reconstructed dwelling-spaces during some traditional family celebrations or ceremonies in three exhibits. Many folk groups give their performances in the open-air museum during the high tourist season and the craftsmen from the nearby villages display the folk crafts in the areal of the open-air museum.

UE INTERREG Euroregion
This publication has been co-financed with resources of the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of the Programme INTERREG IIIA Poland – The Slovak Republic, managed by the Carpathian Euroregion – Poland in Rzeszów.