About the museum

Museum Mission and History

Mission

The museum is focused on collecting, protecting, researching and presenting evidence of material and spiritual culture of the Carpathian Germans and on an as objective as possible interpretation of their history and culture. The museum has its branches in Nitrianske Pravno and Handlová, and it also includes a documentation and information centre with a library that collects Slovak and foreign periodical and non-periodical literature.

History

The Museum of Carpathian German Culture was founded on January 1, 1997 as a specialized museum under the umbrella of the Slovak National Museum. Its predecessor was the Department of Carpathian German History and Culture within the Slovak National Museum – Historical Museum, founded on August 1, 1994.

Building

The museum is based in the Sunyal Mansion in the Žižkova Street in Bratislava. The original small one-room single-storey medieval house was extended by a covered gateway for vehicles at the end of the 15th century. In the 17th century, a courtyard wing was added and a cellar was carved into the castle rock. The building was named after one of the owners from this period. In the middle of the 18th century, the building was rebuilt in the Baroque style – some of the premises were vaulted and extended by building features in the courtyard. During this period, the building housed the well-known inn “At the Golden Angel”. In the first third of the 19th century, the house underwent an Empire rebuilding, within which a second floor was added. The building served as a tenement house with a long courtyard gallery, where the apartments were available in the courtyard wing. The heritage renovation of the building was carried out at the end of the 20th century.