About the museum

Museum Mission and History

Mission

On the basis of exploration and scientific research, the museum collects, protects, professionally processes, makes publicly available and evaluates evidence of the material and spiritual existence and activities of the Ruthenian people. It focuses on museum documentation of the development of science, culture, art and technology in the territory of Slovakia, as well as on facts about the Ruthenian population living abroad. It develops as one of the international consultation centres in an area compactly populated by the Ruthenians.

History

The founding of the Slovak National Museum – Museum of Ruthenian Culture in Prešov was prepared in relatively complicated socio-economic and socio-legal conditions. The acceptance of the Ruthenian national minority in the territory of Slovakia was accelerated by the results of the Slovak Population Census in 1991, the codification of the standard Ruthenian language on 27 January 1995, and the subsequent results of the Population and Housing Census in 2001. The acceptance of the will of the Ruthenian population was expressed in 2006 by the decision of the Slovak Ministry of Culture to establish a separate organizational unit of the Slovak National Museum – the Museum of Ruthenian Culture in Prešov.