News timeline

The end of the year was marked by significant progress in construction work. The interior of Kúria Zuzana is being completed with great strides. The elevator is already in use, equipment has been installed in the social facilities, paving and tiling have been laid. The final coating is added to the walls and ceilings.

The public can look forward to a new visitor zone, which will include space for relaxation, refreshments, and creative workshops.

But it was not idle either on the administrative side. Our project passed a financial check on the spot from the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic and also an audit from the Government Audit Office. We have successfully requested the program manager for the third extraordinary payment for the implementation of the project CLT01011 Zuzana's Manor - a museum experience with the rules of implementation of the financial mechanism of the European Economic Area and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism.

The renovations are demanding, all the more so because it is a historical building from 1745. Unexpected facts are revealed that require additional construction work. During the work on the elevator shaft, static protection of the truss was required, in which the wooden beams were replaced with metal ones.

Landscaping will begin at the end of November - laying the path around the manor house, planting grass, laying the driveway to the mansion. The renovation work will be moved to the interior in December and January.

We are working on the preparation of exhibitions and the equipment of the new visitor zone - we will prepare the public procurement of binoculars and the architectural and artistic solution of the visitor zone.

Online meeting

In November, we connected with our project partner, Gagarín ehf from Reykjavík, Iceland via an online call. It was very encouraging that we could see each other and present our progress to each other - the progress of the reconstruction work and the development of the augmented reality software for the binoculars, which are to be placed in the new ethnographic exposition in the Zuzana Manor.

The opening will take place on October 19, 2023 at 3 p.m. in the mansion in Markušovce and the adjacent park. The exhibition about Jews will be held on the ground floor of the Renaissance mansion in a room with furniture that once belonged to a wealthy Jewish family from Spišská Nová Ves.

The exhibition about Roma will be installed in the French park near the mansion. It will guide you through news about the first mentions of the Roma, their history in the middle ages, the modern age, and their tragic fates during the Second World War.

On the basis of collections, photos and documents, you will be able to learn something new about the history and culture of Jews and Roma from Markušovce and its surroundings.

Work on the Curia continued through the summer and early autumn. The rough construction is slowly being completed and work is gradually being done on improving the interiors.

The wooden shingle roof is almost finished except for the last part, where work was still being done on the shaft into which the elevator will begin to be installed. Electricity and air conditioning systems are ready. We have underfloor heating and radiators are being wired. The wiring for electronic signaling security and electronic fire system was prepared. Some rooms are already completely plastered. Gutters have been added to the roof and the facade is completed on the west side of the building, and a sewer pipe has already been laid in the trench.

We are working on the preparation of exhibitions and the equipment of the new visitor zone.

In July, the Dardanelles summer house hosted the 2nd Music Master Course with the participation of lecturer and virtuoso Daniela Kačmárová, who is currently engaged in teaching and tutoring at the Timonov 2 Conservatory in Košice, solo performance and chamber concert activity in various groups – piano trio, piano duo, four-handed piano playing.

We invited visitors to a piano concert by graduates of the Music Master Course and Daniela Kačmárová, which was held on July 8, 2023 at 6 p.m. in the summer house Dardanelles in Markušovce. After the concert at 7 p.m. we haved prepared an evening tour of the Renaissance mansion for you.

At the beginning of the month, we were visited by a valued delegation of grant program partners. We are very pleased that the visit exceeded expectations and that everyone was satisfied. During the visit, the Program Administrator unofficially informed us about the success of our request for additional funds. A lot of hard work awaits us, but the result will be worth it. Photo documentation from the meeting can be viewed on this website in the Photo Gallery section.

The following week, we have already finalized the preparation of the biggest event for the public – the festival Letohranie. This year we prepared a rich program that started at 1:00 p.m. This was followed by a performance by the elementary art school ART School Smižany. From 3 p.m. Edo Drewo and forest fairies have prepared various competitions for children. We took care of gifts for clever children in cooperation with the Košice Self-Governing Region and OOCR Slovenský Raj & Spiš. The weather was kind to us and the attendance of the event exceeded 1,500 people.

The program also included:

Creative workshops:

• Painting workshop – mini course of painting on real canvas
• Craft workshop – demonstrations of traditional crafts
• Science workshop
• Production of badges

Games in the park:

• Pétanque
• Obstacle course
• Fun puzzle
• Little knights
• Assembling a wooden castle

The success of this year is proof that people are interested in the museum experience and that our work has meaning. We are already looking forward to the next year of the festival, which we hope will be at least as successful as this one.

Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter MIRDI SR), as Program Administrator, or grant provider, approached us with the opportunity to present the project Manor house Zuzana - an experience in a museum to a delegation of program partners.

Our branch in Markušovce will be visited on June 9, 2023 by representatives from the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage, the Norwegian Council for the Arts, the Office for the Financial Mechanism in Brussels and the Embassy of Norway in Slovakia, accompanied by representatives from MIRDI SR and our founder – the Košice self-governing Region (hereinafter KSR). The project partners will also participate in the visit – Mrs. Podolínska from SOŠD and Mrs. Kriváňová from OOCR Slovak Paradise & Spiš. Language/interpreting services were promised to us by the experienced director of the language school – Member of the KSR Adnan Akram.

We believe that the visit will be successful. If you are interested, you can view the prepared presentation in English.

With April comes Easter. The project team spent the holidays at work, completing and sending the application for the allocation of additional funds. We tried to take advantage of a unique chance to finance the expositions and interior equipment of Kúria Zuzana. We asked for 2 exhibitions - an ethnological exhibition and the story of Marriássi including the story of wood. The desired equipment and exhibits would fill the newly renovated building, completing an exclusive museum experience. Keep your fingers crossed for us 😊.

Besides that, work-meetings with partners regarding organization of the Summer Festival and its promotion are ongoing.

Construction work 🧱 continues at a rapid pace. The contractor has almost completed the rough demolition work. The infrastructure for interactive exhibitions is gradually being built. Inspection days on the construction site are held continuously once a week. During one of the control days, the local TV Reduta was also present. A progress report on our construction was created, which you can view here:Watch TV Reduta

The program administrator announced on 08.03.2023 a call for the allocation of additional funds for the implementation of existing projects in the Culture program. The Spiš Museum project team participated in the introductory information seminar. Subsequently, he started preparing a request for additional funds.

In February, the cold winter was back 🧊. The Spiš Museum team was preparing the first event that awaits us as part of the CLT01011 project – 🌞 Summer Festival 2023 🌞. The event will be held on June 18, 2023 on the grounds of the Markušovce mansion. The preparation of the event consisted in determining the outline of the main program, accompanying events and additional services.

The main program will be a performance by a musical group. In March, we will choose the main performer. Accompanying events will entertain children as well - bouncy castle, ponies, creative workshops and many other events. Additional services will provide security, hygiene facilities and various refreshments for visitors. Marketing of the event is prepared by OOCR Slovenský raj & Spiš. We will provide an exact description of the event in advance. We are already looking forward and believe that the event will be at least as successful as the last year.

January weather 🌞 allowed construction work to continue. Inspection days on the construction site take place every week in the presence of the contractor and the investor.

We used the winter time to communicate with the Markušovce municipality and the neighbours of the Kúrie Zuzana building. The smooth progress of construction works also depends on their indulgence.

Since the Zuzana manor is a national cultural monument, the construction work is complicated and there are certainly many surprises waiting for us during the reconstruction.

Besides that, initial consultations were held for the events that await us this year:

• The Summer festival,
• musical master class II.,
• an exhibition about the Jewish inhabitants of Markušovce and its surroundings,
• an exhibition about the Roma inhabitants of Markušovce and its surroundings.

Immediately, after taking over the construction site, the construction contractor (Metrostav Slovakia a.s.) began demolition work. Already on the first inspection day, we appreciated a piece of work done. In disbelief, even with nostalgia, we watch the building change before our eyes.

With the arrival of winter and frosty days, construction work was suspended. We believe that the weather will be favorable and that the contractor will be able to meet the construction work deadline.

We are gradually preparing for the soft activities that await us in 2023. We had our first operational meetings regarding the preparations for the Letohrania 2023 events and the music master course.

At the beginning of the month, we received a positive decision on the ex-post control of the Public Procurement for the author's supervision of the building. Later, on November 16, 2022, we ceremoniously handed over the building to the construction contractor. This event was attended by important personalities:

• JUDr. Boris Bilčák – the office director of the Košice self-governing region,
• Ing. Marta Pichová – author's supervision,
• Ing. Miloš Singovszki, PhD., MBA – construction supervision,
• representatives of the contractor and the Spiš museum.

This event was also presented in the media (e.g. RTVS Hlavné správy). A challenging but also joyful period awaits us, the results of which we should see already in the third quarter of next year. Keep your fingers crossed and hope that everything goes smoothly 😊.

The project administration was a major part of our activity in the October as well. In the middle of the month, we passed an inspection from the Government Audit Office for our project.

The program administrator sent us a positive decision on the ex-post inspection of the Public Procurement on construction works. This meant that the contract with the building contractor came into effect and we can finally hand over the construction site.

On the last day of October, we received a positive decision from the 2nd ex-ante control of public procurement for author`s supervision.

All the mentioned administrative actions were necessary for the successful implementation of construction works, which are crucial for the project.

The last, fifth, reporting period of the project ended in August. We summarized the achieved results, indicators and also project risks, including financial claims. At the end of September (September 21, 2022), we passed the on-site inspection by the Program Administrator. The inspection was primarily focused on project risks monitoring. The Program Administrator inspected our Zuzana Manor-house. They really liked the surroundings of the project implementation site with our other facilities (mansion, summer house, French park).

In addition, we also signed a contract with a construction contractor. The contract is currently in the stage of ex-post control of public procurement by the Program Administrator. At the end of the month, the public procurement for construction supervision was also completed.

This summer, people were hard at work in Markušovce. Museum employees, specifically Ing. Jozef Tkáč, Jozef Kotleba a Daniel Fabian, relocated collection items from the Manor house. Up to this point, these premises have mainly served as a depository, offices and a lecture room with a ticket office.

The collection items were mostly relocated to rented depositories in Madaras Industrial Park. Thanks to pointed employees, the manor-house is practically ready to be handed over to the construction contractor.

The construction site handover will be preceded by a Public Procurement ex-post control. We hope, that construction work could start by the end of September 2022.

ON 07/08/2022, we received a decision from the Office for Public Procurement authorizing the termination of the public procurement process. Negotiations are currently underway with the winning bidder for the implementation of construction works. We are gradually working towards signing the contract. Subsequently, the Program Administrator will check the contract after signing. We believe that soon we will hand over the construction site and construction work will begin.

The first holiday week at the museum was spent in the spirit of a musical master class led by the exceptional Vienna pianist IRIS MARÍNA WEFERS. Six art school students took part in the master class. The musical virtuoso led the students artistically, motivated, supported the development of skills and technique. Part of the course was preparation for the final concert of young musicians.

The concert took place in the breathtaking concert hall of Dardanelles Summer Palace. The artistic experience, which was provided by the musical virtuoso with the graduates of the course, was enhanced even more by the perfect acoustics of the hall. The concert, including the course, exceeded the expectations of the participants and also the visitors.

We look forward to further artistic experiences from the upcoming year of the course. We believe that this course will become a tradition.

We welcomed the summer with the third year of our successful festival LETOHranie. The festival took place in the beautiful French Park in Markušovce, which includes the Dardanelles Summer Palace and a mansion with museum exhibits. The rich LETOHranie program was aimed primarily at children. The festival was also enjoyed by parents, young people and everyone who likes fun, games, competitions and music. The main program started with a sports competition for the little ones. The performance by the famous Edo Drewo and the forest fairies entitled „living tree “ was a great success, all the children danced 😊. The festival closed with a concert by the famous Adam Ďurica, whose songs were sung by both young and older visitors.

The event had a high attendance and very good feedback from the visitors. We are already looking forward to the next year.

Since we are about to start the reconstruction of the manor, we needed to clean the entire building where we used to store museum collections. A moving company called TRIV came to our aid. Before that day we needed to carefully package and label each single piece of our collections. Our colleagues from Spišská Nová Ves also helped us. We stored there all kinds of collectibles from the Music History Fund and the Art History Fund. Not all collection items from the Art History Fund have been relocated to new depositories. We have made many of them available to the public and are on display in the main manor house. A total of 702 collections were moved from the Music History Fund to another depository space as well as into our offices in the Dardanely summer house. Collections that were not in our possession were returned to museums. 2,061 collection items of various artistic nature were moved and packed from the collection of art history.

On Valentine's Day, we teamed up with our Icelandic partners. They presented us with the first designs of stories, which will be incorporated into the ethnographic exhibition with the help of augmented reality. It was clear that they had been working hard on our materials since the beginning of the year. During the presentation, we watched with astonishment how they managed to empathize with the traditional life and customs of the Spiš region despite living so far. From various texts, film samples and photos depicting the traditions of our ancestors, they created new scenarios that will introduce visitors to everyday life as well as special occasions associated with various holidays throughout the year. This experience has conjured a smile on our faces and it motivates us to move forward and bring this experience to our future visitors from the Spiš region and beyond.

The end of 2021 was held in a pleasant, Christmas atmosphere. However, as the new year began, we rolled up our sleeves again and we are moving a giant step forward. This year will be one of the richest in terms of the project content. We will organize events for the public such as Letohranie, exhibitions of student works and master music courses. We meet at one table (either real or virtual) with our project partners and we give real contours to the planned activities. Together with our Icelandic partner, we have set ourselves an ambitious goal - to prepare the content of augmented reality by the end of this year. There is so much you will be looking forward to!

On Friday, November 26th at 9:30 AM we went through an online opening of the offers for the historical manor house reconstruction contract. Two bids have been submitted and are currently being evaluated. We firmly believe that in the new year we will sign a contract with the successful bidder and who will then be able to take over the construction. We are ready to get our hands dirty!

At the beginning of October, in honor of this year's 70th anniversary of the Spiš Museum, we held a large meeting of all current and former employees of the Spiš Museum. The autumn weather was very good and we were grateful for the opportunity to spend time together in a picturesque French park surrounding the manor house in Markušovce, as well as to get to know each other more and talk about current and future ambitions, including the project Manor House Susanna - An Experience in the Museum. We enjoyed lots of thank-you speeches, good food and various sports and teambuilding activities.

The Spiš Museum in Spišská Nová Ves received an exceptional gift that will significantly enrich the expositions in Markušovce including the Manor House Susanna. Count Pál Máriássy was a descendant of an important aristocratic family in Spiš region and belonged to the branch that was the last to own the manor house in Markušovce. The historical complex is today a National Cultural Monument, which has been managed by the Spiš Museum in Spišská Nová Ves since 1967. Pál's wife, Heidi Máriássy, still lives in Stockholm, Sweden and decided to donate to the museum dozens of objects consisting of portraits of the family members, furniture, as well as personal items of the Count Pál Máriássy, documenting his work, hunting, ornithological research, travel notes and photo albums..

Summer holidays have already started, the weather is great and our employees have prepared a rich program for the upcoming 2 months. We will be organizing outdoor concerts in the beautiful French park as well as the picturesue summer house. We also have prepared different guided tours and other attractions. Have you already visited us?

Before we organized our own opening conference for the project, we had the chance to see a bunch of conferences organized by other cultural institutions from the same EEA Grants programme. We were quite nervous since the other institutions did such a good job! On the other hand, we knew wi did everything we could to assure a smooth process. We invited hundreds of people from our network to join and see what this project is all about. Since the pandemic still persisted, the conference took place online. We are very thankful for having the EEA Grants officials join as well!

We have received the final design of the updated project for the farm building reconstruction project from Ms. Pichova and architectural-artistic solution from the Masar studio. We will need them to prepare the public procurement. Meanwhile we watch the opening conferences of other projects that together with us successfully applied for a grant. We seek inspiration and prepare our own conference. On this occasion, we shoot a breathtaking video, showing the history of the Spiš Museum. In addition, this month Spiš museum celebrates its 70th anniversary. Happy anniversary!

This month we are intensively gathering the documents needed for the initiation of public procurement to reconstruct the farm building. It is a fairly challenging task influenced by a lot of variables. In addition to the completion of the reconstruction of the building and architectural-art solutions, we must also get approval from the Memorial office. Since it is an extensive investment, the Košice self-governing region will also fund it. We are also working with a company specialized for preparing public procurements. We don't want to underestimate anything, so we are going to submit the documents to a voluntary ex ante check performed by the EEA Grants officials.

One of the things from this project that brings us a lot of joy is the cooperation with the Icelandic company Gagarin. Gagarin is an experience design studio with rich experience with interactive exhibitions worldwide. We are honored that people from Gagarin will bring one of their technologies here. It will be an application of augmented reality. This month, we launched an online kick-off meeting between the Spiš Museum and Gagarin. We have to admit we were a bit nervous, but it all disappeared after seeing the cheerful faces of our Icelandic colleagues. We exchanged information about the scope of the project and ways Gagarin could implement their technologies. We already cannot wait to see the results!

The EEA Grants Department from the Ministry of Investment, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic has prepared a series of trainings for us, which will make it easier for us to orientate ourselves in the rules of project management, reporting and compliance with all necessary requirements. We diligently absorb new information. We appreciate the well-prepared and submitted online training, the helpfulness of the staff from the EEA Grants Department, as well as the rich guides for grant recipients, in which we will find the answer to perhaps every question. It's nice to see and get to know other recipients of this funding. Slovakia will revive its cultural life once again!

On January 5th 2021, the project contract was signed by all parties and thus entered into force. We are very happy! We are looking forward to the fact that the project proposal for the reconstruction of a farm building in the Markušovce historical complex, which began to take shape in 2015, has finally fallen on fertile ground and we can work on its implementation. It is a great honor, responsibility and commitment for us to do the best work. The list of tasks is growing! What do we start with?