Visitors to the modern art museum can contribute to the local economy You can read this exclusive content thanks to the FALATH & PARTNERS law firm which assists American people with Slovak roots in obtaining Slovak citizenship and reconnecting them with the land of their ancestors When travelling from Humenné to Medzilaborce you can't miss the impressive ruins of the former monastery in the village of Krásny Brod Adjacent to it is a newer monastery and a functional chapel you will find a military cemetery dedicated to those who died in the First World War This northeastern region of Slovakia relies on its sacral and military monuments to attract tourists Medzilaborce was an important railway junction during the First World War serving as a transportation hub for soldiers heading to the Galician Front resulting in heavy casualties on both sides The area contains five military cemeteries The city also had a significant Jewish community which was tragically destroyed during the Second World War though it is poorly marked and accessible only via field and forest paths In addition to the cemeteries in the district town its golden dome gleams in the hot summer sun this spiritual landmark will soon be overshadowed by another building currently under reconstruction near the main road an acclaimed pop art artist from the USA with roots in the nearby village of Miková I am meeting with the museum's director The former cultural centre from the socialist era is being transformed beyond recognition with the individual exhibition rooms set to be interconnected Cubjak also points out the black boxes on the roof which will be used for various educational activities for children as well as for art students who will have the opportunity to participate in creative internships or workshops Cubjak describes the vision of transforming the town into a hub of pop art highlighting that students could potentially live at the museum temporarily which is already adorned with walkable greenery will also feature a small amphitheatre that can serve as an open-air cinema or host band performances we can see the rooms that will be converted into storage areas The museum's renovation will primarily focus on interactivity The revamped museum aims to showcase Warhol's diverse artistic talents the building will feature seamless connectivity between the interior and exterior facilitated by the walkable roof and façade," explains Cubjak as we walk along the steel grilles attached to the museum's façade These grilles can also serve as a viewing terrace still needs to secure funding for technology It is estimated that approximately €2.4 million will be required The costs for the reconstruction have exceeded the original budget rising from around €7 million to over €12 million Today's territory of Slovakia was part of different monarchies throughout history including the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 until 1918 with the exception of the inter-war years 1939-1945 during which the Nazi-aligned Slovak state existed the territory was a part of Czechoslovakia the current names of Slovak municipalities were different Here's a list of the largest municipalities in the Medzilaborce Svidník and Stropkov districts with their historical names: Nižná Olšava - Alsóolsva Vyšná Olšava - Felsőolsva Ladomirová - Ladomérvágása Vyšný Mirošov – Felsőmerse Radvaň nad Laborcom - Izbugyaradvány The full list of all Slovak municipalities, including their historical names, can be found at ww.geni.sk (in Slovak only) only an emergency restoration of the building was planned and the absence of an elevator for disabled individuals the director lobbied for a full-scale reconstruction with both the government and the regional authorities The project began in April 2023 and was expected to take 18 months It is now clear that this timeline may not be feasible Cubjak believes that the construction could realistically be completed by the end of the year but the exhibit might only open just before the summer season next year Medzilaborce is not a town renowned for its historical monuments The city centre mainly features buildings from the socialist era and churches Its primary attraction is the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art we had over 12,000 visitors during the summer season and on some days we had to regulate entry," Cubjak recalls he estimates that visitor numbers may double He is concerned about whether the town will be able to handle such an influx of tourists "We don't want visitors to spend just two hours at the museum We aim for them to contribute to the local economy as well," the director explains revealing plans to integrate the museum with the town the town and its surroundings have the potential to attract tourists for longer stays The plan is to encourage locals to open small cafés and shops creating an atmosphere akin to Montmartre in Paris is optimistic about the potential for new tourism and gastronomy businesses He notes that new accommodation and dining establishments are emerging in villages like Habura these areas only have small family-run guesthouses which are inadequate for accommodating large numbers of tourists The town also has a limited number of restaurants and even guesthouses and an art hotel named after the artist are noticeable these references are sporadic and do not fully convey the essence of Warhol's work and legacy Rastislav Slivka's family is from Driečna a part of Vladiča village in the Stropkov district primarily focusing on raising cattle and sheep he decided to diversify his business by establishing a guesthouse he realised that he needed a more stable business than cattle breeding he chose to build a new one to accommodate his plans for a larger guesthouse The current capacity of the pension is 22 beds Half of the construction costs were covered by European funds while the remaining expenses came from Slivka's personal savings he criticises the bureaucratic processes involved in accessing these funds Slivka's partner who helps manage the guest house notes that accommodation options in this area are limited which allows them to cater to a diverse range of guests The guest house particularly welcomes families with children who appreciate nature and tranquillity a small covered gymnasium is nearing completion the guest house also attracts sports clubs and companies for team-building activities leading to the addition of a wellness centre on the premises Operating year-round is crucial for this business they also serve companies during the quieter spring and autumn months there is a small ski lift behind the guesthouse while we can go and learn how tourism is developing over there," remarks Slivka state support for local tourism works much better than in Slovakia "A Pole comes up with an idea to expand a guest house and receives the funds very quickly We have to fight for projects from European funds we often get nothing because we don't fit into certain schemes Projects are often meaningless," Slivka says "Visit the Solina reservoir in Poland and see how life is there You'd feel as if you were on a beach promenade in Croatia," adds Varcholová "Poles have the heart of entrepreneurs; they know how to turn ordinary stone into a tourist attraction even though we have our own tourist gems," she reflects she admits that Poles also come to Slovakia for a quieter holiday away from mass tourism adds that Romanians have already surpassed Slovaks in tourism development "They have built an incredible number of services in recent years," he notes The deficiencies in Slovakia are evident in the maintenance of local roads While some repairs have been made in recent years there are still sections where the roads are riddled with potholes making it difficult for even cyclists to pass through without risking a fall "If the roads were properly maintained as heavy trucks rarely pass through here," adds Slivka the bicycle paths in the forest are often neglected and obstructed by overgrown trees entrepreneurs are planning to expand the restaurant's capacity to accommodate up to 120 people enabling it to host weddings and celebrations They also intend to add small cottages to the guest house and expand the children's amusement park the entrepreneurs are still facing a shortage of manpower "People tend to leave this region rather than arrive and not everyone is willing to work," concludes Slivka The owners themselves work in the guest house and can only take short breaks during the winter Visitors observing military equipment can visit a local restaurant called Vernex Lokal The restaurant features a modern design with wood which is unexpected for a small town in northeastern Slovakia The family business is managed by Erik Ducár whose father Ladislav started it in the early 1990s food wholesale and later expanded into the gastro business now owning several establishments in Svidník and nearby Stropkov an artist who provides graphics for their companies The restaurant in the city centre serves typical pub fare such as wings and hamburgers The manager described the clientele as mainly locals with some tourists especially hikers on the SNP (Slovak National Uprising) trail Svidník is a popular stop on a tourist route in Slovakia due to its military history The number of Polish tourists visiting the town and local water park has declined in recent years The manager thinks the Poles have better facilities and services he highlights the lack of cooperation among services in the tourism industry in Slovakia Ducár mentions that visitors typically stay for the weekend leading the company to consider offering apartments in the future instead of building a guest house or hotel He emphasises the need for improved marketing and more diverse services to attract a wider range of tourists beyond those interested in military history A helping hand in the heart of Europe thanks to our Slovakia travel guide with more than 1,000 photos and hundred of tourist 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It's impossible with our City Guide See some selected travel articles, podcasts, traveller infoas well as other guides Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Located in the town of Mezilaborce near the border with Ukraine the Andy Warhol Museum of art was founded in 1991 Inside of the communist-style concrete structure is a sizable collection of Warhol works of art and memorabilia.  While Warhol never set foot in the small town of 6,000 people the absurdity of a museum dedicated to him in a no-name town might have amused him The museum dedicated to his works was created by a wave of petitions made by Slovak artists and other public figures after Warhol's death In a time where the “Velvet Revolution” was crushing the Communist Revolution it seemed like a logical choice for Ladislav Snopko This hands-on museum houses roughly 80 vintage pinball machines and arcade games Phoenix man has two yards full of vintage signs and antiques Three hangars filled with meticulously restored aircraft and armored vehicles This antique shop features a large collection of ornaments amassed by an Ohio florist who helped decorate the White House for the holidays Home to the world's largest collection of nutcrackers The most extravagant car collection features a Batmobile and a stunt car from 'The Fast and the Furious.' The largest collection of works by a pioneering Black woman sculptor is on display at this Massachusetts art museum A medley of objects that represent Argentine culture (Andywarhol.sk)Where best to remember the work of Andy Warhol Forget New York – get on the next plane to Medzilaborce Where best to remember the work of Andy Warhol Forget New York – get on the next plane to Slovakia Andy Warhol once claimed that he "came from nowhere" And Medzilaborce – Slovakia’s self-styled "Warhol City" – is slap-bang in the middle of nowhere An eight-hour train ride east of Bratislava this town near the Polish border is the unlikely home of the world’s second-largest collection of Warhol’s art In a region better known for its wooden churches and WWII history concrete Campbell’s Soup cans outside a Communist-era cultural centre on Medzilaborce’s main street Cashing in on its claim to fame – Warhol’s parents emigrated to the US from the nearby village of Miková – the town’s Warhol makeover has added a statue of the artist and a soup can-styled bus shelter When I visited the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art I was greeted as the gallery’s first foreign visitor that year and shown around by the director himself As in many provincial museums of eastern Europe Gliding around the polished parquet like an ice skater I admired original Warhol works including the Communist themed Red Lenin and Hammer & Sickle portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Mick Jagger and self portraits Yet just as intriguing were the family photographs and personal possessions – his snakeskin jacket a christening robe – displayed in glass cases like holy relics in a chapel whose work is said to have been partly inspired by religious icons Neil Wilson has co-authored the Lonely Planet Czech and Slovak Republics guidebook This article was published in partnership with Lonely Planet Magazine. 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Malaysian trade minister on US tariffsMalaysia's minister Zafrul Aziz will be representing the ASEAN bloc in its negotiations with the US. and cultural provocateur—will be on display in Eastern Bohemia Pardubice’s Gočár Gallery will host The Lived Dream of Andy Warhol an exhibition that situates Warhol’s work within the lesser-known contours of his life A collaboration between the Pardubice Region and Slovakia’s Prešov region the show draws from the collection of the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce a small institution located not far from the village of Miková Visitors will find a familiar Warhol here—serigraph portraits and silkscreened icons of American consumer culture—but also a less obvious one Early pen-and-ink drawings will be exhibited alongside personal effects and other works that have never before been exhibited in the Czech Republic Warhol’s legacy is often reduced to a series of well-worn images—Campbell’s soup cans his factory-floor aphorisms—but the reality was more complicated he grew up speaking an East Slavic dialect at home and praying with his devout Catholic mother By the time he arrived in New York in 1949 adopting an Americanized spelling of his name and working as a commercial illustrator before finding his way into the downtown art world The duality of his identity—immigrant’s son turned celebrity outsider turned ultimate insider—haunts much of his work “The famous Andy Warhol was also a deeply anxious director of the Warhol Museum in Medzilaborce “He lived between extremes—hyper-visible yet withdrawn wildly successful yet deeply insecure.” This tension—between Warhol the brand and Warhol the man—is central to the Pardubice exhibition Curator Michal Bycko sees the show as an opportunity to complicate the mythology “People tend to forget that Warhol was born into a world far removed from New York’s art scene,” he says “His roots in Eastern Europe shaped him more than many realize.” 24 at the Gočár Gallery in Pardubice’s Automatické Mlýny complex will show more than 150 Warhol works The Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce is the only singular in the world that cares for the legacy of the brilliant artist born in Pittsburgh as Andrew Warhola in 1928 to partents coming from the village of Mikova near Medzilaborce The theme of death is often evident in Warhol's work including in the presented portraits of Marilyn Monroe The aim was not to create Marilyn Monroe laughing He multiplied the same motif in different color variations creating a psychological effect," the museum head Martin Cubjak said Andy Warhol’s Living DreamGočár Gallery, Automatické Mlýny, Automatické Mlýny 1961, 530 02 PardubiceFeb. 24 – April 27, 2025gocarovagalerie.cz Your morning coffee deserves a great companion. Why not enjoy it with our daily newsletter? News from Czechia, curated insights, and inspiring stories in English. Warhol's family in Miková thought he was a painter of buildings and unknowingly burned paintings and correspondence now worth millions one of two accommodation facilities in the town of Medzilaborce with 7,000 inhabitants welcomes visitors with a dark front office where stuffed animal heads a small statuette of Andy Warhol recalls the main attraction of the town which could also be called Warholtown thanks to the local museum “Touch it and gain fame for 15 minutes,” reads a caption underneath the statuette Warhol is credited with coming up with the phrase "15 minutes of fame".Warhol American painter and one of the main representatives of pop art was born to parents from the nearby village of Miková.Located on Andy Warhol Street in Medzilaborce the hotel is only a five-minute walk from the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art the world's first art museum of its kind It will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year.It is a colourful miracle in the surrounding grey which immediately evokes a smile on your face The former post office building became unrecognisable after the revolution The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.skSubscribe now for full access Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail) PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk The Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in eastern Slovakia before the museum that carries his name in Pittsburgh Soaring prices and a shortage of building materials mean complications for developers The costs of projects already agreed upon are now increasing while calculating the price of a new project is a tricky task “The overall price was recalculated to a whole new number maybe even twice the original price,” Daša Jeleňová the Prešov Region's spokesperson the government approved €7.1 million for the reconstruction the new price currently set at €10.2 million and still rising Museum in Medzilaborce celebrates its 25th anniversary the only museum focusing solely on Warhol in Europe Donald Warhola appreciates the fact that the Museum of Modern Art of Andy Warhol (MMUAW) is in the region where the parents of the famous artist came from as he said on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its founding in Medzilaborce on August 24 can benefit from the museum being located in the birthplace of Warhol’s parents because they can see the success of Andy Warhol and gain inspiration “We perceive and appreciate the work that the museum does watch it closely and look forward to its results,” D adding that it has enough of Andy’s work to create branches of this museum also in other parts of Slovakia The famous artist developed Ruthenian talent He himself knows only a few Ruthenian words “Maybe the reason why our parents didn't teach us the Ruthenian language is because they didn’t want to get rid of the benefit of communicating to each other about something that we children shouldn't know about,” the nephew of Andy Warhol added with smile for TASR Warhola likes a lot of things from the Ruthenian culture He also likes Ruthenian food and its specific humour that he learned from his uncle “I got to know Ruthenian culture through my grandparents,” D “During my first visit to Slovakia in 1992 I was surprised when I entered a church and listened to the liturgical language identical to the one that I heard in church in the United States,” D Warhola is the current vice president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Art in New York John.“I am proud that I can promote the message of Andy Warhol as a family member,” he stated to TASR adding that he still sees Andy as his superior the deferred 2020 Night of Museums and Galleries will go online One of Andy Warhol’s most famous works depicting four flowers in different colour combinations on a grassy background The repetition of the same motif is not characteristic of pop art itself but only of the work and philosophy of Andy Warhol but nothing is the same at the same time," he responded to the question of why he painted the same motif several times and presented them in series-portfolios with only differences in colour Some sources claim that these flowers were taken from an advertising magazine for a company that produced Kodak cameras Other sources state that they are poppy flowers hibiscus flowers photographed by Warhol in an unknown place P.S.: Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce re-opened on November 12 Legend has it that Anna Rosina, or the witch of Šintava, killed people regardless of their age and sex. She was imprisoned at Tematín Castle in the Považský Inovec hills The highest hill of the White Carpathians – Veľká Javorina, will be accessible for cyclists from Slovakia and the Czech Republic Foresters from either country are building a cycling route from both sides of the border to the top of the hill It took Brhlovce locals five years to carve out a single room in their cave-like dwellings a few centuries back the famous houses serve their original purpose or as wine cellars and a museum The highest point of Pustý hrad (Deserted Castle) in Zvolen has been made accessible to the public again. The reconstructed tower offering views of the surrounding hills and the town has been closed since 2018 because of structural concerns You may have heard that the group around Ľudovít Štúr – Slovak awakener and linguist - chose symbolic Slavic names in addition to their official names during a memorable trip to Devín Castle in Bratislava Ľudovít Štúr thus became Ľudovít Velislav Štúr The Ľudovít Štúr Institute of Linguistics has launched the ŠTÚROVCI app to help people with their Slavic names Select your sex and type in your full name to find out your Slavic name The filmSpráva(The Report) is a recent Slovak nominee in the fight for the Oscar statuette The film is an adaptation of Wetzler's book What Dante Did Not See The publication of a detailed 32-page report on how the death camp worked helped save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people The Reporthits theatres in late January 2021 You will find an interview with Bebjak in next week’s roundup and on The Slovak Spectator website scroll down to the bottom of the newsletter to hear a title track of the film written and sung by Sima Martausová NIGHT OF MUSEUMS: The Night of Museums and Galleries 2020, originally scheduled to take place on May 16, 2020, will take place on November 14. All events will be held online. You can find more information on Facebook and the event’s official website covering museums and galleries in Bratislava is the name of a map that takes visitors to the Czech capital around some of the places linked to Slovakia it is to be updated and re-published by the Slovak-Czech Club with the support of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad WALK OF FAME: In front of the Jozef Gregor Tajovský Theatre building in Zvolen, the Walk of Fame was unveiled on November 9 Four plaques of important personalities from cultural and public life connected with Zvolen have been placed into the walk so far FILM: One of the most controversial Slovak documentaries, Skutok sa stal(Never Happened), directed by Barbora Berezňáková, is now available online on Dafilms.com The story unfolds around the unresolved case of a political murder in the 1990s PERFORMANCE ART: The Culture Ministry’s new project Online Živé umenie (Online Performance Art) offers a list of theatre performances and concerts in one place ONE WORLD:Neviditeľná (Unseen) became the winning film of the One World 2020 online festival The documentary talks about the trauma of childbirth and the violation of women's rights Slovakia marks the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution Learn more about how the revolution evolved day by day. Last year’s podcast episode, which features scientist Ľubica Lacinová will give you another perspective on the event If you prefer a read on the Velvet Revolution instead, the producer Anton Popovič’s story may take you back to November 1989 Read an interview with its author Ivan Hoffman below here is Sima Martausová’s song for The Report It is called Červené polia (Red Fields) All the three dates are linked to the following historical dates: the world marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the largest Nazi death camp September 9: The Slovak state adopted the Jewish Code in 1941 one of the darkest moments in Slovak history November 9: Nazis carried out a pogrom against Jews across Nazi Germany