New Sanctus Nicolaus 1286 exhibition in Liptovský Mikuláš takes you back to the Middle Ages
To mark the 740th anniversary of the earliest known written reference to Liptovský Mikuláš, the Janko Kráľ Museum has prepared a new exhibition, Sanctus Nicolaus 1286. Its title refers to the original name of the settlement, Svätý Mikuláš, and to the year of that earliest known written reference.
The exhibition presents the period when Svätý Mikuláš was still only a medieval village: the 13th and 14th centuries. Through text banners, visitors learn how the settlement developed from a church settlement into a village and then gradually created the conditions for its transformation into a small medieval town. Themes include the Church of St Nicholas, the arrival of the nobility, and the granting of market privileges.
The exhibition is built around authentic collection items. As there are few historical items from this period in Liptovský Mikuláš itself, the museum presents the material culture of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 13th and 14th centuries through artefacts from the Janko Kráľ Museum’s own collections, as well as loans from the Museum of Eastern Slovakia, Museum of Central Slovakia, Orava Museum, Liptov Museum, and the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Individual display cases focus on themes such as everyday life, warfare, faith, construction, writing and documents, and numismatics. At the heart of the exhibition is a display case containing a facsimile (faithful reproduction) of the charter with the first written reference from 1286, which the museum had specially produced for the exhibition.
The exhibition also keeps pace with the times, with a range of digital and interactive elements. Visitors can find out more about medieval Liptovský Mikuláš through animated screens. A projection shows the layers of armour a medieval warrior had to put on, while virtual reality places visitors in the middle of a medieval duel. A separate space is devoted to faithful reproductions of historical clothing and furniture, evoking the medieval household of the Liptovský Mikuláš nobility. The exhibition also includes interactive medieval workshops, where younger visitors can briefly become medieval carpenters, builders, or scribes.
The Sanctus Nicolaus 1286 exhibition was created with the support of the Fund for the Support of the Arts and will be open to visitors in the exhibition hall of the Janko Kráľ Museum during opening hours until January 2028.
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The activity is implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Slovak Republic.