The Podtatranské Museum was founded in Poprad by Hungarian Carpathian Association in 1876. Given the disagreement about the location of the museum, the Tatra Museum opened in Veľká Lomnica in 1882, and in 1886, the Carpathian Museum opened in Poprad. In 1945, the two museums merged into one called the Tatra Museum of the Poprad district / since 1961 as the Podtatranské Museum. In 1978, the museum acquired another building in Spišská Sobota that now also serves for exposition purposes. The museum also manages so-called Werner's House in Spišská Sobota, dated to 15th century. The pride of the museum is the calc tuff mould of the cerebral part of the skull of a pre-neanderthal woman found in Gánovce. The estimated age is 120.000 years. It was discovered by a local citizen Koloman Koky, who is said to have sold it for only 100 korunas to J. Petrbok, an archaeologist. The museum has an extensive library (roughly 17.000 volumes). Considered as unique is a German grammar of Sanskrit, a textbook of Turkish with attached parallel grammar of Arabic and Persian, and an older Hebrew edition of a famous legal work Shulchan Aruch (“Set Table”) by a Palestinian rabbi Joseph Quaro, who lived during 1488-1578.
The museum offers following permanent expositions:
- The building in Poprad: Gánovce - Environment of Neanderthal Man, Prehistory and Early Middle Ages under the Tatras, Poprad through Centuries, Nature Known and Unknown, Blueprints Manufacturing in the Workshop of Elemír Montško in Hranovnica, Folk Sculptures.
- The building in Spišská Sobota: Guilds and Crafts, Bourgeois Living, Grace and Humility.
Opening hours:
Season | Opening hours |
---|---|
October - April | |
Tue - Fri | 9.00 - 16.00 |
Sat, Sun | 12.00 - 16.00 |
May - September | |
Tue - Fri | 9.00 - 17.00 |
Sat, Sun | 13.00 - 17.00 |
Price list:
Admission |
Price |
---|---|
Admission |
1,50 € |
Children, students, retirees |
0,70 € |
Family admission (2 adults + 2 children) |
3,00 € |
Combined admission - adults |
3,00 € |
Combined admission - children |
1,50 € |
School groups (more than 10 children) |
0,70 € |