How it was...
Open air museums
The first thoughts about the creation of museums in nature originated in Scandinavia and northern Germany. The impulse for building museums in nature was the effort to protect or save endangered objects. By transferring the objects of public housing through their equipment, but also by modifying their surroundings, it was a representation of the life of the peasant population and the relationship between natural conditions and the way of life. The first outdoor museums were founded in all the capitals of the Nordic countries (Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki), until the 20s of the 20th century, all of today's large museums were founded in the Nordic countries. Each was built under different conditions, each was strongly influenced by the charisma of its founder, each accentuated some other aspect in its activity.
The development of outdoor museums was interrupted by the First World War. The post-war situation and the economic crisis in the 1930s were also reflected in the mood of society, which was solving existential problems. Emphasizing history was losing meaning for ordinary people. [1]
[1] Open-Air Museums Concepts, Reality and Visions: OPEN-AIR MUSEUM – THE PHENOMENON OF DIVERSITY, PhDr. Marianna Janoštínová, p. 7, 2019 ISBN 978-80-89751-25-9
The Village
The aim of the Open-Air Museum Vychylovka – a permanent ethnographic outdoor exhibition – is to reconstruct a residential area, presenting thelifestyle and folk culture in the Kysuce Region in the second half of the19th and beginning of the 20th century. During the construction process,the historical settlement in the Kysuce Region, based on the Wallachianand Kopanice colonization, was considered. Also, preservation of the most valuable monuments of the folk architecture from Kysuce was prioritised– mainly from the area of Riecnica and Harvelka municipalities which disappeared as a result of the construction of the water reservoir in Nová Bystrica in Northern Slovakia. [2]
The rescue and restoration of the most valuable monuments of folk architecture in Kysuce Region began shortly after the creation of the District Folklore Museum, specifically with preparations for the construction of an exposition of folk architecture and living in Kysuce.
The first steps in the preparation of the construction of an ethnographic exposition in nature took place in 1974, after
in-depth research into folk architecture and housing, which was provided by the Slovak Institute of Monument Care and Nature Protection in Bratislava with the help of students of ethnography and architecture. As part of the research, more than 900 objects of folk architecture were analyzed in detail. [3]
[2] Open-Air Museums Concepts, Reality and Visions: OPEN-AIR MUSEUM IN VYCHYLOVKA – THE HISTORY AND THE PRESENT, PhDr. Alojz Kontrik, p. 69, ISBN 978-80-89751-25-9
[3] Open-Air Museums Concepts, Reality and Visions: OPEN-AIR MUSEUM IN VYCHYLOVKA – THE HISTORY AND THE PRESENT, PhDr. Alojz Kontrik, p. 72, ISBN 978-80-89751-25-9
The Chapel of Our Lady
of the Rosary
A sacral object that consists of two parts: a nave and a tower.
The nave and the tower are made of plastered stone masonry. The nave is finished with a semi-arched apse. The facade is without artistic details. The roof is wooden and the roof is shingled. There are two bells in the tower: the larger one was cast in 1834 by the bell-maker Kajetan Zeidl in Trnava, the smaller one dates from 1918 and was cast in Trenčín. Inside the chapel is a ceiling painting by an unknown author.
The late Baroque chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary from the 19th century is one of the most famous buildings in the open-air museum - Museum of the Kysuce village in Vychylovka. The church originally stood in the village of Zborov nad Bystricou, near the main road, in the place where the shop stands today.
Thanks to the creators of the open-air museum, the chapel from Zborov nad Bystricau with a cemetery represents a sacred type of architecture, which, with its architectural style and dimensions in proportion to the scale of the urban planning groups represented in the space, naturally fits into the character of the model indicative reconstruction of the residential landscape, culture and life of people in Kysuce Region. [4]
[4] Open-Air Museums Concepts, Reality and Visions: A SACRAL BUILDING IN THE LIGHT OF CONCEPTUAL INTENTIONS IN TERMS OF INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTEXTS AND ITS PLACE IN THE SETTLEMENT STRUCTUREOF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC OUTDOOR EXHIBITION – THE MUSEUM OF THE KYSUCE VILLAGE IN VYCHYLOVKA Mgr. Pavol Markech, p. 94, ISBN 978-80-89751-25-9