Virtual tours of SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Franciscan Church

The Franciscan Church (or the Seminary Church) at Main Street is the second oldest church in Kosice. It was built for Franciscans by the Perenyi family from Perin after the big fire in 1333. It has preserved Gothic elements document a beautiful plastic Gothic decoration. The reliefs above the entrance, stone seats close to the altar and vaults above the sanctuary and former chancel (dedicated to Saint Nicholas) are original. After the fire in 1556, the church served as a military store-house and the sanctuary as a bishop cathedral of the bishop of Eger who settled here during the occupation of Eger by Turks (1597-1671).

The interior is baroquized, the main altar has a valuable baldachin structure. The statue of Saint Charles Borromeo, a patron of the seminary, is on its copula. Almost all the altars, the pulpit and other moveables are from years 1760-1770.

The founder of the first University of Košice, the bishop of Eger Benedikt Kisdy, was buried in the crypt under the main altar. All the crypts were plundered by soldiers after World War II.

Slovak Technical Museum

The Slovak Technical Museum in Kosice at Main Street is the only technical museum in Slovakia. It is an architectonic dominant of the northern part of Kosice urban monument reserve. It was built on the site of four Gothic burgher houses from the 13th century, it was rebuilt in the 18th century in the style of the Theresian classicizing Baroque.

Formerly Technical museum was opened to the public in 1948. In 1983 it was renamed to the Slovak Technical Museum. Slovak Technical Museum is the only one with the technical direction on the territory of Slovakia. It presents the history and the tradition of the science and technics. As the principal centre of Museum documentation, it controls abundant collection funds, initiates the care of selected technological monuments and provides expert help in their preservation and renovation.

The extensive collection fund has monuments from mining, metallurgy, artistic smithery, clock-making, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, surveying and cartography, factographic and cinematographic technology. Scientific disciplines are represented by collections from historical instrumental technique from physics, chemistry and astronomy. The Museum has accumulated more than 14000 collections.