Slovak National Museum Museum

The main building of the Slovak National Museum is an administrative building in the style of historism on the Danube embankment in Bratislava. Building from 1925 to 1927 today is located by the Directorate General SNM and Natural History Museum.

The building was created for the branch of the Czechoslovak Agricultural Museum from Prague, which was established in Bratislava in 1924. The project was implemented by the architect Michal Milan Harminc. Although the competition jury considered Paul Janák's proposal best, Harminc obtained a contract thanks to the classicist form of the project, which corresponded to regulatory and personal contacts with politicians Milan Hodž and Vavr Šrobár. The architect himself selected the plot and in 1924 made the first proposal, which was later modified according to the tender documents. Exposures opened May 4, 1930.

The building is three storey with a massive footstool, whose floor plan follows irregular trapezoidal shape of the land. The ground floor contains a large central hall around which orbits the structural double tract. The main face of the building is symmetrical. Above the entrance point with the detected staircase are two cannelled New Norwegian half-bars supporting the thympanum. There was originally a plowman relief with a horse. Similar scenes associated with peasant work are also found on reliefs between the windows of the first and second floors; their creator was František Úprka. The side facades are divided by semi-columns with a mighty ledge, while the bosážový sokel finishes the cordon ledge around the perimeter. The central risk of waterfront facade harmonizes with the Government building.

The main entrance with granite portal has doors with bronze fillings from Stin Paukert. It leads to a square hall with corner pseudodorian columns in ornament of pearl and egg. In the back wing was originally the Café Museum, which after a period of use as an exhibition hall and the depositary again serves its original purpose. The ground floor consists of exhibition rooms and lecture hall, while the second and third floors provide 26 halls for permanent exhibitions. On the third floor there is a library and in the spaces under the gabled roof with reinforced concrete construction are depositaries. Interior decoration uses ancient elements such as columns, semi-columns and triangular shields, which the architect also applied when designing the mobilarium.

In the interwar period the building was used by three Bratislava museums: the terrestrial, forestry and hunting and Slovak homeland museum. In 1940 they merged into the Slovak Museum in Bratislava. In 1961 the Slovak National Museum in Martin was associated with the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava. In 1938 Michal M. Harminc developed a project to adapt the building to the Slovak Parliament and in 1947 and 1948 led reconstruction after damage during the bombing of Bratislava during World War II.

The building is currently hosted by the General Directorate of the Slovak National Museum and the Natural History Museum. The Natural History Museum has a collection of 2.4 million objects.

The building is a preserved expression of the official architecture of the 1920s in Slovakia. It is the goal for visitors interested in novelty style and science.