Zuberec Open Air Museum & Orava Castle

Zuberec Open Air Museum and Orava Castle

Our day trip will start in a village called Zuberec and its Open Air Museum of Folk Architecture which offers intact rural houses brought from all around the region of Orava and re-assembled in Zuberec.

The oldest building, a Gothic wooden church, was constructed in the 15th century, but the museum itself was founded in 1967.

Nowadays, apart from the church, it also has its own graveyard and a functioning watermill.
The interior of the buildings houses an ethnographic collection.

The gardens and fields around the houses show various ancient forms of farming and animal husbandry.

Once we are finished with the museum tour we will have lunch in the village of Zuberec and then we will drive to the Orava Castle.

The castle is situated on a high rock above the Orava river.
It is considered to be one of the most beautiful castles in Slovakia.

The castle was built in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 13th century. Many scenes of the 1922 film Nosferatu were filmed here, although until now it was thought to have been filmed in Transylvania.

Orava Castle is situated on the site of an old wooden fortification, built after the Mongol invasion of Hungary of 1241. Since then its history reveals a familiar pattern of constructions, destructions, reconstructions, fire, various ownerships and territorial squabbles.

It was originally designed in the Romanesque and Gothic style; but later it was reconstructed as a Renaissance and Neo-Gothic structure.

The mining magnate Thurzo family, who were in charge in the middle of 16th century, were responsible for a great deal of rebuilding works, although its present form was not finalized until 1611.

In 1800 it burned down again and then it was occupied by Pálffyˈs family. Later, after a period of dilapidation and the World War II, the castle became a national monument.

Tour of the castle is over and it is time to take you back to your hotel.