Orava dam has a new ship
THE NEW Slanica ship will transport visitors to the Orava Gallery on Slanický ostrov umenia (Slanica Island of Art) as of May 15.
The island is a former hill that remained after villages were flooded during the construction of the hydropower station in the Orava region. The original baroque church topping the island hosts a permanent exhibition of folk art. It is the only museum in Central Europe that can be reached only by ship.
The previous ship, manufactured in 1947, was unable to serve any longer without an expensive overhaul.
"We have managed to get a new ship after 20 years of struggle," Eva Luptáková, the director of the Orava Gallery, to which the museum belongs, told Pravda. The ship, with a capacity of over 80 passengers, cost Sk10 million.
Orava Castle reopens its chapel
What you see is the renewed St Michael's chapel. photo: TASR |
During reconstruction and restoration works, which cost the Orava Museum almost Sk10 million, conservators uncovered old renaissance and baroque paintings. The more than 10-metre-high altar with a large painting of St Michael fighting with Satan underwent restoration as well as the pulpit, epitaph of the former castle owner Palatine Juraj Thurzo, paintings of Thurzo and his wife, all sculptures, paintings, and equipment of the original renaissance chapel from 1611.
Visitors can also see two crypts. Orava Museum director Mária Jagnešáková told the TASR news wire that visitors can visit Thurzo's crypt and can see Henckel's crypt through a glass-covered hole.
However, remains of bodies buried in these crypts below the chapel are now undergoing an anthropological examination and will be returned to the original graves by the end of the year. Afterwards, the visitors will be able to admire also their representative renaissance garments, which are the only ones in Slovakia preserved almost intact to the current day.
The organ from the second half of the 18th century has been removed from the exhibit for restoration.
Prepared by Jana Liptáková from press reports
