History of the building

In 1970, the Renaissance mansion in Strážky, together with the late-Gothic Church of St. Anna and the Gothic-Renaissance bell tower, was recognized as a national cultural monument. Its beginnings are connected with the late-Gothic period (15th century). Later it underwent extensive Renaissance reconstruction and eventually Baroque-Classicistic adjustments (the end of the 18th century). The mansion belonged to the Horváth-Stansith family, who acquired it in 1556 and established the Latin humanistic school for children of the aristocracy from the Spiš region (1584 – 1711) and the Strážky portrait gallery there. It was gradually expanded to include portraits of the Révay and Esterházy families and works from the western Slovakia, region of Turiec and certain portraits from the turn of the 19th century. The Mednyánszky-Czóbel family became the owners of the mansion in the 19th century. The SNG acquired this building into its administration by transfer after the death of baroness Margita Czóbel in 1972. The SNG gradually carried out its preservation and reconstruction, together with the revitalization of the English park from the 19th century, where it installed an exposition of large sculptures. At the same time, it opened to the general public a precious collection of books from the original library, some of its original furniture and interior items and portraits of the 17th – 19th centuriy. It features the exposition of paintings of Ladislav Mednyánszky, a key figure of Slovak painting from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.