The museum background has been formed from the temporary statute of the Technical museum, that was issued in 1947, it was for the first time opened to the public one year later.
In 1983 Museum was renamed to the Slovak Technical Museum. The establishment of the Slovak Technical Museum in its development belonged to the most industrial regions of Historic Hungary. Due to its mineral wealth, its mining and processing, Slovakia belonged to the end
of 18th century in the development of technic to the outstanding European countries. From the rich history has grown the necessity to keep up museological and to document the technical traditions. In 1997 has celebrated the 50th anniversary of its establishment.
Museum direction
Slovak Technical Museum as the only one Museum with the technical direction on the territory of Slovakia affords the view to the history and to the tradition of the scientific and technic. As the principal centre of Museum documentation, it controls abundant collection funds, initiates the care of selected technological monuments in situ with an all-Slovakia competence, provides expert help in their preservation and renovation. It documents the share of Slovakia and its personalities in the promotion of worldwide science and technology. 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 great number of the original exhibits are presented in the expositions and in the exhibited set of the collections. Museum has accumulated more than 14 000 collections. A lot of them representing irreplacable values. Slovak Technical Museum also administers immovable technological monuments – e.g. the salt-works Solivar near Prešov, the blast furnace Karol near Vlachov, the hammer-mill in Medzev and the forge in Moldava nad Bodvou. In 1992 an independent detached work-place of the Slovak Technical Museum was set up in Bratislava, oriented to the museumś documentation of the history of science, production and technology on the territory of the town Bratislava.
The building history
The building in which it is housed the Slovak Technical Museum , is an architectonic dominant of the northern part of Košiceś urban monument reserve. It stands on the site of four Gothic burgher houses from the 13th century., rebuilt in the 18th century in the style of the Theresian classicizing Baroque. From 1654 was this house the traditional seat of the highest Hungarian military dignitaries when staying in Košice. From that time the complex was named as the House of Uphungarianś captianś or Rakociś palace.