The architect Milan Michal Harminc came out as the winner of a competition attended by several of the prominent architects in Czechoslovakia of the time. Even though modern designs were presented as well, this traditional concept with a classic/monumental expression was chosen. Harminc’s museum is a three-storey symmetrical building. A pair of Doric columns at the front facade carry a large pediment. It originally carried a relievo depicting a ploughman with a horse. Relievos by a south-Moravian sculptor Franta Uprk – who after 1918 was largely adopted as a Slovak national artist, are depicting the ‘nationalist idea’ n the facade. In 1926 he made two sculptural compositions for the museum: Sowing and Harvest, both being displayed at the facade. The building of the museum has not lost any of its splendour to the present day and it is widely considered to be the purest work of Milan Michal Harminc.
Bibliography:
Časopis čsl. architektů 23, 1924, s. 151.
Milan Michal Harminc. Katalóg výstavy. Ed. Klára Kubičková, Z. Zajková. Bratislava, GAUUDI – SNG 1991, nestránkované, 41 s., tu s. 18 – 19.
TORAN, Eduard: Architekt Milan Michal Harminc. In: Z novších výtvarných dejín Slovenska. Súbor štúdií a materiálov. Ed. L. Saučin. Bratislava, Vydavateľstvo SAV 1962, s. 327 – 406.
DULLA, Matúš – MORAVČÍKOVÁ, Henrieta: Architektúra Slovenska v 20. storočí. Bratislava, Slovart 2002. 512 s., tu s. 16, 61, 62, 338.
