The Dukla Museum designed by architect František Jesenko is one of the bold examples of organic modernism in Slovakia. The work combines geometric simplicity with an emotional charge. It is located on the edge of a park, between the town center and the Soviet Army Memorial in the north.
In terms of its massing, the building consists of a lower plinth clad in decorative precast concrete blocks, and a cantilevered upper volume accessed via an external ramp. From a pedestrian's viewpoint, the building creates the illusion of a perfect circle. In reality, however, the upper floor plan is composed of two non-concentric semicircles. With this simple gesture, the author achieved a rather unconventional exhibition space, placing the exposition to the inner perimeter of the curve. The author used the resulting straight facades for the entrance to the museum oriented towards the town and for the glass wall, which allows a view of the monument in the park. The outdoor monument thus almost becomes an indoor exhibited object.
The author of the building was inspired by the jointing of two palms in the floor plan, and he assumed the culmination of the entire exhibition at the junction of the semicircles. In this central part of the layout, he designed a striking diorama depicting the Battle of Dukla Pass, together with a projection room seating forty visitors. The diorama was created by the artists Andrej Gaj, Jarmila Dicová Ondrejková, and Mikuláš Dic.
The museum was ceremoniously opened on 4 October 1969 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Carpathian-Duklian operation. Today, it is part of the Military History Museum based in Piešťany.
author of the description: Monika Bočková
Bibliography:
KOHLMAYER, Václav. Duklianske múzeum vo Svidníku. Projekt 1975, roč. 17, č. 4, s. 16.
KOHLMAYER, Václav. Stavoprojekt Prešov. Projekt 1974, roč. 16, č. 2–3, s. 21–22.
KUSÝ, Martin. Architektúra na Slovensku 1945 – 1975. Bratislava: Pallas, 1976. s. 212.
MALINOVSKÝ, Viktor a kol. Dvadsať rokov investičnej výstavby vo východoslovenskom kraji. Košice: Východoslovenské vydavateľstvo, 1967. s. 403.
KOHLMAYER, Václova: Oblasť pod Duklou. Architektura ČSR 1980, roč. 39, č. 5, s. 210 - 213.
