The Museum of Svätý Anton is a contributory organization directly managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic. It is a specialized institution with nationwide scope. The museum systematically collects artifacts, professionally processes the museum's art-historical and hunting collections, and makes them accessible to the public through permanent exhibitions, long-term, short-term, and traveling exhibitions.
Museum's Coat of Arms
The Museum of Svätý Anton is Slovakia's national hunting museum and engages in numerous international activities. It conducts professional and methodological activities, processes, presents, and utilizes tangible documents related to the comprehensive documentation of the development and current state of hunting in Slovakia, as well as the history of the Koháry and Coburg families. In the fields of hunting and the historical research of the Koháry and Coburg families, the museum collaborates with professional institutions in Slovakia and abroad. All acquired knowledge is utilized in developing cultural and educational activities.
History
The village of Svätý Anton is located south of Banská Štiavnica, beneath the legendary majestic Sitno Mountain, and is part of the UNESCO Heritage Site area. This region is characterized by numerous cultural and historical monuments. The dominant feature of the village is a Baroque-Classical manor house built on the site of a smaller fortified castle mentioned as early as the 15th century. It belongs to the group of feudal residences constructed during the extensive building activities of the Hungarian military aristocracy loyal to the Habsburgs, who gained wealth during the anti-Turkish resistance. Renowned European architects and artists, such as Giulio Ferrari, Ján Entzenhofer, Anton Schmidt, and Dionýz Stanetti, contributed to its construction, decoration, and later reconstructions.
The manor was initially constructed in the Baroque style as a two-winged building with arcades facing an open courtyard with a Baroque stone fountain. In the mid-18th century, Count Andrej Koháry completed the transformation of the manor into a magnificent four-winged noble residence. The manor has served as a museum since 1962 and currently houses an art-historical and hunting exhibition. Due to the diversity of its collections preserved in an exceptionally cohesive and authentic form, the entire manor complex in Svätý Anton was declared a National Cultural Monument in 1985.