SNP80: Two Streets Demolished Over SNP Museum, First Digging Done by Dubcek

Banska Bystrica/Bratislava, August 29 (TASR) - The SNP Museum in Banska Bystrica was originally situated on the premises of the Barbakan in the city centre, but 15 years later moved to the newly-built SNP Memorial, with several nearby houses torn down to make way for the museum and the first ceremonial digging with a spade carried out by socialist leader Alexander Dubcek, TASR was told by SNP Museum director Marian Uhrin on Thursday. Plans for building a museum to present events of SNP arose immediately after the end of WW2. The SNP Museum in Banska Bystrica, the heart of the anti-fascist resistance, officially came into existence on May 8, 1955. Later a discussion began about a plan to build an additional, larger memorial dedicated to the SNP, with its project drafted in the early 1960s by architect Dusan Kuzma. The construction works were launched in 1966. "The ceremonious digging was done by Alexander Dubcek. The spade he used is still preserved in our museum as a collector's item," said Uhrin. Shortly after its move out into the new premises, the SNP Museum had to modify its exhibitions due to the so-called 'Normalisation' process following the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact countries. "Only in the post-1989 era has the exhibition been altered, updated with new historical facts and with an uncensored interpretation. The current exhibition dates from 2004 and we would like to create a new one in the future, which would include also the most recent findings, and modernise it up to the contemporary-era level. There has been a substantial progress in technology and museology in recent years and we would like to capitalise on that," stated Uhrin. mf/mcs