A.S. Pushkin Museum Brodzany, Literary museum in Brodzany, Slovakia.
The A.S. Pushkin Museum is a literary institution housed in a Renaissance manor that dates to the 17th century and stands in the village of Brodzany. Inside, rooms display materials exploring the connections between Slovak writers and Russian literary figures, presented across various permanent and temporary exhibitions.
The Brodzany estate was first recorded in 1293 and belonged to the Hungarian Brogyányi family, whose Slovakised surname gave the manor its name. A stone building from the 14th century was rebuilt as a Renaissance castle in the 17th century by the Kvaššay family. In 1846 the Austrian diplomat Gustav Vogel von Friesenhof bought it; his second wife, Alexandra Goncharova, sister of Pushkin's widow, brought books, albums and portraits from Russia. The museum opened in 1979.
The estate's name comes from the Hungarian Brogyanyi family, later Slovakised as Brodzany. Alexandra Goncharova, sister of Pushkin's wife Natalya, moved here after marrying Baron Gustav von Friesenhof in 1852, bringing books, sheet music and albums of family portraits from Russia. Natalya visited her sister here, for the last time in 1862.
The museum opened in 1979 in the restored castle of the Brodzany estate, in the wooded valley of the Nitra river. The village has fewer than a thousand inhabitants, so the castle and its grounds are reached from the surrounding countryside rather than from a town centre.
The castle library held at least 10,000 volumes, including a separate cabinet of Russian books. During the Second World War Romanian soldiers stationed at Brodzany used books from it as kindling, and many documents were thrown into the street; albums of drawings by Xavier de Maistre, miniatures and portraits disappeared.
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