The gold vault
The hoard in a secured strongroom, and the reason to come.
Robert Kimle — CC BY-SA 3.0 · ZemplinTemplar — CC BY-SA 4.0 · ZemplinTemplar — CC BY-SA 4.0 · ZemplinTemplar — CC BY-SA 4.0
The oldest museum in Slovakia — founded in **1872** — in a large neo-Renaissance building at the northern end of Hlavná square. The collection is broad: archaeology, natural history, religious art, and the crafts and dress of eastern Slovakia, with a section on the Roma and a complete wooden church moved from a village and reassembled in the yard. But one thing brings people here: **the Košice Gold Treasure**. In **1935** workmen digging in the cellar of a financial building in the city found a copper chest hidden in the wall containing **2,920 gold coins** from eight European countries, along with three medals and a gold chain 214 cm long. The total weight is about **11 kilograms** of gold, and the coins span the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. It is still not known **who hid it or why** — most likely it was concealed during the Rákóczi rising in the early eighteenth century and its owner never returned. The treasure is displayed in a **secured vault** inside the museum, and it is one of the largest gold coin hoards ever found in Europe.
The hoard in a secured strongroom, and the reason to come.
Moved from a village and reassembled entire in the yard.
The crafts and clothing of eastern Slovakia, and a Roma section.
Námestie Maratónu mieru 2, Košice
In August **1935** workmen were enlarging the cellar of the **finance building** on Hlavná when a pick struck a wall and opened a cavity holding a **copper chest**. Inside were 2,920 gold coins from eight countries — Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain and others — three gold medals and a long chain. The find was announced at once and became a national event. ⚠ Then came a strange journey: during the Second World War the treasure was moved to **Budapest** for safety, stayed there for years, and was not returned to Košice until **1967**, after long negotiation. It has been displayed in the museum''s secured vault ever since. ⚠ Its owner is entirely unknown: no document and no name was found, and the likeliest explanation is that a merchant or official hid his money during the upheavals of the early eighteenth century and died before he could recover it.
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