The cloister
A courtyard and stone passages turned into galleries.
Michal Jakubský — CC BY 3.0 · Szilas — CC BY 4.0 · Szilas — CC BY 4.0 · Szilas — CC BY 4.0
The largest regional museum in western Slovakia, occupying a sixteenth-century **Poor Clares convent** in the town of **Trnava**. The building alone justifies the visit: cloister arcades around a courtyard, the convent church still holding its altar and organ, and long stone passages turned into galleries. The collection is unusually wide for a regional museum: **archaeology** from the Stone Age and the Romans, **Gothic and baroque religious art** from the churches of the region, folk dress, a large collection of **bells**, and a whole section on handicrafts. But the better reason to go to Trnava is **the town itself**. It is called **"Little Rome«** because twelve churches stand inside its old walls, and for two centuries after Esztergom fell to the Ottomans it was the seat of the Catholic Church for all of Hungary. Its medieval town walls still stand almost complete, which is rare. Note: **about 47 km from Bratislava**, with a direct train in around 35 minutes — the easiest day trip from the capital.
A courtyard and stone passages turned into galleries.
A large section, unusual in a regional museum.
Medieval and almost complete, which is rare in the region.
Múzejné námestie 3, Trnava — about 47 km from Bratislava
Four, in order of distance. **Devín Castle** (10 km) is the closest and the most dramatic — a ruin on a crag where the Danube meets the Morava, reached by bus or by river boat in summer. **Trnava** (47 km, 35 minutes by train) for the walled town, twelve churches and this museum. **Červený Kameň Castle** (35 km), a complete Renaissance castle with enormous cellars. And **Vienna** (60 km, an hour by train) — yes, another capital as a day trip, one of the shortest distances between two capitals in the world. ⚠ Slovakia and Austria are both in Schengen, so there is no border to cross.
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