Director of Ľubovňa Castle, the museum, the castle grounds, and the open-air folk museum beneath the castle, Dalibor Mikulík has been working at the museum for 22 years. After completing his studies in history and philosophy, he joined in the summer of 2003 as castle manager. Eight years later, he became the museum director.
What does managing several sites as director involve?
The museum oversees 42 historical buildings, and the biggest challenge is their restoration and renovation. To a large extent, this has been successfully achieved. Today, about 80 percent of Ľubovňa Castle is restored and open to the public. For me, this is more of a calling than a job – it gives meaning to my life and existence. The museum organizes a rich cultural program each year. Perhaps that’s why we welcome over 205,000 paying visitors annually. In recent years, our museum has been the most visited in Slovakia in terms of paying visitors.
What can visitors see?
The museum oversees a unique European attraction – a castle and an open-air museum within a single complex. The open-air museum, built in the 1980s right below the castle, allows visitors to experience both aristocratic life and rural life. The castle features exhibitions and displays, alongside its architecture and palace structures. Visitor favorites include the castle brewery, the Polish crown jewels, the Bourbon princesses’ chamber, the main castle tower, and the exhibition dedicated to Maurice Benyovszky. In summertime, the tour includes falconry shows, castle festivals, a castle musical, concerts, and the very popular night tours. The open-air museum presents the lifestyle of ethnic groups from the northern Spiš region. Its highlight is the Greek Catholic wooden church from Matysová, which features a valuable iconostasis. The complex also includes a mill, exhibitions of blueprint printing and wirework (UNESCO heritage), farm buildings, and wooden houses.
What have you managed to restore at the castle?
Over the past 20 years, Ľubovňa Castle has undergone a complete renovation. All three palaces – Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque – have been restored. The three altars in the Chapel of St. Michael the Archangel have also been restored. We renovated the fortification and are currently working on the third and fourth courtyards, 17th-century military barracks, the castle well, and the northeastern wall.
How did you make the castle accessible for blind and deaf visitors?
We were the first castle and open-air museum in the country to become accessible to blind and deaf visitors. Today, the castle and museum grounds include guiding paths and QR codes to assist visitors with these disabilities in navigating the exhibitions. For this initiative, the museum received the Slovakia Without Barriers award multiple years in a row. We stand by the motto that culture should be accessible to all.
Descendants of the castle’s owners with director Mikulík. Left to right: Prince Jan Lubomirski-Lanckoroński, Count Gyorgy VI. Lublováry-Raisz, Dalibor Mikulík, Count José Miguel Zamoyski de Bourbon y Navarro.
One of your dreams was to bring together all the living descendants of the castle’s owners from 1591 to 1944. Did you succeed?
Dreaming is worthwhile, and I managed to fulfill one of my professional dreams. In the summer of 2022, the descendants of the owners of Ľubovňa Castle from 1593 to 1944 met at the castle. The aim was to bring together the representatives of all three noble families – Lubomirski, Raisz, and Zamoyski – at the same time and in the same place. I worked on organizing this meeting for about five years, as coordinating the schedules of all three aristocrats was quite difficult. The meeting was a success and marked a historic moment for the castle – one that may never happen again. In July this year, José Miguel Zamoyski de Bourbon, a representative of the Zamoyski family, will ceremonially open the Ľubovňa Castle Treasury.
You also traveled abroad to meet with the descendants. Which countries did you visit, whom did you meet, and how did those meetings go?
The search for descendants and establishing both personal and professional contact took about five years. I traveled to Hungary, Poland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, and France. These were always warm and friendly meetings. I came away feeling that they are true nobles – not putting on airs, but genuine aristocrats. Many of them donated rare historical photographs to us. Among them was Princess Carmen de Bourbon-Two Sicilies, who lived on the French Riviera. She donated valuable photos of the royal wedding that took place in Vyšné Ružbachy in 1923. Based on these, we were able to curate a high-quality exhibition that reconstructed the royal wedding.
You contributed to creating a virtual tour of the castle in cooperation with the Francisco Goya Museum in Spain. How did this idea come about?
A colleague from Italy reached out to me about collaborating with museums in Zaragoza, Porto, and Milan. The project aims to connect three museums and their stories – of collections, paintings, or exhibitions – through virtual reality. The visitor becomes a sort of avatar of history and knowledge. The product is officially available online in four languages, offering cross-promotion and educational opportunities for the public.
In 1768, the well-known Maurice Benyovszky was imprisoned in Ľubovňa Castle for ten months. But he managed to escape. How did he do it, and why did a Taiwanese TV crew film a documentary about him at the castle?
Benyovszky came to the Spiš region to recruit an army against the Polish king at the time. He also approached the castle’s captain, Elsterman, to gain control of the garrison, but was instead imprisoned in the main tower. He later escaped and thus began his adventurous journey around the world. According to legend, his beloved Anička got the castle guards drunk and smuggled Maurice out under her skirts. Benyovszky remains of great interest in many countries. He sailed around Taiwan and protected the local population from sea raiders. That’s why Taiwanese television came to the castle to film a documentary. I later traveled to Taiwan myself.
CV BOX
Dalibor Mikulík (born August 13, 1974, in Stará Ľubovňa) is the director of Ľubovňa Castle, the museum, the castle town, and the open-air museum below the castle.
He is also vice-president of the civic association Friends of Ľubovňa Castle, a member of the Spiš Historical Society, and chair of the cultural and education committee of the town of Stará Ľubovňa.
He studied history and philosophy at the University of Prešov. Through his work, he has connected northeastern Slovakia not only with Europe but also with America and Taiwan.
He has organized numerous international exhibitions and displays. He made the castle accessible to blind and deaf visitors.
He holds many awards and is the author of several publications. He has led successful grant acquisition projects.
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