Exhibition of the Period Rooms Museum

The exhibition is located on the 1st and 2nd floor of the Apponyi House. The 1st floor used to serve as piano nobile. Its Roccoco and Classical decorations represent an example of intactly preserved interiors from the 2nd half of the 18th century with original elements such as wooden paneling of walls, wing doors and window shutters, Roccoco stucco decoration of ceilings, painted panels over the doors and windows, and partly also the original glazing of windows. The exhibition also comprises for example a collection of portraits from the Jablonica castle of the Apponyi family. In addition to original pieces of period furniture of the 18th century, also furniture from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries inspired by the Roccoco style was used to create the mansion house atmosphere. Lights installed on the 1st floor are rough copies of historical lamps.

The rooms of the 2nd floor are lower and used to be residential. Therefore, they present individual furnished rooms such as sleeping rooms, salons or study rooms completed with interior decorations and pictures of members of Bratislava families from the Baroque period until the end of the 19th century. Restoration works helped to uncover several layers of the original paintings from the period 1772–mid-19th century that enabled to recreate wall paintings. The most significant in terms of wall decoration is the Roccoco wall-painting of musical salon with landscapes framed in cartouches.

Neither the original furniture of the house nor any depictions of the interior have been preserved. The exhibits come from the Museum’s collections, while some of the pictures are on loan from the Bratislava City Gallery.

Author of the exhibition: Mgr. Marta Janovíčková, expert consultancy PhDr. Štefan Holčík, CSc.