Rep. n° 05/2026
Nová Bystrica, Vychylovka, May 2, 2026. Kysuce, a picturesque forested region in northwestern Slovakia, boasts beautiful places for tourism, a rich history and its own traditions. All this gives the region an unmistakable character. However, life in the harsh countryside was extremely difficult in the past. Long winters and short summers gave local residents only a very short time to secure basic food. Kysuce was affected in the past by numerous crop failures and subsequent famines, epidemics, natural disasters or a lack of job opportunities outside of agriculture. It was in these difficult conditions that the residents were comforted by faith, which is still alive in the region and is part of the spiritual life of their ancestors. Today, the situation is of course different than it used to be, but the region is known for maintaining traditions and folk customs. Kysuce is also known for the ethnographic exhibition of the Kysuce Village Museum, which was created due to the construction of the Nová Bystrica reservoir, a reservoir of drinking water for the entire region. The exhibition was opened in 1981 and presents folk architecture and the way of life and culture of the people of Kysuce at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
In 2026, the Kysuce Village Museum will celebrate its 45th anniversary. On this occasion, at the invitation of ethnologist Marek Sobola, the Apostolic Nuncio to Slovakia, Mons. Nicola Girasoli, visited it. His visit culminated in an extraordinary act of blessing the historic Chapel of the Rosary of the Virgin Mary from the first half of the 19th century, which was previously transported to the museum from Zborov nad Bystrica and still serves for liturgical purposes and as a film set.
The Apostolic Nuncio, due to his diplomatic position, does not usually bless religious objects in the state in which he represents the Holy Father, therefore the granting of this exception is an extraordinary event for the entire region. The object will forever remain associated with his name. The ceremony, attended by the diplomatic corps, representatives of the Žilina diocese and the local government, connected religious traditions with international diplomacy. The exceptional nature of the event was underlined by the presence of ambassadors and diplomats from several countries, including Spain, the Czech Republic, Albania, North Macedonia, Romania and Croatia, as well as military representatives from Slovenia. The guests honored the memory of their ancestors, who, in the difficult conditions of Kysuce, found solace precisely in the spiritual life and in the architecture, which the museum is trying to preserve for future generations.
The conclusion of the event belonged to the symbolic connection of culture and nature. The “Linden of Two Bishops” was planted in the Kysuce soil, becoming the first tree of the newly established St. Hubert Arboretum. The linden is the culmination of an earlier collaboration between the Bishop of Žilina, Mons. Tomáš Galis, and Mons. Jurij Bizjak, Bishop Emeritus of Koper. The Apostolic Nuncio also blessed the cornerstone of this arboretum, created from the remains of a historic shepherd’s dwelling. The project thus expands the exhibition of the open-air museum to include a collection of domestic trees and strengthens international friendships.
The event is a Christian example of combining diplomacy, culture, traditions and religion, which has no parallel in Slovakia. An important topic of discussion was also finding a way to plant the Tree of Peace in the territory of the ecclesiastical state of Vatican City.
