About the Gallery

The Nedbalka Gallery is situated on one of the oldest streets in Bratislava. The tortuous street built on old city walls from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries connects Laurinská and Uršulínska Streets. Even in the early twentieth century, it was still among the most interesting streets in the historic core of Old Town in terms of architecture and history.

Five floors filled with the works by Slovak visual artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Gallery is among the most beautiful buildings of its type in Slovakia. The extension, designed by renowned architects, Viktória Cvengrošová and Virgil Droppa, has been awarded a prestigious Dušan Jurkovič Award. In 2012, a complete reconstruction was carried out based on the plans of Ing. arch. Jarmila Kusá. The collection containing over 1,000 works of art by 83 great Slovak artists. The permanent exposition comprising 160 paintings and sculptures displayed on the area of 1,529 square meters.

Nedbalka – The Story

The story of the Nedbalka Gallery began with a collecting passion and a vision the realisation of which turned the impossible into reality. The initiative of philanthropists Miloslava and Peter Paško and Artúr Bartoška focused on a promotion of Slovak visual culture resulted in a unique, unparallel project, the establishment of a stable institution providing the broad public with access to a private collection of Slovak fine art.

The History of the Gallery Building

The archival and historic research of the building of the Nedbalka Gallery on Nedbalova 17, led by Viera Obuchová, historian and a long-time employee of the Monument Board of the Slovak Republic, has brought a number of interesting information.

The building is a cultural monument registered in the Central registry of monuments under number 651. It is part of a historic centre of the national municipal monument preservation Bratislava. The dwelling house is situated in the block of terrace houses on Nedbalova Street, located near the municipal walls and Laurinská Gate.

In his work on the streets and squares in Bratislava in the early twentieth century, Teodor Ortvay described Hummel Street (Hummelgasse, Hummel-utca), today´s Nedbalova Street, as a tortuous street, which was among the oldest in the town.

Based on Vendelín Jankovič´s manuscript, the first record relating to the plot under focus comes from 1430 – Pendettin Judin. In the nineteenth century, the plot was in the possession of Josef Stöger (1878), and later on it was owned by a stone-coal dealer Adolf Heck and his wife Anna (1890 – 1894). At that time, a house with two courtyards and a farm building with the area of 99.5 square fathoms (öl) were located on the plot. In 1905, the building was in the possession of Josef and Anton Tafelmayer. The structure on Nedbalova 17 was built in the early nineteenth century in classicist style. In the latter half of the nineteenth century it was rebuilt and extended, with the ground floor being adjusted to restaurant premises.

The last known owner of the building was Jozef Pahr who was described as an innkeeper in the 1911 Pressburger Wegweisser. In 1928 he asked the building office for a permit to build the second floor. The project of extension and adjustments, designed by a reputable Bratislava-based architect and builder Alexander Feigler, has been preserved in the Bratislava City Archives.

In 1930, the restaurant premises in the building were adjusted based on the design of an architect Antonín Bartoš. The aim of the adjustment works was to modernise canteen with a bar and a kitchen. From 1940 the restaurant was run by Vincent Zapletal. After the 1948 coup d’état the building was put under state ownership and assigned to NARRA, n. p. From 1950 the building (Nedbalova 25 at that time) was occupied by Vesna, n. p., which used it as a canteen. As a result of the minimal maintenance, the house went to rack and ruin. In the 1950s the authorities even considered the general renovation of the building.

The Building after Reconstruction

A general reconstruction of the building that was to serve as a seat of the Foreign Currency Department of Slovenská štátna sporiteľna started only in the early 1990s. The extension of the building on Nedbalova 17 was designed by Viktória Cvengrošová and Virgil Dropa. In 1995 the Slovak Architects Society awarded their design Dušan Jurkovič Award. The building of the Nedbalka Gallery on Nedbalova 17 was purchased from the original owner in 2011, already with the intention to use it as an art gallery for broad public.

Slovenská sporiteľňa, a. s., vacated the building after the completion of its new modern headquarters.

The latest reconstruction project including the change of use of the building has been developed by the team of designers led by an architect Jarmila Kusá. After the reconstruction, the building offers a barrier-free access to all premises.