As you travel the world and visit many places, you see various museums and exhibitions dedicated to many different things. Some surprise you and some don’t. And I found one that was quite a pleasant surprise and is even unique in the whole wide world. I am talking about the Love Bank located in Slovakia in the lovely town of Banská Šťiavnica.
The Love Bank is a fundraising project and its goal is to restore the house where Marína lived as it is an important cultural heritage, but it is also to promote the longest love poem in the world which was written by the Slovak poet Andrej Sládkovič. Their story is widely spread around the country and one could call them the Romeo and Juliet of Slovakia, with a less dramatic ending, nevertheless a very strong love story.
The manifestation of their love is written in the 2900 verses in the mentioned poem called Marína.
The famous Slovak poet started to write the poem in 1844 when he learned the love of his life is going to be married to someone else and he finished writing it one year after her wedding in 1846.
Andrej and Marína fell in love, but as it usually is with famous love stories their love never meant to be, even though their love was strong.
The longest love poem in the world
The poem holds the official world record of being the longest love poem in the world consisting of 291 stanzas and 2900 verses. It was in the year 2017 that it was declared and officially registered by the World Record Academy.
And you might wonder what could he have written in so many verses and the good news is, that the poem was published already in 8 different languages including Slovak, Hungarian, German, French, Polish, Hindi, Serbo-Croatian, and English. The word love is mentioned 168 times in the poem.
So there are plenty of opportunities to find the right copy for you. But to get a real experience, I definitely recommend visiting the Love Bank. To walk around the house where Marína lived and listen to the story unfold is amazing. You have the possibility to see the only true facsimile of this manuscript of the poem located right there, although the original manuscript of the poem is archived in the Slovak National Library.
“Love has created heaven on Earth.”
99th strophe, 5th verse
In the middle of the poem…
That is how you will feel when entering the Love Bank as it is created from the verses of the poem itself, and you will find yourself in the middle of their love story.
It all starts with a short presentation and continues to specific rooms of the house where each room is unique and gives an amazing experience. For example one of the first rooms you enter will give you a Harry Potter vibe with its interactive portraits of Marína, her parents, her husband to be, etc. They are engaging in conversation with each other and the best part is that the whole conversation consists of verses from the actual poem.
Continuing to go through the rooms as you will be drawn more and more into the poem and their everyday lives, and it all end with the visit of the Love Bank.
The Love Bank as such consists of “love boxes” with verses from the poem on them where anyone can purchase a box and store a symbolic keepsake of love.
There are as many love boxes as there are letters, punctuation marks, and spaces in the poem. Each Love Box bears a piece of Sládkovič’s original manuscript of the poem and there are two possibilities you get to store something in a love box:
- Get it for one year for the price of 50 €
- Get a love box forever for 100 € ( and with this option the box is inheritable)
For more information on purchasing a love box visit their website.
Note that all the contributions are helping to save the historic house and improve the exhibition.
Many use it as a perfect gift for various occasions and people from all around the world are safekeeping many things in them. Not just romantic relationships, but also friendships. The maximum size of the item you can store is 70 x 95 x 9 millimeters.
Can be a great gift, what do you think?
The Love Bank is an experience on its own. As I was walking through the rooms I thought I found my favoutire one, but boy was I mistaken when I entered the actual love vault. The mirror at the end of the vault and on the mirrors on the floor makes it look like a neverending room.
*Tip for the ladies: do not wear a skirt or a dress as there are mirrors on the floor.
You really cannot experience this anywhere else in the world and is a must-stop when you are near.
Within the vault there is also the biggest book I encountered so far tracking all the purchased love boxes.
Now let me also mention a few practicalities…
Address where you can find the Love Bank
Radničné námestie 18
969 01 Banská Štiavnica
Slovakia
Opening hours
- Adults: 12 €
- Teenagers (13-17): 10 €
- Children (6-12), Seniors: 8 €
- Children (0-5): Free
- Penguins: Free
Families can get a 50% discount. For exact prices and any changes check here.
When you usually think about love or romantic places to visit, your mind usually comes up with cities like Paris or maybe the Italian city famous thanks to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Verona, but this small town called Banská Štiavnica with the only Love Vault in the world is actually THE romantic place to visit and I hope now it will be among the romantic places that usually pop up in your mind.
“My feet won’t walk — does the darkness tie them?”
In case you are interested in reading the poem click here, it will give you Slovak – English translation. Apart from it being long, it is also beautiful.