Museum of Cinematography of the Schuster Family in Medzev

Photographic and cinematographic technology can be considered one of the greatest discoveries of mankind. It has gradually become an everyday and indispensable part of our lives, to the point that it has almost become commonplace and only a few of us are aware of its full significance. Rudolf Schuster, an enthusiastic photographer and devotee of film technology since his youth, began to collect and assemble photographic and cinematographic technology with the intention of creating a memorial room in his native house in Medzev.

With this act, he wanted to pay tribute to the first foreign Slovak amateur film expedition in 1927 - 1928 to the interior of Brazil. The members of this expedition were: Alojz Schuster, Ján Benedik, Michal Benedik. As the name suggests, the museum focuses primarily on cinematographic technology, but other forms of imaging technology are also abundantly represented. The collection items that form the basis of the exhibition were acquired by Rudolf Schuster through his own collection, donation or purchase. There are also exhibits (gifts) from the presidents of many states: Johannes Rau, Václav Havel, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Leonid Kuchma, Thomas Klestil, King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden, Prince Albert of Monaco and others.

The exhibited collection is the result of a lifetime of collecting efforts, it contains rare exhibits that document the pioneering of documentary film in Slovakia. The exhibits include film cameras, wooden ones for 35 mm film from the beginning of the 20th century, shooting cameras from the 1930s, cameras of various formats for 8 mm, 16 mm film from amateur to professional, as well as color television cameras. The renowned brands Pathé, Ernemann, Ertel-Werke, Bagley, Prestwisch, Wiliamson, Eumig and many others are represented here.
Film projectors from this period, but also from a later period (since 1900), stereoscopes, lamp cabinets, laterna magica. These are unique, historically rare exhibits, manually operated and illuminated by kerosene lamps. Valuable brands Unger & Hoffman, Edision Home Kinetoscope, Keystone, Zeiss, Eumig from the 1930s-1940s are represented, as well as slide projectors, tools for filmmakers. Also rare are photographic equipment of all basic construction types, from simple boxes through single-lens and double-lens SLRs to professional photographic equipment used until recently. Particularly interesting are photographic equipment from 1890. Manufacturers such as Voigtländer, Goldwein, Estman Kodak, Yaschika, Keystone, Ernemann, Agfa and others are represented here. In addition to photographic and cinematographic equipment, the exterior of the museum houses a functional water hammer with a closed water cycle, a blacksmith's forge with a blower, hammers and blacksmith's tools. The hammer tradition in the Šugovská Valley and Medzev is represented by forged agricultural tools, shovels, hoes and other period objects that are inextricably linked to the lives of people in Medzev, especially the hammersmiths. In the back of the garden are placed water hammer wheels, grinding stones, hammers and other parts of water hammers. They are the so-called monuments of bygone times.

The Schuster Family Cinematography Museum is one of the few museums in Slovakia with its wealth and diversity of historical collections. After inventorying and documenting the collection items that were accepted into the collection by the Slovak Technical Museum, the Schuster Family Cinematography Museum was opened to the public on November 1, 2007, with year-round operation.