The museum has two halls for permanent exhibitions, one for temporary exhibitions, and an open-air exhibition in the courtyard.
The regional history exhibition illustrates the history of Štúrovo and its surroundings from prehistory to the present. At the individual stops on the “timeline” the most important milestones in the history of the settlement are made visible, combined with pictorial documentation and accompanying text:
The town was an important Danube crossing already in Roman times, from which the first known name of the settlement Anavum also derives. It was one of the bridgeheads of the famous “Limes Romanus” built during the imperial period (2nd century).
The first written mention of the village is found in a donation charter issued by the Hungarian king Géza I in 1075, in which the sovereign gave ten houses of ferrymen and three ploughlands in the upper part of Kakath (today’s Štúrovo) to the Abbey of Hronský Beňadik.
In 1543 the Turks managed to capture Kakath, and three years later they began to build a strong bridgehead. The fortress they figuratively called “Dzhigerdelen Parkan”, i.e. “the fortress cutting into the enemy’s liver”. It is precisely that period – together with the fortress – that is immortalised by 12 photocopies of copperplate engravings up to 1683, when one of the most important battles against the Turks took place here – the Battle of Parkan, in which the Christian armies of the Polish King John Sobieski and the Prince Charles of Lorraine reaped a brilliant victory, thereby inscribing the town in the history of Europe.
In 1724 the village was elevated to a market town with the right to hold fairs. King Charles III granted the town market rights, the most important being the Saints Simon and Jude fair. The Parkan fairs were renowned throughout Central Europe and overshadowed even the Esztergom fairs.
The archaeological finds on display – which come from the territory of Štúrovo and its immediate surroundings – testify that this area was continuously settled from the earliest times. The oldest and most important site is the Neolithic settlement with the younger linear pottery of the Želiezovce group from the late Stone Age. It adds to its significance that it is still the largest researched Neolithic settlement in the entire Carpathian Basin. Later there was settlement in the Eneolithic – a settlement of the Kostolac culture with channelled pottery, as shown by the exhibits – a settlement and cremation graves from the early Bronze Age, Hallstatt cultural pits, a La Tène settlement from the 2nd century, a Germanic settlement from the 2nd–3rd century, and a Slavic-Avar burial ground from the 7th–8th century.
The ethnographic exhibition offers a glimpse into the folk culture of Štúrovo and its surroundings, providing insight into the past of 150 to 200 years ago. The costumes and utility objects on display depict the way of life and economic customs of the local people.
Temporary exhibitions can be viewed in the third hall, which offers excellent opportunities to present ever new and varied material.
