Čičmany surprised me, and I think two hours there are enough. I’d spend them on the painted houses and the Radenov House museum (Radenov dom). Just bear in mind that only part of the village has the traditional houses. To finish, I recommend the Humno Ondreja Gregora restaurant, although it’s usually closed out of season.
- Location
- A small village about an hour from Trenčín
- How long
- I needed two hours for the painted houses, the Radenov House museum and lunch
- Bear in mind
- Only part of the village has the traditional painted houses
- Radenov House museum
- Worth it for the talk on weddings, funerals and life in old Čičmany
- Where to eat
- Humno Ondreja Gregora, where the staff wear folk costume; I recommend the garlic soup. Usually closed out of season
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I wrote this article in 2018. Prices, opening hours and connections may have changed since then, so check them before you go.
What is there to see in Čičmany? To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to Čičmany and didn’t much feel like going. Vlkolínec had disappointed me and left me cold, so I assumed Čičmany would be more of the same. Wrong. Čičmany won me over completely, and I’m really glad I spent two pleasant hours there. So what is there to do?
Tip from Milan I’d recommend booking your accommodation as early as you can, because rooms in a good location at a fair price go first. Here you’ll find accommodation offers in the area valid today.
What to see in Čičmany
Čičmany really is a tiny village, about an hour from Trenčín. A word of warning, though, so you’re not disappointed: only part of the village has traditional houses. An educational trail runs through the whole village and takes you through its history and its most interesting sights. I skipped it, frankly because I couldn’t be bothered. So what did I do in Čičmany? I bought two postcards and sent one to Los Angeles and the other to Australia. I visited the Radenov House museum and ate at a seriously good restaurant. And that’s exactly what I liked about it.
Radenov House museum: history and traditions in Čičmany
The guided talk at the Radenov House museum was full of juicy titbits. A wedding in Čičmany, for example, always started on a Sunday after church and lasted three days. The custom was for the bride to move in with her husband’s family. I imagine she got on famously with her mother-in-law. A son who married stayed on in his parents’ house, and his bride moved in with him there. The couple had their own room and a mattress.
On the Sunday before the wedding, the bride took her dowry to her new home. It included work tools and, above all, things for doing the washing, such as a washboard, as well as tools for winding yarn into balls. Married women also put their hair up into two ‘horns’, with a bonnet and a headscarf on top. So as a young man in Čičmany, walking down the village’s two streets, you knew exactly which girl you could ask to the cinema. And which one couldn’t go any more, because she had her husband’s washing to do.
How people used to live in Čičmany
When someone died in Čičmany…
When someone died, the tradition was to open all the windows and doors so that the soul could leave in peace. People covered every mirror, because if the soul saw its own reflection, it would never leave the house and would stay on to haunt it. There were no mortuaries, so the body stayed at home with the family until the funeral. In a hot summer, that could be quite a problem. I’d rather not imagine the smell. What to see in Čičmany? Houses with a past.
After a death in the family, life slowed right down and nobody worked. The first job afterwards was baking bread. Some houses even had four ovens. The houses had no bathrooms, and the toilets were latrines or tubs. Washing was just as basic: a dip in the stream or a wipe with warmed cloths.
The 1921 fire in Čičmany changed how the houses were decorated
In 1921, the biggest fire in Čičmany’s history destroyed a large part of the village. People built new log houses, painted in the traditional style and more vividly than before the fire. One of the families may well have started the fire, since until then people cooked over an open hearth right inside the house. That’s why the old houses have higher ceilings. Inside, the walls were black with soot, which is partly why people decorated the outside. After the fire, the style of decoration changed, and the ovens got tall chimneys.
Houses in Čičmany tended to be big, because families were big back then. They grew in just this way: the sons’ brides moved in and had their children here. Each room was home to one family, so a single house could have as many as 30 people living in it. They all lived together because their shared property was so small that it wasn’t worth dividing. What to see in Čičmany? Every single house, frankly.
How did the people of Čičmany make a living?
The men worked as woodcutters in the forests, always in pairs so that they could saw a tree down between them. They were also carpenters, shingle makers and farmers. Cattle and sheep farming was booming, and there were as many as 17 sheep farms (salaše) making bryndza, a soft, tangy sheep’s cheese. People also made smoked cheeses and laid in curd cheese for the months without milk, since curd cheese is easy to dry. The cold mountain climate meant that only basic crops such as potatoes and barley would grow in Čičmany. The trouble is that frosts are common here even in May. That’s another reason why food in Čičmany was so simple and limited.
One curious job in Čičmany was Lacný Jožko (roughly ‘Cheap Joe’), a classic travelling seller of cheap costume jewellery. He went door to door selling earrings, necklaces and all sorts of knick-knacks for women, plus lip gloss, anti-dandruff shampoo and the like. For comparison, read my facts about Vlkolínec and see which village interests you more. In that article I also explain in detail why I think Vlkolínec lacks atmosphere.
Čičmany patterns as tattoo inspiration
After the big fire of 1921, motifs from the traditional folk costumes went onto the houses too, and were also embroidered onto other costumes. Favourite patterns included S shapes, cockerels and peacocks. Before the fire, the houses were decorated more simply, but after it people really went to town, as you can still see on the traditional houses in Čičmany today. What to see in Čičmany? The traditional houses.
Where to eat in Čičmany: Humno Ondreja Gregora
When I posted on Instagram that I was in Čičmany, readers independently recommended the Humno Ondreja Gregora restaurant (the name means ‘Ondrej Gregor’s barn’). The lovely ladies who serve here wear traditional folk costume, and they SMILE. They may well be the first in Slovakia to have worked out that when a waiter smiles, the tip has a dangerous tendency to grow. I recommend the garlic soup and something good to follow. What to see in Čičmany? All that good food.
PS: The restaurant is closed from November to May.
Čičmany completely swept me off my feet. After all those New Yorks, Sydneys, Colombias and Hawaiis, it’s lovely to travel around Slovakia. It reminds me that I don’t have to sit on a plane for 15 hours to see something interesting.
A Slovak travel blogger who has been getting Slovaks out of their office chairs since 2013. Author of the book Influencer and founder of the Bez Mapy blog. "Bez Mapy" is Slovak for "without a map".
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