the first historical building of the Slovak Matica. The third building became the seat of the Slovak National Library and the Slovak Matica office returned to the second parent building. The ceremonial laying of the foundation stone for the new, third building of the Slovak Matica on Hostihora (Martin) took place during the celebrations of the Slovak Matica centuries on August 4, 1963. Third building was opened by Vladimír Mináč. History 1861 On June 6 and 7, at the Slovak National Assembly in Martin, a request for the establishment of a Slovak cultural institution was formulated in a political program known as the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation. The Temporary Committee entrusted the establishment of the institution to the Temporary Committee of Slovak Matica, which carried out all organizational steps leading to its establishment, drafted the first Matica´s statutes and earned their official permission at the imperial court in Vienna. 1863 At the inaugural 1st General Assembly on August 4 in Martin, which took place as part of the millennium celebration of the arrival of the Slavic apostles St. Cyril and Methodius to our territory, the Slovak Matica was established. Its goal, in the spirit of national and Christian ideas, was “to awaken, expand and affirm moral and artful education in the members of the Slovak nation; to cultivate and support Slovak literature and fine arts, and thus to help the material well-being of the Slovak nation, and to work on its improvement ”. They elected the Catholic bishop of Banská Bystrica, Štefan Moyses, as the first Chairman of Slovak Matica, and Karol Kuzmány, the first acting Vice-Chairman of the evangelical superintendent, Karol Kuzmány. The most important representatives of the Slovak nation, such as Jozef Miloslav Hurban, Michal Miloslav Hodža, Ján Francisci, Štefan Marko Daxner, Viliam Pauliny-Tóth, Adolf Dobriansky and others, actively worked in the first Slovak Matica committee. 1864 By the decision of the 2nd General Assembly, Slovak Matica adopted the Štúr´s Slovak language (according to the reform of Martin Hattala) and the Latin script for the printing of all Matica´s publications and documents. 1865 The National Flare, the first building of the Slovak Matica in Martin, was ceremoniously opened on August 8 at the 3rd General Assembly. Its construction was financed from nationwide “grajciar” (money) collections. 1866 On October 12, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. received in Vienna a Matica delegation led by Viliam Pauliny-Tóth,