The town of Martin, called Turčiansky Svätý Martin until 1951, is considered one of the cultural centers of Slovakia. In 1863, Matica slovenská was founded in it, in 1867 one of the first three Slovak grammar schools and in 1893 the Slovak Museum Society.

After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic and the reopening of the gymnasium in 1919, it was necessary to build a new temporary school building according to the project of Eugene Barta. However, the gymnasium continued to experience a lack of space. It acquired a large urban plot on the elevated eastern edge of Martin, on which already in 1918 an exceptional urban planning concept for the construction of new cultural buildings of national importance began to be implemented.

The first project of the new gymnasium was developed by the architect Dušan Jurkovič, who, together with Jan Paclo, designed the Štefánik Institute for the Education of Social Nurses, where the secondary medical school is currently located. However, the Ministry did not accept his proposal and commissioned the Czech architect Bohuslav Fuchs. The new project was created between 1931 and 1936 in collaboration with Ladislav Rad and Klement Šilinger. The construction was carried out by the Hlavaj - Palkovič - Uličný company from Martin. The premises were handed over for use in October 1940, on the occasion of the celebration of the 600th anniversary of the founding of the city.

The work of the Bohuslav Fuchs collective is interesting from the point of view of architecture and urbanism. The L-shaped floor plan is divided into the school's main five-story wing and a short two-story wing with the janitor's and principal's apartment. With their solution, the architects entered into the discussion about the "correctness" of designing schools with either two-tract or three-tract layouts. The gymnasium in Martina was designed as a three-section on the ground floor, but on the upper floors it is a two-section with an extended block of stairs and sanitary facilities. The building has horizontal, circular windows and glass concrete infills. It is a complex, but noble whole, which still serves students and teachers in an almost unchanged form.