The whole world in a cellar
The largest permanent collection of flags
MúzeumCafé 10.
Beside the flags of five continents there are coats of arms, emblems and maps. A Welsh dragon attacks from the left and the lion of Sri Lanka from the right, farther on a sea cucumber embroidered on the flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands is a bright contrast. “At first I couldn’t get information about many places apart from the 1966 world atlas my grandma gave me. With only black and white TV, I had to rely on written descriptions of their colours to imagine the flags,” says László Balogh a member of the Organisation of World Flag Societies. Later he began corresponding with the top leaders of different countries, resulting in a total of 7000 letters in 24 years. The majority of standards and flags acquired in this way have reached László safely, though sometimes in an interesting way. “Once a reply went all over for a year before I got it in the post. Yet, from Alaska I received a parcel within two and a half weeks of writing the letter. Incredibly, when I wrote to Gibraltar the reply passed through seventeen countries until finally a postman in Warsaw thought of writing Budapest on the envelope.” The collection also features the emblems of Hungarian towns and villages, their number expanding by offers from mayors, Mr Balogh’s lectures and temporary exhibitions. The international response has been tremendous, with requests to move the Balogh Collection coming from Austria (2002) and France (2004). Nevertheless, he insists on staying in the Carpathian Basin. The 200-square-metre cellar on Budapest’s Great Boulevard can only display a fraction of the collection. According to László Balogh, “to exhibit the whole lot would need eight floors of that size.” An area double the present has been promised for 2009, but concrete details have still to emerge.