From community centre to digitized collection
The Mihály Munkácsy Museum in Békéscsaba
MúzeumCafé 42.
In the late 18th century Békés-csaba had a population of almost 10,000 and by the first third of the 19th century it was known as “Europe’s largest village”. Its Mihály Munkácsy Museum is housed in a small, neo-Classical mansion. It was only towards the end of the 19th century that the idea arose of establishing a museum in the town. Setting up a Békés County Museum in Gyula was considered more important. 1899 saw the appearance of the Békéscsaba Museum Association, with the following aims: “ … to research and collect archaeological, historical, natural and ethnographic relics found in the town and possibly throughout the entire county; to preserve objects, cultural items, books and manuscripts, and artistic and industrial objects relating to the life of the people, as well as mementos, pictures and family heirlooms of the town’s benefactors; to disseminate general knowledge and organize accessible public libraries.” For half a century, in the period of the county museum, many partner institutes joined the museum. Then in spring 2000 something happened which only occurred generally among provincial museums from 2013. The Békés County Assembly decided to gradually transfer ownership of museums in the county museum network, i.e. the partner institutes, to the different localities by the end of 2002. With this, the Mihály Munkácsy Museum for more than a decade was in a special situation within the county museum system – it became a county museum without any partner institutes. Considering the structure of its collections, it is of the ‘small national museum’ type. Like the majority of provincial museums established after 1867, it followed the example of the first Hungarian museum, and thus it collected materials relating to the natural sciences, archaeology, ethnography, history and fine arts.