100 years of the Police History Museum
MúzeumCafé 7.
The grim building, a mounted police barracks, was constructed in 1888. Although 50 horses and those who groom them are still based here, the building also houses other police units. The Police History Museum with its interrupted past is also located here. Its predecessor, the Museum of Criminology was established in 1908, but the collection was almost completely destroyed during World War II and thus it ‘disappeared’ for 55 years. Reorganisation of the museum as a teaching centre began in 1958 and from 1963 it acquired some exhibition area in the vicinity of its present location (in the former detention barracks). It was only licensed as a museum with the scope of a national collection in 1967. Although it is a museum, visitors are still mostly interested in crimes of the recent past; therefore in 2008 panels about the latest criminal cases have been added to the exhibition. The seized wigs of Hungary’s ‘whisky robber’ can be seen, as can the notes written by him; for example “Closed for Technical Reasons”, which he put on the doors of banks so that unwelcome visitors would not disturb him during a robbery. The forged number plates used by the Miskolc Bonnie and Clyde pair are also displayed. The two most interesting objects are undoubtedly the skulls of highwaymen Sándor Rózsa and his brother. However, the temporary exhibition ‘Past and Present’ is far merrier. As part of a day’s excursion from Budapest the museum’s exhibition venue in the Almássy Mansion at Tarnaméra is an experience. Visitors can find a uniform display as well as telling pictures about the history of the gendarmerie and police.