So we know … “Mihály Vörösmarty lived here”
Memorial Houses
MúzeumCafé 12.
Who has not been to a memorial house on a school outing? Most of us didn’t get much out of the great person’s bed or copies of his works, and for many the genre seemed to have gone out of fashion. The majority of memorial houses in Hungary have been devoted to great literary personalities. Their story is largely connected to the prevailing position of Hungarian museology and after the 1989-90 changes the small houses in the countryside lost their attraction. The situation was made worse because the county museums got rid of their memorial houses whenever they could, and local communities often did not have the finances to have the grass mowed, let alone to develop. Last year cultural policy makers threw a pebble into the still water – the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Petőfi Museum of Literature announced a joint memorial house programme. The Renaissance of Literary Memorial Houses, announced in 2008, is aimed at establishing visitor centres in several memorial houses involving the region’s schools and tourism experts under the auspices of the county museums and funding local authorities. According to Csilla E. Csorba, director of the Petőfi Literary Museum, the most important part of the promotion is that the houses would appear as part of a uniform network. With this in mind, the www.mire.hu site has been devised. As MuzeumCafe goes to print, the opening hours and access details of 16 memorial houses are included. Today some villages no longer regard a memorial house as a burden, rather as a tourist attraction. Developing the Gárdonyi Memorial House in Agárd is helped by a civil organisation. Economist Eszter Somossy is the tourism project manager of the local authority which renovated the house in 2007, and the Petőfi Museum of Literature has rearranged the exhibition this year. Groups of over fifteen people are received for a modest sum, which can include a guided tour and craft sessions. Due to the efforts of the local authority a Velence Lake Gallery is opening, a centre of traditions is being constructed in the nearby village of Dinnyés and a bird watching station in honour of the internationally noted ornithologist István Chernel will operate again. The cultural sites will be linked with a nature trail called ‘Bird Song’. Kápolnásnyék has a Vörösmarty Memorial House. Here a full-time caretaker is employed. He is the guide, the gardener, security guard, cleaner and cashier all in one. The Gyula Rudnay Memorial House in Nagybábony has a very different story. Rudnay was an important person in the life of the village. He was involved with the frescos in the Calvinist church as well as the world war monument in front of the Lutheran church. In the 1980s physician Dr. Miklós Halasy, Rudnay’s grandson, repurchased the dilapidated house, which is used as a holiday cottage by the family today and a memorial room furnished by the family is maintained from their own finances. There are some heart-warming stories like that of artist István Balla, a fan of actress Klári Tolnay. Before her death she handed over her most important personal belongings, stage costumes, documents, awards – several thousand objects – to the enthusiastic collector. Balla turned his own summer cottage into a memorial house near the actress’s former family mansion, which today stands derelict. The Bartók Memorial House is an example of how both private and public funding can be involved. The memorial house was established in 1981 in the composer’s last home in Hungary. The property belongs to the capital and personal objects were deposited by Bartók’s son. However, in the meantime the condition of the house deteriorated, though the family would have deposited more items. Then Gábor Vásárhelyi, Bartók’s legal successor, donated 120 million forints to renovate the house and to convert the attic into a exhibition area. Fifty concerts are held annually in the downstairs concert hall, which provides an income for the house, since the local authority’s subsidy only covers the employees’ salaries. The Petőfi Museum of Literature also takes regions outside Hungary into consideration. There is the aim of including memorial houses with a Hungarian connection situated in neighbouring countries in www.mire.hu. One large area in Nógrád County and neighbouring southern Slovakia has a high number of memorial houses. Interestingly, Hungarian monuments across the border are in better condition. László Rajk did not follow typical memorial house exhibition design in the recently renewed Imre Nagy Memorial House in Buda. Since only very few personal objects of the martyred prime minister have remained, he designed a state-of-the-art, multi-media exhibition. There are unsuccessful stories, too. On 19 May 1989 the Éva Ruttkai Memorial Room opened in her Keselyű Street holiday home in Buda. The actress’s daughter and son-in-law, Júlia Gábor and Gábor Szigethy, welcomed visitors among the personal effects of Éva Ruttkai, Zoltán Latinovits and Miklós Gábor every Friday. There were no texts so visitors could feel they had been invited as guests of the last century’s greatest Hungarian actress and her family. Everyone was guided around personally. Yet the authority kept raising objections and required further financial sacrifice from the founders. In 2003 the condition of the house was such that to keep it open became impossible and later the family parted with the property. Thus the most evocative memorial house in Buda closed, yet the collection is still increasing and can be seen at temporary exhibitions.