Who knows where Zsigmond Móricz lived?
MúzeumCafé 6.
The first uphill house on the left in Erkel Street, in the village of Leányfalu. The mansion is yellow and has a sloping garden. Yet the building cannot be easily seen from the main road, since it is hidden behind trees and bushes. Drive too fast and the Móricz Zsigmond Literary and Local History Museum will pass by in a flash. The Móricz exhibition features personal objects, photographs, theatre posters, books and contemporary newspapers. The first edition of Seven Pennies, which brought success to the writer, can be seen, as can Móricz’s favourite cha≠-cutter and corn mill. There is his cuckoo clock, inkpot and the wooden ball of the skittles he played with. The fading letters on the funeral ribbons can just be deciphered. Visitors were able to view the writer’s study in the original Móricz house from 1952 to 1979. Then the Museum of Literature in Budapest purchased the more important objects, including the desk, library and archives. Since then the house has been closed to visitors – it is the family’s holiday home today. The first recorded owner of the building housing the present exhibition in Leányfalu was Miklós Móricz, the writer’s younger brother. He had followed Zsigmond, who was initially invited to the village by Kálmán Rózsahegyi, a famous actor who already had a house there. The exhibition displays a photograph of a walnut tree – a similar one made Móricz stay, since it reminded him of the walnut trees in his birthplace, the village of Tiszacsécse.