Peasants’ Paris building a cultural quarter
The Tornyai János Museum and Community Centre in Hódmezővásárhely
MúzeumCafé 33.
Over a century ago the peasant-burghers constructed the new centre of their town with a fervour similar to Budapest. A good hundred years later it was time to rethink the town centre, the new cultural quarter of Hód-mezővásárhely was completed by the autumn of 2012. What does it include? A new pedestrianized thoroughfare with street furniture, contemporary artworks and restored façades; complete renovation of the Tornyai János Museum and new adjoining museum buildings; exterior and interior restoration of the Greek orthodox church; renovation of the 1940s community centre and its new extension; partial renovation of the Alföld Gallery by the main square; and restoration of the Calvinist Old Church. With the need for cultural revival, facing up to the town’s past and a reformulation of its communal identity, the Holocaust memorial exhibition in memory of local Jews and their deportation, and Memorial Point, which presents the local history of communism, have existed for years. In 2007 the Hódmezővásárhely town authority took over the museum and the exhibition venues, which had previously been funded by Csong-rád county. The Tornyai János Museum and Community Centre has become a unified organisation dealing with public collection, education and library services. The Tornyai János Museum represents the central institution, while the network units include the Alföld Gallery, Memorial Point, the synagogue and the Hungarian Tragedy 1944 exhibition, the Csúcs Potter’s House, the Folk Art House, and the windmill and miller’s house. The Bessenyei Ferenc Community Centre and the Mozaik Chamber Hall operate as educational institutes for the public, while the town also boasts the Németh László Town Library and the Pósa Lajos Children’s Library.