Standing on the shoulders of giants
István Zombori, Director of Szeged’s Móra Ferenc Museum
MúzeumCafé 19.
István Zombori is familiar with the traditions of one of Hungary’s most distinguished provincial museums. That is in no way surprising, since he has worked in the museum for thirty-seven years. The Móra Ferenc Museum came about together with the modern town of Szeged following a flood of 1879 when 5458 buildings were destroyed and only 265 remained intact. The new town was built between 1880 and 1883 on the basis of the most modern urban principles of the time. Satisfactory roads, water pipes and sewers were built and a number of public buildings were constructed in three years. In 1881 Canon Károly Somogyi donated his splendid library to the town and initially was rather reluctant to see it develop from a library into a museum. However, that happened and the lawyer, historian, archaeologist, town-clerk, art collector and local patriot János Reizner, the father of the present museum collection, became the institution’s first director. Reizner opened the first inventory book of the numismatic collection in April 1883. “As the 1000th anniversary of the Hungarian Conquest approached they said that since the town already had a theatre, a new town hall and several schools, a palace for public education should be built,” the director recalls the intentions of the contemporary town fathers. “A large number of museums in Budapest and in the country are not situated in buildings which were originally designed for the purpose. The museum building in Szeged, however, was built with that in mind.” By 1896 today’s neo-Classical palace was completed. “Tömörkény and Móra were nationally noted great figures who managed the museum excellently,” says Zombori. “I am the 13th director since 1883. Disregarding the terrible Rákosi era, when a doorman became director for four years, outstanding specialists have been in charge of the museum.” In the 1920s Szeged became a university town. Students and experts from different corners of the country gathered here. “I am the first director for decades to have come from Szeged,” adds Zombori, who believes in the internal traditions of institutions. The great predecessor of the present generation, Ottó Trogmayer directed the museum from 1970 to 1997, and he had already spent 15 years there previously. István Zombori has worked in the museum since 1973. “You must master the collection, storage, record taking and inventory,” stresses Zombori, who learnt much from Ottó Trogmayer in his time about co-operation with colleagues and managing the museum. When a young man Zombori, dissatisfied with the political system, left Hungary illegally immediately after finishing secondary school. Via Yugoslavia he went to Italy then France. Yet the authorities tracked him down and in the end he decided to return home. Zombori says that Trogmayer took a risk by employing him and he is still grateful for that. “My principle is that it’s all the same what a museum director’s original profession was, he or she has to represent everything.” István Zombori is particularly proud of his museum having a natural history collection, since that is unusual with the majority of county collections.