Agria 42. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2006)

Király Júlia: A Gárdonyi Géza Emlékmúzeum. Az író otthona Egerben

Júlia Király The Géza Gárdonyi Memorial Museum: The Writer's Home in Eger Géza Gárdonyi moved to Eger in 1897, into a winemaker's house overlooking Eger Castle. Despite renovating the house during their first year there, the house soon proved to be too small for the whole family. It was this reason that Gárdonyi built a new home for his mother and his sons on the plot he purchased next door. He had his study and bedroom in the small building, which also proved big enough for his library, which was made up of almost ten thousand volumes. He laid out a garden, planting it with plants he brought back with him from his travels abroad. Within a few years he had realised his dream of having a "Gárdonyi Country Residence". He needed to have a hideaway in the provinces, as it was only there he could find the conditions necessary to write. When he worked he didn't like to be disturbed, something that earned him the title "the Eger hermit". In the afternoons, however, during his period of relaxation, he would be only too happy to receive guests. Gárdonyi had an extensive circle of friends in Eger, and his acquaintances from Pest frequently came to visit him. He lived in Eger until his death in 1922. The general public have been able to visit his home, in its capacity as a memorial museum, since 1952, while his literary remains became the property of the István Dobó Castle Museum following the death of his son Sándor in 1965. 657