Cseri Miklós - Horváth Anita - Szabó Zsuzsanna (szerk.): Discover Rural Hungary!, Guide (Szentendre, Hungarian Open Air Museum, 2007)

Some Historical Facts

greater part of Europe. After World War II this type of museum became well known in North America, Asia, and even in Australia. It is only in Southern Europe, Inner Asia, the Middle East and Africa where open air museums have not yet developed. Hungarian ethnographers were also influenced by the idea of an open air museum. Arguably the most popular part of the national exhibition staged for the 1896 millennium of the Hungarian conquest of our land was the Ethnographic Village featuring village buildings and their interiors. These represented the history of the nation as it was seen by the experts of the day. Half of the exhibition, comprising 24 dwelling houses, with their original furnishings, a wooden church and several farm buildings represented the Hungarian tradition whilst the other half portrayed those of the ethnic minorities. Regrettably the Ethnographic Village was dismantled in November 1896, but the objects enriched the collection of the Ethnographical Museum. The exhibition itself also inspired research into folk architecture and implanted the idea of creating a central Hungarian skanzen amongst professionals and the general public alike. Unfortunately some conceptional doubts, but mainly lack of funds and political events, such as wars prevented the idea to be put into practice almost for 70 years. In 1949 important vernacular buildings representing the best of The Godfather by Coppola is released. • 1972 The Skanzen, separated from the Ethnographical Museum, becomes an independent institution. ABBA wins the Eurovision Festival with the song Waterloo. - 1974 The first permanent exhibition: the Upper-Tisza regional unit is opened. 15