Agria 38. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2002)

Petercsák Tivadar: Megyei és városi múzeumi törekvések Egerben

Tivadar Petercsák Museum Initiatives in Eger at Municipal and County Level It was in 1870 that the idea of a municipal museum in Eger was first mooted. Despite this by 1929 Heves County was only county in the Hungary not to have a museum. The origins of the Eger museum can be found partly in the castle museum, which was based around the materials uncovered during the excavations which started in 1925, and partly on the collecting initiatives of the local council and various other local bodies. A castle lapidarium was opened to the general public in 1928, and it wasn't long before people could visit the underground passageways and the cannon chambers. The Second World War frustrated those attempts made during the 1930s to put the collections together into some kind of museum. In 1948 the town decided that the Municipal Museum should be opened in Buttler House. Items from the Castle Museum also found their way into the exhibition. In 1950, the Lyceum Museum, belonging to the archdiocese and the Cistercian Collection, fell into state hands becoming part of the Heves County Eger Museum. In 1951, the institution was renamed the István Dobó Museum. In 1957 the army moved out of the castle, and thanks to the endeavours and organisational acumen of the then curator of the museum, Ferenc Bakó, the museum moved to the castle, becoming the István Dobó Castle Museum. The museum, which is also the administrative centre of the county museums' service, is responsible for the fabric of the castle, the permanent and the temporary castle history exhibitions, the honouring of the 1552 siege upon which the fame of the castle is built, and making the various collections (the picture gallery, the ethnographical, archaeological, historical and literary exhibitions) available to the general public. For many years now the István Dobó Museum has been the most-visited museum in the country. Its exhibitions and spectacular historical programmes not only preserve our cultural heritage, but contribute significantly to making Eger, and indeed Heves County in general, all the more attractive to visitors from both home and abroad. 102