Petercsák Tivadar – Veres Gábor szerk.: Agria 44. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2008)

Veres Gábor: A közművelődés és közönségkapcsolatok ötven éve a Dobó István Vármúzeumban

Gábor Veres Fifty Years of Public Education and Public Outreach at the István Dobó Castle Museum In 1957 the military barracks ceased to exist at Eger Castle. Even the year it moved into the castle the museum put on exhibitions at those buildings that were in a fit state to do so. By the end of the 1950s the castle museum had become the country's most visited public collection, having visitors numbering in the region of 300 thousand a year. By 1963 the staff of the museum were already putting on 15 thousand guided tours for 339 thousand visitors, and it was in that autumn that the museum's monthly events series forming part of the public education programmes got under way. During the course of the 1970s the number of public education activities at the museum increased. It was in these years also that it became possible to develop the facilities that form part of the public education "infrastructure". In 1977 the museum was given 500 thousand forints from the Public Education Fund, from which the installations and audio-visual equipment for the exhibitions in Eger and Gyöngyös were purchased, accompanied by the acquisition of a duplication-machine. With the help of a further 100 thousand forints' support the following year more equipment was bought and slides were made to supplement the museum's activities in the public domain. For the first time in 1981 the first public education plan is drawn up not only for the new "History of Eger Castle" exhibition, but the running of a number of peasant cottages and other exhibition venues that were opened to the public. The castle cinema also added a new dimension to the attractions on offer at the castle museum. It was in 1981 also that the cinema showed the film adaptation of Gárdonyi Géza's Egri csillagok (variously translated as "The Stars of Eger" or "Eclipse of the Crescent Moon") to 28 thousand people, a figure that rose to 44 thousand the following year. The regularly held and full-time museum activities meant that a fitted classroom became necessary, something that was realized in 1982. The years following the political changes at the end of the 1980s saw a fall in the number of visitors, with public education initiatives at the castle also suffering. It was a tendency, however, that was reversed a few years later, and from the mid-1990s significant improvements were made accompanied by the arrival of a number of new initiatives. A number of publications were also prepared for visiting schoolchildren, something that included the "Discover Eger Castle" leaflets, which helped our younger visitors not only to find their way around the castle, but to link up with a website on the Internet and put any questions to the museum should they have wished to make any enquiries . 381