A Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 23. (Veszprém, 2004)

Mácza Mihály: A komáromi múzeum története (1886–2003)

THE HISTORY OF KOMÁROM MUSEUM (1886-2003) The author surveys the past and portrays the present situation of Komárom Museum, on the occasion of the signing of a cooperation agreement on 14 March 2003, involving all fields of museum work, between the Dezső Laczkó Museum of the Veszprém County Museums Directorate, and the Komárom Museum of Hungarian Culture and Downstream Danube. Foundations for the Komárom museum collection were laid by the Komárom county and Komárom city historical and archaeological society, established in 1886. Activities of the society, operating under the leadership of Benedictine teacher Rudolph Gyulai, abated in the 1890s following a great upswing in the early years. In 1900, it was reorganised under the name of Komárom County and City Museum Association, and in this same year the museum collection was moved to the so-called Esterházy pavilion, which thus became the first museum building in the city. The Museum Association extended its collections, dividing them into four categories (archaeology, history, natural history, and ethnography). In 1911, the three educational societies or institutions operating in Komárom were united to form the Jókai Educational and Museum Association, which constructed a headquarters in 1913, the Palace of Culture, with financial assistance from the Hungarian state. Besides the museum, the association library was also accommodated in this building. Due to the new state boundaries following the First World War, the Jókai Association became a cultural society of the Hungarian minority from 1919, and adjusted its programmes accordingly, so that the museum activities were overshadowed. After the Second World War, the Jókai Association was dissolved and its assets became the property of the Czechoslovakian state. In 1948, a state district museum was established in the headquarters of the former Jókai Association, which was named Museum of Downstream Danube in 1949. The reinitiated activities of the museum were seriously hindered by a lack of experts, and also lack of space, as several other institutions were also housed in the building. This situation only changed after 1968, when the institution building, now just serving museum purposes, was renovated. A new permanent exhibition of archaeology, history and ethnography was opened here in 1970. In the seventies the museum began to fill up with experts, so regular scientific research work could be started, followed by publication of the results of this work in professional journals and the daily press, as well as the museum's own publications. Since 1979 the museum has issued a Report (IUXTA DANUBIUM), a yearbook communicating museologists' studies and news on the work of the institution. Since 1975, the museum has established a few permanent exhibitions in rented premises, outside the main building, and besides these, several seasonal exhibitions are organised annually. Following the democratic transformation, the new charter of the museum has enabled the research and collection work of the institution to be extended to the whole Hungarian populated territory of Slovakia since 1991. To coordinate this activity, the major museum department of Hungarian nationality has been established, which has organised several international conferences, arranged exhibitions, and issued a series of publications. As a result of reorganisation of the state administration, the museum became an institution of the local Nyitra County Government in 2002 and also changed its name: it continues its activities under the name of the Museum of Hungarian Culture and Downstream Danube. In accordance with this, besides the tasks of a regional museum, it also fulfils the sphere of duties of a museum for the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. At present, the museum has 24 employees, of whom 10 are museologists. It has 6 permanent exhibitions in its own two buildings and two rented buildings, and it organises 1014 seasonal exhibitions annually in a section available for this purpose, a total of 2830 m

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. There are more than 134,000 items in the collections. 334