Kövy Zsolt - Szabó György - S. dr. Lackovits Emőke: A Pápai Református Gyűjtemény (Pápa, 1987)

Zsolt Kövy: The Calvinist Collection of Pápa

and regional history, genealogy, history of religion, ethnography, sociology, history of school.

Museum of Ecclesistical History and Arts

(No 6. Fő Street)

The catalogues of the college’s archeological collection and philological museum was made by István Borsos theological professor and librarian of the college in 1899. The work had begun earlier but the huge material could be systematized at the given time. The first item in the catalogue of Egyptian antiquities is the mummy (mentioned before). There are chapters of the objects of the Stone and Iron Ages, of Roman, medeival and modern times. The collection has grown in great number. Beside collecting and developing József Pongrácz has enlarged the collection by his own presents. The number of works of ecclesiastical art was increased by the gifts and lodgements of congregations. Dezső Miklós the director of the collection took part in this work with great enthusiasm. An exhibition was organized of this fine and valuable material (requisites of religous ceremonies and furniture of churches) helped by the Museological Department of Ministry of Education. The exhibition of ecclesiastical art and history from the 16th century to the present can be seen continuously since 1972, and it has already been visited by thousands of people.

A memorial exhibition can be seen on the gallery of the church since 1976 — commemorating the mournful years of the Protestant church (1671—81), when a great number of Protestant preachers were condemned to the galley (Bálint Kocsi Csergő and István Séllyei from Pápa, among others). The memorial exhibition of Petőfi with the title: ,,I Will Be a Poet” gives an authentic picture of the intellectual environment forming the young poet, and present some of his early poems written in Pápa during the years of his study. „Sons of Stars” is the name of the exhibition opened in 1983. It is about the Calvinists of the reign of Maria Theresa and József II., when the college was expelled to Adásztevel and they could only come back in 1783. The new exhibition is planned to be ready in 1987 with the title: Calvinists of Transdanubia.

The library and archives had worked as separate institutions before, but now they are parts of the Scientific Collection of

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