Dombóvár Museum

The Dombóvár Local History Museum (Dombóvár Cultural Service Center – Local History Collection) is a cultural institution that collects, processes, organizes and presents objects and other memorabilia related to the cultural development of the Dombóvár microregion. The local history collection today is no longer simply an exhibition, but on the one hand hosts numerous cultural events, and on the other hand encourages the visitor not only to passively observe but to engage interactively using modern technical devices. The slogans “do not touch!” and “look at everything” are in many cases no longer applicable – the visitor can become part of the exhibition himself.

Location

On the side of the Napsugár Store, between the former Esterházy manor buildings, next to the main road No. 611 leading towards Pécs.

Dombóvár Cultural House, Library and Local History Collection

(abbreviated: Dombóvár Cultural Service Center)

Dombóvár Local History Museum – Dombóvár City‑Building and City‑Protection Public Benefit Association

Tinódi House

István Földi Library

History

The small castle that houses the museum was built in 1896 as the chief magistrate’s residence. After 1945 it served as an armed forces club, an officer’s residence, and then a school. In 2000 the Dombóvár City‑Building and City‑Protection Public Benefit Association’s self‑acting community was given the premises by the Dombóvár City Municipality to establish a local history collection. The locally protected building provides a worthy place for intellectual and material cultural values, which are constantly enriched by donations from the population. Since 2001 it has been a public‑interest museum institution. The institution’s name from 2021: Dombóvár Cultural Service Center – Dombóvár Local History Collection.

Attractions – Since 2001

Permanent exhibition place of the treasures of Dombóvár and its surroundings

The Dombóvár Local History Collection opened on September 22, 2001 in the former chief magistrate’s residence, renovated by the city and handed over for this purpose. The front park of the cared-for city centre itself is also a kind of open-air museum: panels presenting the great figures of our literary history, old trees, and the sculpture “Dreamers” (1986) by sculptor Gábor Varga welcome those who wish to walk, rest, and then enter the museum. In the shady courtyard behind the building are placed the wooden sculpture “Life Tree of the Sun Dial” (2006) by woodcarver-restorer János Bocz, a steam locomotive‑filling well symbolising the railway character of the newest settlement, and the bread‑baking oven and economic furnace opened on August 20, 2007.

Forecourt

Those interested in the settlement’s past can first encounter, besides the huge image of the eponymous oak tree (Old Slavic: ‘dombu’), a large picture‑book forming a gate to the history of the area shaped by humans as early as 25,000 years ago (!).

From here one can approach the staff‑guard room, where, in addition to various free illustrated informational publications, local history books as well as regionally characteristic folk‑art and handicraft products are available. Here are displayed archaeological finds from several thousand years ago uncovered in the present city area and its surroundings. The Roman‑era material is rich: lamps, pottery and statue fragments, a multitude of coins adorned with imperial portraiture. Central is the model, nearly 3 square metres in area, of the legendary “Sunken Castle” (a huge Roman military fort) uncovered near nearby Alsóhetény, symbolising the building culture of Pannonia in the third century AD. In recognition of the support for excavations by large social forces in the last third of the twentieth century, the Hungarian Archaeological and Art History Society awarded the city the prestigious Imre Henszlmann Prize in 1995.

Dr. Szőke Sándor Room

The other entrance unit leads to the museum's first exhibition hall. This room bears the name of Dr. Szőke Sándor, geographer teacher, local historian (1932 – 2005), who was at the forefront of the museum collection's founding from the beginning. The temporary exhibitions also deal with topics related to the local history, thus the first known seal used by the settlement from 1715, followed by further authentic documents, donation letters, records, are organized around the most important community symbols in spectacular presentations.

Public Heritage Room

The Public Heritage room presents collections of objects representing the traditional folk life of Dombóvár and its surroundings according to the arrangement of an old house interior. In addition to the characteristic furnishings of the pantry, the kitchen and the rich and varied world of family dining are also revealed. In the room interior appear peasant‑bourgeois furniture as well as several rare, precious works of southern Transdanubian shepherd art. Alongside a few archaic objects reflecting Hungarian and Swabian interaction, the pride of the museum collection: the embroidered men's shirts from the banks of the Kapos and Koppány rivers, with their beautiful pattern and motif wealth in full splendor, line this room. White‑thread embroidered‑decorated linen‑based garments, as well as the shawls of the local women and the headpiece called “pille,” make the exhibits of this museum room even more special. The idea of a “living and active museum” is realized here by the regularly held embroidery circle work and the schoolchildren’s home‑ and folk‑knowledge lessons.

Szepessy László Room

The family of the then chief magistrate, who cared for the town's contemporary legal affairs, lived the social life in the salon and the adjoining dining room from 1896 to 1948. This museum's largest exhibition space bears the name of poet Szepessy László (1880 – 1915), thus preserving the memory of the Hungarian artistic generation that lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and died heroic deaths in the First World War.