Géza Gárdonyi Memorial Museum

The Géza Gárdonyi Memorial Museum is a literary memorial site set up in Géza Gárdonyi's home in Eger, opened in 1952, where the writer lived and worked from 1897 until his death in 1922. The museum, operating at 28 Gárdonyi Street, is an organizational unit of the Dobó István Castle Museum. Reconstructed in a near original state thanks to the former museologist Janos Korompai, a permanent exhibition assembled from the writer's former furniture, furnishings, relics and library awaits visitors.

History

After 1891, Gárdonyi, who worked as a journalist in Budapest, became disillusioned with the capital's social life and sought a residence in the countryside. In October 1896 he visited Eger, and at the urging of his friends on February 10, 1897 he purchased, for 750 forints, a peasant house on Takács Street standing on the slopes of Hóhér Hill in the Sánc District east of the Eger Castle. At the end of March the renovations began, during which the house walls were raised, the smaller windows were replaced with larger ones, and a new tiled roof was installed. The writer moved to Eger with his mother and two older sons—Sándor and József—on June 22, 1897. The house, according to the floor plan characteristics of traditional three‑room peasant houses, consists of a porch on the southern side, an inner vestibule (hall), and one room opening to the left and one to the right from the vestibule. The room on the left—facing the street and the Eger Castle—was occupied by the writer, who set up his sleeping place and first study there; the rest of the family occupied the rear room, and the books were placed in the vestibule on the right side, stacked on bookcases.

The shortage of space soon became evident, and in addition Gárdony was disturbed in his work by noise leaking in from the street. Thus, when the opportunity arose that the neighboring plot was offered for purchase, he seized it: he bought it and had a new house built on it for his family in 1899. At the same time he enlarged the back room of the old house, which doubled in size, and set up his new study there, while he continued to use the street‑front room as a bedroom. Over the extended part he cut a window into the ceiling, so his work desk received direct natural light. Shortly thereafter he also purchased the strip of land in front of his bedroom from the city and created a front garden on the newly acquired area, while he developed the garden around his house into a real arboretum. For twenty‑five years, from the summer of 1897 until his death on 30 October 1922, the writer lived here. The creator’s enduring works are linked to the solitary Egri setting, the “Egri hermitage” (My Village, 1898; Stars of Eger, 1901; The Invisible Man, 1902; Prisoners of God, 1908; The Prayer of Szunyoghy, 1913; Ida’s Tale, 1920; etc.).

After his death his sons preserved the house furnishings and relics in their original state. The elder son, Sándor Gárdonyi, also during the Second World War did everything to preserve the estate, and finally as a result of his efforts in 1952 the Gárdonyi Géza Memorial Museum opened in the old house with the original furniture and Gárdonyi’s almost complete private library. Part of the remaining estate – correspondence, notes, documents, newspaper clippings, furnishings – at that time went to the Dobó István Castle Museum, and in the memorial museum remained Gárdonyi’s private library of about ten thousand volumes and the main furnishings of his house. After 1962 the literary historian and museologist of the Dobó István Castle Museum, János Korompai, handled and expanded the Gárdonyi memorial collection, carried out the itemised inventory and organization of the estate. The once extensive Gárdonyi garden was parcelled out during the 20th century, but several of the remaining trees and shrubs were still planted by Gárdonyi. The new house built for Gárdonyi’s sons was demolished, and today a modern residential building stands in its place.

Permanent exhibition

The visitor enters the house through the vestibule, where alongside bookcases filled with books, bound periodicals and music collections that survived from the writer’s estate, a portrait of the writer’s son József is displayed on an easel. In addition, Gárdonyi’s travel trunk is here, which he used on his trips to Constantinople, France and Italy to collect material for his historical novels in preparation. The room opening to the left was the writer’s two‑window bedroom facing the street front. Here is a simple copper bedstead – which later became his deathbed – and between the two windows a smaller carved writing desk. This was his first writing desk when he moved to Eger in 1897, on which he wrote the novellas *Az én falum* and *Egri csillagok*. On the desk stands an ornate musical clock, and above it on the wall hangs a detail from Mihály Munkácsy’s *Christ before Pilate* panel, reproduced by Gárdonyi himself. The wall opposite the bedroom bed, as well as the door panels of the wardrobes, also testify to the writer’s love of painting: besides landscapes, his portrait paintings of his daughters and sons can also be found here. Further furnishings in the room include the writer’s beloved pianino, a faience washstand, a cast‑iron stove, and a huge oriental rug brought from his journey to Constantinople.