Göcsej Village Museum

The Göcsej Village Museum open-air museum in Zalaegerszeg. This is the first open-air museum in Hungary, opened in 1968. The village museum lies not far from the centre of Zalaegerszeg, beside a backwater of the Zala River. The notable examples of Göcsej folk architecture were built around the original Hencz watermill, left in its original place, in a layout as if it were a 19th‑century Göcsej village: peasant houses, farm buildings, a church, a blacksmith’s workshop and a mill.

The small Göcsej settlements preserved their traditional structure until the road constructions of the 20th century, and the houses also retained ancient building methods and forms. The last traces of this traditional way of life were managed to be passed on to later generations by the founding and further development of the museum.

Exhibited objects

The buildings selected for the open-air collection were reconstructed in their oldest state according to their building type, so they can be seen and evaluated in their original, construction‑time form. For example, most of the crowded‑topped thatched‑roof houses, before demolition, were already rebuilt on their original site with a chimney; when they were erected in the village museum they appear in their former form, that is without a chimney, with a smoky kitchen. In the residential houses, except for the oldest, there is a room in addition to the kitchen and pantry; in the courtyards there are stables, barns, animal pens, and additional pantries. The presentation also includes mountain cellars, because until the end of the 19th century, before the phylloxera epidemic (which destroyed most of the vines), Zala County was considered a significant wine‑producing region. We are in one of the country’s most rainy areas, where abundant rain, dense, sometimes almost impenetrable vegetation, and vast forests did not allow the creation of large estates. The inhabitants farmed on smaller plots, mainly developing a livestock‑raising peasant lifestyle. In the lean, clayey soil plant production was modest, just meeting daily needs, as wheat, barley, rye and oats grew there only with very hard work. In the reconstructed village, alongside the residential and farm buildings that fit this setting, the characteristic sacred structures of Zala villages can be seen: various types of bell‑stands – even a wooden church – and roadside crosses. (the numbering of objects follows the plan)

Entrance, ticket office:

Soós Antal's Hottó blacksmith workshop: At the far edge of the museum village, next to the entrance, is located the blacksmith workshop from Hottó, the exhibition's only earth-built, walled building. The workshop shown in the open-air museum and the objects before their entry into the museum were the workshop of Soós Antal, blacksmith master of Hottó. The 75‑year‑old master’s data are for the building exhibition. It consists of one room. Previously the blacksmith kept the tools awaiting repair in the so‑called patch‑paint, and also shod horses there. According to the descriptions, in Göcsej, among those engaged in independent crafts, the most numerous were the farriers, bootmakers and blacksmiths. The farmer who had little land and many children gladly sent one of his sons to become a blacksmith or cooper. Villagers always gladly went to the blacksmith, because he was well informed, as everyone who visited him brought news from here and there. Many blacksmiths also knew healing, so if someone had a tooth or bone ache, they turned to them for help (“bone‑blacksmiths”).

Hencz watermill: It stands on the bank of a dead arm of the Zala River and is the only building of the museum that has been preserved in situ. The museum village, which showcases 19th‑century Zala folk architecture, was built around it. It received its name after the last owner, György Hencz, who operated it until 1952. The mill’s history reaches back to times earlier than the 20th century, to the 18th century. The traces of its conversion have also been preserved in the building’s structure, because the boundary between the old wooden construction and the later added brick walls is clearly visible on its side. At the beginning of the 20th century György Hencz expanded it with new machinery (sieve stones, cylinder seats, modification of the undershot water wheel). While working at the mill, the miller vigilantly watched that the water wheel always turned at a constant speed according to the force of the water. In most cases the repairs were carried out by the miller himself, because when a failure occurred there was no time to wait for craftsmen (mason, carpenter, blacksmith or cooper) to arrive; the equipment had to be repaired immediately. Thus the millers were also renowned as very skilled jack‑of‑all‑trades.

Budafai skirted bell‑foot (1888.)

Kálócfai wide‑fronted half‑timbered house

Náprádfai house

Kerkafalvi crane well

Kálócfai honey‑comb

Kávási painted‑facade wine cellar house

Hottói stable

Lendvajakabfai barn

Bagodvitenyédi vaulted pigsty

Kávási wheeled well

Csödei brandy‑distilling hut

Zalalövői longhouse

This building originates from a settlement located on the border of Vas and Zala counties. The peculiarity of the building is that at the time of purchase not only the building itself was acquired, but also many of its furnishings. Several of these are visible in the exhibition, truly making the museum interior original and authentic. (interior). The rooms retain the old eye‑shaped fireplaces, so another special feature of the house is that we can see its own old room heating equipment in the folk museum. The dwelling consists of two rooms, as well as a kitchen, a pantry, a hall, and the old living room. According to the historical picture presented, the first room of the house is inhabited by the young family, the rear room by the older parents, and the kitchen is used together. The young couple also has an infant, represented by the cradle shown in the room. The imagined story in the interior depicts one typical domestic activity of the men, basket weaving. They mainly worked on long autumn evenings with willow rods, from which they made various household items. As a sign of modernization, a new lighting device, the petroleum lamp, illuminates the room.

Gombosszegi cellar

Woodcutter

Bondonkút

Hagyárosböröndi pigsty

Zalalövői honey house

20. Zalalövői bent house