Hatvany Lajos Múzeum

The Hatvany Lajos Museum in Hatvan is located in the historic centre of the city, on Kossuth Square, opposite the Grassalkovich Castle, in the old Beer Hall.

History of the museum

In March 1969 the city created the Hatvan Museum based on the private collection of architect Gyula Doktay. In the museum's founding charter four main collecting and research areas were designated: archaeology, ethnography, visual arts, local history, initially only at a site intended to be temporary.

In the development of the collection, initially the local history and archaeological aspects prevailed; in this work two local teachers, Gábor Németi and Lóránd Szántó played a decisive role.

In 1973 a new director arrived from Budapest, Ákos Kovács (1943-2014). Like the museum's founding leaders, he also took part in the physical work, acting as a museum jack‑of‑all‑trades, but he also had big plans. His interests were mainly focused on Hungarian contemporary visual art and also on certain border areas of ethnography and folklore studies (for example wall hangings, bird scarers, body tattoos), and accordingly the museum's main collecting profile changed.

Among contemporary Hungarian visual artists, Hatvan quickly achieved the status of a rural pilgrimage site with its events and exhibitions. The much‑cited “3 T cultural policy” (supported‑tolerated‑forbidden) pushed many creators into the background, and here they received the opportunity to present themselves, including Dezső Korniss, György Román, József Jakovits and Béla Veszelszky. Dezső Korniss’s return to artistic life was directly thanks to the Hatvan museum. The exhibitions inspired István Kormos, László Nagy, Dezső Tandori, Sándor Weöres, György Kurtág, László Vidovszky, Zoltán Jeney to create. The museum’s results earned recognition in the profession, but provoked opposition in local public life, among the local leaders of the state party.

Ákos Kovács established a fruitful relationship with the Hatvany family, and at that time the museum took the name Hatvany Lajos instead of the former Hatvani Museum. Not only objects belonging to Hatvany Lajos but also material memories of other notable family members entered the collections. Ákos Kovács brought home from New York the valuable inheritance of Anna Lesznai, cousin of Hatvany Lajos.

Edited by the director, the series titled The Hatvany Lajos Museum Volumes was published in 10 volumes, which well document the museum’s local‑history research, for example the study of the Grassalkovich Castle’s history, and the mapping of Endre Ady’s, Thomas Mann’s and Attila József’s time spent in Hatvan. These researches also played a role in the city’s 1996 decision to rename one of its schools after Anna Lesznai.

However, Ákos Kovács was forced to leave the museum in 1984, largely as a result of personal and political attacks. His frequently changing successors ran into a common problem, the lack of space. The museum, which had been operating in the former dressing room of the Open-Air Stage, in 1986 again “temporarily” found a place in a barrack building in the town hall courtyard. Every museum director tried to implement Lajos Hatvany’s 1945 proposal to place the Grassalkovich (Hatvany) Castle at the service of culture and to locate the museum there. Detailed plans for the relocation were drawn up, but the renovation did not take place for financial reasons.

Finally, in 1996 the local government, instead of the still awaiting renovation castle, offered another downtown former Grassalkovich property, the so‑called Brewery House. Since September 1996 the museum has been operating in this building, where the permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as offices and storages, can also be accommodated.

Later – perhaps for political reasons – the museum tried to remove the name of Lajos Hatvany from itself, and although its official name was not changed, the building’s wall bears the signs Hatvani Értéktár and Múzeum Serfőzde.

The museum regularly presents valuable temporary exhibitions. In the summer of 2020 the institution’s main attraction was the presentation of part of Imre Pákh’s Munkácsy collection.