Koszta József Museum

The Koszta József Museum is a municipal central (regional) public collection of the city of Szentes, which has several exhibition sites: Péter Pál Town Hall, Fridrich Fényírda, Megyeháza (center), Őze Lajos Memorial House.

Csongrád County Historical and Archaeological Society and Museum (1897–1949)

The home of the Koszta József Museum has been, since 2006, the renovated former county house of Szentes in the main square, Kossuth Square, but its establishment and operation are linked to the small neoclassical ground‑floor building located in the Széchenyi‑Park of Szentes. The building was originally not constructed as a museum, but was intended to promote the Széchenyi‑Park, named after Count István Széchenyi, which was turned into a public garden in 1869. The city leadership also decided in 1869 to build a restaurant and bathhouse in the beautiful and extensive park, bounded by Csongrádi Road and Kurca, planted with special trees. They commissioned the masters who offered the most favorable bids: stone‑mason Lajos Szrenkányi, and carpenters Gusztáv Busch and József Molnár, and by April 1870 both buildings were already ready. The restaurant was a U‑shaped building, according to contemporary description completely built of brick, with a tiled roof. In the middle of the U‑shaped building, between the two wings, in front of the main building, a main corridor rested on about 19‑metre‑high four (“dór”) columns, merging into the airy, spacious area of the park; unfortunately this porch was built in 1928, and the columns have since only the impression of pilasters, although originally they were real load‑bearing columns. The city leadership leased both the restaurant and the bath for profit; the most popular restaurant in Szentes, run by József Rambovszky of Polish origin, rented both buildings and, from April 10, 1870, operated both the restaurant and the steam and tub bath. The restaurant called “To the New World” operated only until 1873; from 1873 to 1888 it was used by the civic boys’ school, then until 1912 it served as the town hall, which was “the town hall beyond Kurca”. It was located far from the city centre.

In 1913 the Csongrád County Historical and Archaeological Society, which was founded on May 9, 1897, took possession of it. At its founding it already had collections of amateur archaeologists, including mayor János Balogh, teacher Béla Szívós, pharmacist Sándor Farkas, engineers Károly Kosztka and Lajos Komáromi, but it was mainly Gábor Csallány (1871–1945) who laid the foundations of the museum collection with his collection rich in Sarmatian, Gepid, Avar burial finds. In 1913 they moved in with about 30,000 museum objects, and by the “great war” the collection had exceeded 70,000. Gábor Csallány became the first keeper of the collection, then the first and “permanent” director of the institution organized as the Csongrád County Museum and Library in 1925. In 1927 he received excellent assistance from Elemér Zalotay, who initially handled the library duties. From 1913 to 1938 the museum operated uninterruptedly in the aforementioned neoclassical building. In 1938, however, it had to be handed over to the cavalry school, which also remodeled the building and added a new residential wing according to the plans of Endre Antal and Béla Cseuz. By 1942 the new cavalry barracks on Kossuth Street had been built, and thus the museum could move back to its original location in Széchenyi Park. The Second World War did not spare the Szentes museum’s collection either, as the front approached Szentes, and in the summer of 1944 the museum objects and books had to be packed into crates and sent westward. Gábor Csallány devoted the last years of his life to saving the collection. However, he could no longer know what became of the collection, as he fell ill in Budapest and died on January 31, 1945. He lies in the Calvary Cemetery in Szentes.

The museum and library collection of Szentes reached Szekszárd, only a little more than half of the material packed in crates survived, and returned to the Szentes museum, the task was left to Elemér Zalotay, to inventory the losses and the remaining items.

From 1925 to 1950 the Szentes museum operated as a county museum, which collected archaeological finds, ethnographic memorabilia and notable works of fine art from the area of Szentes and its surroundings, Hódmezővásárhely and its surroundings, and the whole territory of Csongrád county. The museum had a particularly great fortune with the painter József Koszta (1861–1949), who worked very willingly on a farm near Szentes, and left his estate and paintings to the city, which entered the Szentes museum collection. The aesthetic value of József Koszta's painting competes with the values of Mihály Munkácsy's art, and the Szentes museum can rightfully be proud to bear the name of József Koszta. In 1949 the museum was organized under the name József Koszta Museum.