Nagy Gyula Museum

The Nagy Gyula Regional Museum is the city museum of Orosháza, formerly named the Szántó Kovács János Regional Museum.

History

The first museum, a school collection, opened in Orosháza on April 10, 1927; its creator was teacher Juhász Balázs. One of his students was Nagy Gyula, who at the end of the Second World War, at the request of the community, laid the foundations of the city museum; its collection was built on the material gathered by the prematurely deceased Juhász Balázs.

Under the leadership of Nagy Gyula (1944-1979) a real workshop activity organized around the museum, whose effectiveness is shown by the five yearbooks published and a monograph on the town’s history. He also stood his ground as a prominent folklorist: he carried out unique research, among other things on dry mills. After him, for a short time Zoltán Beck headed the museum; he had already carried out significant folklore collections earlier; among his merits is the creation of the Darvas Memorial House.

From 1980 Sándor Hévvíz led the institution until 2001; as a linguist he is credited with the collection of the geographical names of Békés County. Under his directorship the Békés County Literary Collection opened its doors in the courtyard of the József Darvas birthplace house, whose establishment also involved a major role by Ferenc Szabó, county museum director.

From 1944 the Orosháza museum operated under the name Juhász Balázs Museum as a city museum, until 1950 when it was nationalized and took the name Szántó Kovács János. From 1962 it was incorporated into the county museum organization, operating within it until December 31, 2000. On January 1, 2001 the Orosháza Municipality took over, and since then the museum has operated as a regional authority museum under the name Szántó Kovács János Regional Museum, with Zoltán Rózsa, an archaeologist, becoming director in 2001.

In 2015 the institution's name was changed to Nagy Gyula Regional Museum.

Exhibition venues

Nagy Gyula Regional Museum

(Dózsa György St. 5.)

City Picture Gallery

(Thék Endre St. 1.) Here can be seen the works of glass designer Júlia Báthory,

painter István Boldizsár,

painter Ferenc Bolmányi,

painter József Csáki-Maronyák, Kossuth Prize laureate,

sculptor Emil Vitroel,

graphic artist János Kass,

photographer Nicolas Müller (Müller Miklós),

works of painter Gyula Pap. In the Picture Gallery corridor can also be viewed the creations of the Orosháza Painters Group.

Well Museum

(Könd St. 1.) It presents various types of wells from the last century. The water supply history collection displays water-carrying and storage devices, as well as dug and drilled well types.

József Darvas Literary Memorial House

(74 Dózsa György St.) On December 4, 1979 the Darvas József Literary Memorial House opened. In this “village‑clay” house Darvas József spent his childhood, and he returned here before his death. The former family house was handed over to the city by the writer’s brother, Mihály Dumitrás. His barrel‑making workshop is a real curiosity for visitors, as they can see the tools and products of a slowly disappearing industry. Entering the street entrance of the memorial house one reaches the simple, four‑room, plastered clay‑wall house’s porch. Upon entering the house, the first two rooms—the kitchen and the street‑facing living room—evoke the childhood environment, the mother’s and brother Mihály’s furniture, the everyday simple objects recalling the world of the poor peasantry of the turn of the century. On the plastered wall of the room with the worn floor, family photographs and important documents can be seen framed. In the next room a exhibition presenting Darvas József’s career, life and work awaits the visitor. The exhibition, divided into eight units with quotations from the writer’s works, aims to bring the writer, the politician, the person closer to interested people by displaying photographs, letters and manuscripts illustrating the important events of his life.