Open air museum in Szenna

The Szennai Open Air Museum is located in Somogy County, operating as a branch of the Szentendre Open Air Museum. It is situated 10 km south of Kaposvár, on the northern edge of the Zselic, in the centre of Szenna, on a reclaimed area.

Origin

The collection was created through the work of folklorist Judit Knézy, architect Tünde L. Szabó and architect György Szigetvári in the years 1975–1976, and opened in 1978. Thanks also to former caretaker Mária Csepinszky, the building complex received the Europa Nostra award in 1982.

Attractions

The open air museum includes a folk Baroque style Reformed church built in 1785, now under monument protection, with its characteristic painted coffered ceiling.

From some of the most beautifully preserved thatched houses of South‑Transdanubia, several were brought here and assembled with the help of knowledgeable elderly villagers, carpenters and thatching masters. Here one can see a residential house from Rinyakovácsi, Kisbajom, Csököly, Nagykorpád and Somogyszob together with their associated outbuildings; on the hillside they also erected the ancient wooden‑plank cellar from Szalacska with its decorative mason‑worked stonework, as well as a cooper’s workshop and a brandy‑distillery. In 2008 the museum was expanded with a Reformed cemetery, whose gravestones are partly taken from the old cemetery in Szennai and partly authentic copies made based on the collection of Ferenc Gönczi.

Separate from but under the management of the open air museum is the notable thatched house of Peti Lídia Zóka, which has been successfully preserved and reconstructed “in vivo” at its original location. In this folk monument built in 1848 one can find a beautiful eye‑shaped well, a smoke kitchen with a bread‑baking oven. Artists occasionally work in the rear courtyard.

The open air museum frequently organizes bread‑baking, communal cooking and demonstrations, dance lessons, village days and artistic actions.