Pável Ágoston Museum of Local History and Slovenian National Minority

The Pável Ágoston Museum (full name: Pável Ágoston Local History and Slovenian National Minority Museum, in Slovenian: Muzej slovenske narodnosti in lokalne zgodovine Avgust Pavel) is a local history and minority museum in Szentgotthárd, Vas County. The museum opened in 1983, its namesake is Pável Ágoston (1886–1946), a Hungarian Slovene writer, literary historian, and ethnographer.

History

Pável Ágoston was the head of the library and folk collection of the Savaria Museum in Szombathely, the founder of the largest folk collection of Slovaks in Hungary, and after József Kossics (Jožef Košič) the second professional scientific researcher of the area between the Rába and Mura rivers. Csaba József, an ethnographer – a friend of Pável and his follower in expanding the folk collection – already in 1971 suggested establishing a Slovene museum in Felsőszölnök. Szentgotthárd celebrated the 800th anniversary of its foundation in 1983 – at the same time the settlement received town status – and, as part of this celebration, the Szentgotthárd Local History and Minority Museum was opened on April 29.

The museum’s material consisted of four large collections:

The collection of school principal Károly Gáspár, more than half of which is ceramics, as well as wooden tools for flax processing

The folk‑type collection of the Szentgotthárd Pensioners’ Club

The tools and products of the Sándor Fénusz tub workshop

The remnants of the Apátistvánfalva collection (“museum”)

These formed the material of the museum’s first exhibitions. The collection later grew only modestly because of limited storage capacity and modest financial resources.

The museum held its namesake celebration on June 8, 1986, and has been called the Pável Ágoston Museum since then.

Exhibitions

The museum’s permanent exhibition presents the lifestyle of the Slovene population around Szentgotthárd, the pottery of the Őrség and Kerka region, the 19th–20th century industry of Szentgotthárd, and a display of the Battle of Szentgotthárd.