View from the museum

Anyone walking in Sfântu Gheorghe who "ventures beyond" the southern corner of the Elizabeth Park will inevitably stop in front of the impressive building of the Szekler National Museum. The institution was founded in 1875 by the widow of János Cserey, Emília Zathureczky, who was one of the great women of the period from Covasna County. The present premises were designed by Károly Kós and the archaic and modern building was built in 1911-1912. The Szekler National Museum, which among others established the first Hungarian open-air museum, has always been a national museum, organising and directing the cultural and scientific life of Szeklerland.  In the 1920s, it was the venue for Béla Bartók's concert in Sfântu Gheorghe and was the home for the publication of a 1929 commemorative book, which included the results of Pál Péter Domokos’s first phonographic research on Csango folklore, and the preliminary work for a monograph on Szeklerland. Today, the building, which is more than a century old, is undergoing a process of renewal and is seeking to "return" as a cultural institution that meets all the challenges of our time. It guards Áron Gábor’s cannon, the oldest surviving Hungarian translation of the Bible, the so-called Hussite Bible, containing the Book of Psalms, the Apor Codex, or the Szekler Chronicle, which was published in 1559 in Krakow and was thought to be lost for a long time. The view from the building of Károly Kós is far-reaching and beautiful. And not just from the 22-metre-high tower.

Samu Csinta