Lutheranism in Hungarian Culture [antikvár]

PREFACE The Central Museum of the Hungárián Lutheran Church warmly recommends this guide for its English-speaking visitors. The Lutheran Museum which constitutes the third branch of the collections of the Hungárián Lutheran Church besides the Archives and the Library, began its activity in 1973. The years between the foundation and the first opening of the Museum were spent with busy preparations. Frames had to be provided for the operation of the Museum and the planning of the first permanent exibition demanded time as well. Due to the initiatives of the church-leadership and the help of the state-authorities the Museum was awarded a part of the one-time famous building, the "insula lutherana" in the heart of the city, in the summer of 1978. The restoration of the old building - having originally been designed by the architect János Krausz and erected between 1793-1797 - was begun soon after the foundation, the inner architect was Pál Havassy. The totál installing of the interior of the Museum was arranged with the help of the Cultural Ministry and designed by the Central Direction of Museums. In the First phase of the preparation for the first permanent exhibition we made a catalogue of the works of art and relics of our past. They have survived in our congregations, church-institutions or central collections. The organization of the Supervision for Church-collections made possible to prepare the material to be exhibited. The staff-members of state-museums gave an assistance in the definition, conservation and restauration of works of art. This exhibition first presents in the history of Hungárián Protestantism the most important manuscripts, printed materials or objects of our Lutheran church (today not more than 4% of the population) that have survived after much suffering. The organizers of the exhibition had the aims of church- and cultural history in mind. We tried to answer the question: to what extent the Hungarian-speaking, German-speaking and Slovakian-speaking Lutheran peoples of the Augsburg. Confessionin the Kárpát-valley contributed to spread the Gospel and to develop our national culture. In 1978, in the course of the preparatory work, an exhibition-hall was founded in Nemeskér (a small village in Western Hungary). It is situated besides the village-church that has been restored by the National Inspectorate of Monuments. The subject-matter of that local and church-exhibition will be provided at the end of our catalogue.