When it comes to immersing oneself in the rich cultural heritage of Hungary, few places compare to the Skanzen Museum in Szentendre. Nestled in hills in the outskirts of Szentendre, this open-air museum is a gateway to the country’s rural past, showcasing traditional architecture, customs, and ways of life.
Established in 1967, this ethnographic park spans over 60 hectares and features more than 400 authentic buildings, carefully relocated from different regions of Hungary. Each structure represents a specific period and style, enabling visitors to witness the evolution of rural architecture from the 18th to the early 20th century.
The museum is divided into seven thematic areas, each dedicated to a different region. The most recent addition is the Erdely/ Transylvania section. It’s cleverly designed with a border checkpoint as you leave “Hungary” for Romania and the once Hungarian, now Romanian region in Transylvania. You enter a town square complete with elegant town buildings from the early 1900s including a including a large functioning coffee house , a tailors shop, a pharmacy, printing shop and a couple of apartments. I visited on Easter Sunday when actors dressed in traditional town attire were playing the parts of shopkeepers housekeepers, etc,
Away from the town is a Unitarian church and some village buildings. The highlight for me was a village house transported and reconstructed with all its contents from the village of Balavasar. The house originally belonging to Maria Magyarosi was originally built in the 1880s and added to in the 1900s. There is a dowry/ best room with original textiles made by Maria, her mother and grandmother
There is a nicely reconstructed homestead from the Saxon area, with a small museum of folk items but you won’t see any ethnic Romanian exhbits here.
The Skanzen is amazingly well done. In the past, I have avoided visiting Skanzen on holidays but despite the traffic jam on the way and the shocking lack of buses from Szentendre train station, it was well worth it. The buildings, interiors and actors were amazing.
I spent most of my time on the Transylvania section as I have seen the rest of it many times but they are all beautiful and interesting.
My favourite violinist and one-time Transylvania dweller Tcha Limberger was playing with viloinist Liana Gourdjia on a stage in front of a beautiful old barn in the Afold area with its whitewashed buildings, thatched roofs and trees in blossom, really does give a feeling of village life in rural Hungary of old.
