Göcsej Village Museum

On the north-western confines of Zalaegerszeg, on the bank of the backwater of the river Zala, Hungary's first open air ethnographic museum, the Göcsej Village Museum, lies in an environment of grassland and groves. It was opened for the public in August 1968.

The principle underlying the settlement and construction of the Göcsej Village Museum in Zalaegerszeg was to show, through the most beautiful examples of the archaic types of buildings still available, the line of development which was at the end of the l9th century already on the decline. In this regional open air museum a small village consisting of nearly 50 original buildings has been set up arranged on crofts. The buildings demonstrate folk architecture, techniques and modes of construction, characteristic of Göcsej (Zala County) and its vicinity. The furniture of the houses is to present the interior decoration of peasant houses in the area at the end of the l9th century.

Göcsej lies in the hilly country bordered by the brooks Zala, Kerka, and Válicka. Its exact frontier line cannot be drawn, but as much is sure that its geographical and ethnic boundaries do not coincide. As far as we know the first mention of Göcsej was made 1689 under the name "Göböcse". At the beginning of the l9th century the forms "Göcse" and "Göcsej" occurred. At that time several scholars tried to find an explanation for the origin of this word. Some derived it from the word "göcs" (lump, clod) also indicating soil properties, others deemed to have traced it back to "göcsörtös" (gnarled) or "görbe" (warped) referring to the hilliness of the area. They say Göcsej is the country of szegs. The groups of houses perched on hilltops or hiding in clearings in loose, scattered arrangement make one of the forms of settlement, very characteristic of the region. Such partial settlements, or szegs however only came into being in the northern and central parts of Göcsej. On the foothills and in the more flat areas other types of settlements evolved.

The museum village represents a Göcsej villagescape, archaic, but existing even on the turn of the l9th and 20th centuries, as shown by contemporary photographs. The interiors of the buildings preserve the relics of a patriarchal way of life based on subsistence farming, although objects of interior decoration, resulting from a bourgeois mentality developing on the turn of the century, also appear here and there.

At the end of the road leading into the museum village a sacral construction, characteristic of the villages in Göcsej, a "skirted belfry" meets the visitor's eyes. It was set up in 1888 and stood in Budafa until it has been taken to the Museum. Its legs, resting on huge oaken soles, are covered with boards (the "skirt") up to a certain height, above which they carry the bell. The bell is protected by the spire which has a cross on its peak. Both roof and spire are covered with wooden shingles.

There are four peasant crofts in the main street of the village museum. Each is separated from the street by a fence. The hewn, carved, split, and wattle fences (the last made of branches) and the ladders have been modelled after typical Göcsej fences. In front of the houses little gardens can be seen with the flowers and herbs of the Göcsej gardens.

Göcsej Village Museum
Zalaegerszeg, Falumúzeum u.
Telefon: +36 92/703-295
www.zmmi.hu, muzeum@zmmi.hu

Opening hours
1 November - 31 March: Closed
1 April - 30 April:  Tuesday-Sunday: 10am - 4pm
1 May - 31 August: Tuesday-Sunday: 10am - 6pm
1 September - 31 October: Tuesday-Sunday: 10am - 4pm

Admission
Adult - 500 HUF
Concessions - 250 HUF
Group (from 8 persons) - 350 HUF/person 
Family ticket (2 adults + 2 children) - 850 HUF