Doll Museum Keszthely

White Sunday in 1999 was the day when the first visitor entered to the greatest doll museum of Central Europe. The folk costums and clothes of burghers and craftsmen of the historical Hungary are presented by about half thousand dolls. The heads, hands and legs of these dolls are made of porcelain, but the bodies are made of textile. There are two separate glass-case where the 120 dolls from Transylvania can be found. We have advertised a competition with the help of a children-newspaper called -Kolozsvári Napsugár-. We asked pupils and their parents to send the folk costums of their villages in the given doll-size to us. They got different prizes for this work. The result of the competition surpassed our expectations because we received a really valuable collection. This collection was evaluated a jury of ethnographical experts. According to some opinions, this collecting work happened in the last hours, because - unfortunately - folk traditions have seen their best days in Transylvania as well. We have advertised competitions in the other countries as well where Hungarian minorities live. We received about 20 doll-dress from Pozsony (now: Slovakia), Beregszász (now: Ukraina) and Újvidék (now: Serbia). When people are visiting the museum they can feel that it is not too easy to stop enjoying the sight of the wonderful dolls. Among them there are dolls from Kalotaszeg with their special pearl needlework, and colorful costum of -csángó- people. The colours, shapes and original materials of the special head-dress called -párta- from Torockó, and the clothes from Csik-land, Háromszék, Gyergyó, Gyimes and Kászon have a real astonishing effect. The costum of the Székely family from Kászonújfalu is the most fascinating one from the everyday clothes, becuse these clothes are made of about 150 years old hemp and flax linen. There is a girl among them wearing woodslipper, holding a pail The grandmother is sitting in from of the distaff, the head of the family is going to the fields wearing simple, poor clothes. All of these give us a valid, real picture about the working weekdays of these people. On the third floor there are not dolls/people, but visitors can find their houses, churches and farm-buildings. The buildings are illuminated by a special technic which reflect the atmosphere of period villages. Here we can meet the more than three dozen painted and carved -Székely-gate, which are very special to Székely-land. The buildings are diminisched in 1:25 dimension. Among them the visitor could find alpine houses called -szála-, mansions, shingled houses from Csík-land and Háromszék (in Transylvania), reedthached country house from Csököly (Somogy county), Svabian house from Nyitra, houses with veranda from Fert?d, mills and tread-wells. In spite of the diminisched forms we can perceive the greatness of the church and belfries from Szatmár and Máramaros. Moreover we can see the graves of priests who are buried behind the walls of the fortress church from Csíkkozmás, and who defended the flock from Tartar and Turkish army for nearly 500 years. The most carefully kept part of the exhibition are the boats collected by Tibor Török and his sons which are presented as a local interest character of Balaton: -F?nix- from Fenékpuszta which carried salt in the 18th century (3,2 metres long), Stella, the luxury ship and Judittá, the ferry which carried her passengers between Fenék and Bottyán. There is a warship as well which never existed in the reality, it was only a plan of a shipwright from Trieszt Bori Antal, who was engaged by Count György Festetics. The most peculiar ship, a tub ship, was built by fishermen in Transylvania and was used in the begining of this century. It was carved from only one single tree-trunk by a craftsman.