Kiscell Museum, pearl of Óbuda

 

 

In the 18th century a monastery and church stood on the site of todays museum. In 1702 the Óbuda landowners, the Zichys, ordered the foundation of a chapel of worship in which they planned to raise a statue in the same way as the figure of Mary in the Mariazell shrine, Styria.

 

The Trinitarian order settled in Óbuda in 1730 with the intention of building a new residence and church here. Plans for the site were drafted by the Viennese master architect Johann Entzenhoffer. The foundation stone was laid amidst festive celebrations in August 1745. The monks moved into the west wing of the new monastery in 1748, and construction of the church was started in the same year. Work was completed in 1758, the year Count Miklós Zichy died. The Kiscell statue of devotion after which the shrine took its name was installed in the consecrated church on 8 September 1760. The Óbuda Trinitarian monastery was a religious and cultural centre.

 

Joseph II’s decree on dissolution, which was also validated for the Trinitarians from 1783, hit the monastery at the very ape of its development. When the order was dissolved its property and possessions were auctioned off. First a barracks was set up here, then a military station and hospital. It was vacant when the Viennese art collector an furniture manufacturer Miksa Schmidt (Max Schmidt) bought it in 1910 he aimed to turn the ruined building into an exhibition hall for his collection and sample items of furniture as well as workshops. The monastery wings were transformed to conform to he tastes of Historicism, and a stunning furniture display was set up in the former church.

 

Schmidt died in 1935. He bequeathed the building to the municipality on condition that they continued to operate a museum in it. The collections of the Royal Municipal Museum were moved into rooms specially renovated for this purpose.

 

The first permanent exhibition after renovation works were completed in the Kiscell Museum opened in 1949.

Two main departments of the Budapest Historical Museum can be found in the building. Items of fine arts are exhibited by the Capital Gallery, whereas the modern historical collection of the Kiscell Museum exhibits the most valuable items of modern history.

The museum owns collections in the following fields: photography, toy, poster, lifestyle history, flag, glass, modern urban history and fine arts. Collections of the Royal Municipal Museum were moved to the building in 1938. Both the building and the collections suffered enormous damage during World War II.