Museum of national costumes, Panoptikum, Snail-parliament

The building of the Doll Museum used to be a granary, its caber main girber beams are 14 m long.

The tree which it was torn out from was planted during the time of Kossuth according to estimation at the time of Rákóczi War of Independence. At the building the stones of Roman fortress of Fenékpuszta were used as well- these parts were left in the original condition without any changes to make manifest.

The name itself Doll Museum is a bit misleading. Here not the dolls are important but the clothes they are putting on. The Doll Museum or The Museum of Costume History shows in a unique way the clothing of Hungary and the clothing of the Hungarian minorities living on the detached territories and its unbelievable diversity even in time and in space.

You can admire close to 500 gorgeous costumes of porcelain dolls It is curious to see the change of costume and with it the mentality featuring the territory e.g. by the ’Matyós’ clothes were considered to have been so important even in case of difficult living conditions.

As a matter of curiosity we have to mention that the costumes of Transylvania, of Northern Hungary, Sub Carpathian and of the south-land were made for the Museum with the help of applications. The dressmakers enclosed letter with the costumes as well. In these letters the difficulties of purchase process of the materials, names and ages of the old persons of the village were written and with the help of the letters the authenticity was proved. Lots of these letters are the gems of the archaic Hungarian language.

Snail Parliament Keszthely

Hearing the word ‘Snail Parliament’ we do not have to think of slowly working members of the parliament. In Keszthely this word has another meaning

The history of Snail Parliament

Ilonka Miskei built the maquette of Parliament in Budapest using 4,5 million houses of pannon sea snails since 1975, for 14 years. This Parliament is unique all around the world. She selected some million –year old fossils imitating the decoration of the house of Parliament.With this method the masterpiece was made and later she donated to The Museum of Costume History in 1999 after being stored in houses, stables and barns in Uny a small village in Komárom County.

Parliament- the pride of the country

The constructions of the original building, the Houses of Parliament started 15 October 1885 and in average 1000 people were working on it for 17 years. The designer, Imre Steindl was 44 years old at the beginning of the building later because of his illness close to the finishing he was able to direct the building only from a wheelchair. In 1902 he could not see the moving in because some weeks previously he died. The Parliament nowadays is the part of the world heritage.

Pictures from the museum

Map