MUSEUMS

The first phase of the local history collection, the Fortress Museum was arranged in four halls of the Commanders Wing of Fort Monostor, partially open for the public since 1996, in the collaboration of the Military History Institute and Museum (Budapest) and the museums of the county and the city. The permanent exhibition titled Castles, Forts, Heroes was opened in the presence of rpd Gncz, President of State, in 1998 and nearly 200 thousand visitors have seen until now. The Fort Monostor Centre of Military Culture collects out-of-use equipment of the army, completely aged to our days from strategic aspect but to be preserved as requisites of historic military technique. The collection in forming, supported by the Ministry of Defence, is suitable to adopt other private and public collections of this kind as well, like the historic cannons restored and reproduced by Kroly Bircsk, Aeroplane Designer and his work-mates, the occasionally still operate-able aged printing machines or the exceptional memorabilia of the Hungarian bomb-disposal expertise. The currently modest collection containing a mine-sweeping ship, air defence weapons, canon, radar equipment could be a museum faithfully representing the 20th century military technique, able to compare the engineering level of armies of the NATO and the former Warsaw Pact, through international co-operation, exchanges and donations.

The pride of the fortress system is the Bread Museum, based on the unique industry-history collection fled to safeguard here from the demolished building of the Baking Industry Requisite Deposit in Budapest. This exhibition was opened in 2003, in the former Bakery Wing of Fort Monostor. The visitors of the museum will be able to taste the so-called ration bread of the army soon, after the partial restoration of the four huge, nowadays extremely ruined 19th century ovens. The also partial opening of the Museum, expectedly still under building for more years, was made possible by the generous work of the members of Bakers Princely Order tradition-cultivating association leaded by Zsuzsa Balts. Competent professional organisations, enthusiast tradesmen and small-scale ventures do care the annual replacement of the exhibited perishable objects breads, baking industry products, cookies -, with the active participation of vocational schools, and aided by the National Cultural Found, respectively the project called Traditions, Tastes, Regions.