Unique Museum Post Office Opens in World Heritage Village

A museum post office offering traditional and modern postal services opened on Wednesday in Hollókő in an environment worthy of the World Heritage site, offering a glimpse into the 157-year history of Magyar Posta (Hungarian Post).

The new building has the atmosphere of a small 19th century post office, with museum measuring instruments, a post office warehouse from a hundred years ago, a rest garden, a telephone exchange, and postal scenes from the radio cabaret, which can be heard on the telephone set.

Barnabás Balczó, President and CEO of Magyar Posta, stressed at the opening ceremony that Hollókő is not an open-air museum, but a living settlement, and they want the museum post office to be a living service center, offering traditional and modern services to both locals and visitors in a way that is in keeping with the World Heritage environment.

Magdolna Závogyán, State Secretary for Culture, underlined at the event that post offices in small villages are just as important and sustainable community spaces as local cultural institutions. She therefore described the establishment of a cooperation system between Magyar Posta Zrt. and the National Institute of Culture as a milestone. She noted that the institute’s network reaches all settlements with a population of less than 1,500 inhabitants, and Magyar Posta is already exploring the possibility of cooperation with public cultural institutions in about 300 of these settlements.

The State Secretary stressed that the shrinking services available in small towns and villages are causing a significant loss of value, which in the long term weakens local communities. Recognizing this, local communities must be strengthened by all means, and the cultural sector, including public cultural institutions, is an indispensable factor in this process, she said.

Hollókő, with 334 inhabitants, is the only village in Hungary on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The 300-400 year old village is a significant tourist attraction, as it is a unique example of pre-20th century folk architecture that has been preserved in its original state. The same is true of the local post office building, which is part of the historic landscape, and the Postal Museum, located next to it and run by the Postakürt Foundation, is a foundation dedicated to the preservation of postal traditions and values.

Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Komka Péter