Exhibition Covering 10,000 Years of History Opens in Sopron

The permanent archaeological exhibition of the Sopron Museum has been inaugurated. The exhibition “Sopron örök” (“Sopron is eternal”), located in the Museum Quarter, was developed with the support of the Hungarian Genius Program with HUF 80 million (EUR 208,800).

At the opening ceremony on Monday, Máté Vincze, Deputy State Secretary for Public Collections and Cultural Development, stressed that Sopron has been famous for centuries for its museology, which is both diverse and multifaceted.

When a Roman tomb stone was found in the 1500s, the town treasured it so much that when it was later destroyed, a replica was made,”

he said, adding that in light of this fact, the title of the exhibition, “Sopron is eternal,” was apt.

He also pointed out that the Sopron Museum received the Pulszky Society’s Museum of the Year 2024 award in the small museums category in Budapest on May 25. He said that the category of small museum is a technical one, since institutions of county and national scope are considered large museums.

However, the category of small museum is questionable if we look at the kind and size of the collection of the Sopron Museum.”

He added that Sopron has a thousand faces, which the museum itself presents in a thousand different ways.

Ciprián Farkas, Mayor of Sopron, said that the Museum Quarter is the jewel in the crown of the Modern Cities program’s development of Sopron’s city center. He noted that the Lenck Villa, which also belongs to the Sopron Museum, was also renovated with the help of this program.

Talking about the exhibition, he drew parallels between Rome and Sopron:

When Rome was founded in 753 BC, the fortifications were already in place at the Castle Hill. Rome was the trading center of a great empire, Sopron was an important stop on the Amber Road.”

Imre Tóth, director of the Sopron Museum, said that the permanent exhibition will showcase Bronze Age treasures, gold and silver, as well as the world of the Iron Age and the Roman Empire.

The exhibition will also present the most important discoveries of recent years, covering 10,000 years of history.

Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Soproni Múzeum