A New Museum Quarter in Sopron Opens its Doors

The Museum Quarter in the Western Hungarian town of Sopron (Ödenburg in German), created by connecting the Storno House, the Fabricius House, the General’s House and the Fire Tower, was inaugurated on Tuesday. The project is part of the Modern Cities program and cost more than 3 billion forints (8 million euros).

After welcoming the guests by the director of the Sopron Museum, Imre Tóth, the mayor of Sopron, Ciprián Farkas, praised the Museum Quarter in his speech.

Attila Barcza, Member of Parliament, emphasized that the new Museum Quarter is the pride of Sopron. The building complex combines the traditional past with unique architectural solutions, and by using elements of 21st century infrastructure. The modern experiential education, the museum is a great attraction in terms of the challenges of tourism, he added.

On behalf of the government and the Minister of Construction and Transport, János Lázár, the Parliamentary Secretary of State, Nándor Csepreghy, spoke about the developments in Sopron, which include the Museum Quarter. The developments of the last ten years show that Hungary can be a worthy alternative to the Austrian standard of living and public services that an Austrian city can offer its citizens, the State Secretary emphasized.

In Sopron, a special museum space was created by connecting the Storno, Fabricius House, the Generals’ houses and the Fire Tower with a glass roof over the common courtyard, which gives a very special atmosphere to the exhibition rooms. Thanks to the corridors, floors, height differences and exciting nooks and crannies, visitors have the feeling of walking through a labyrinth.

The Museum Quarter features a variety of interactive elements, some of which stimulate the senses. In the exhibition areas, visitors can learn more about the respective topic via QR codes and touchscreen monitors. They are taken on an exciting journey through time, where past and present are brought to life in the rooms. In addition to the more than ten permanent exhibitions, the museum staff also presents temporary exhibitions in the Fabricius House gallery.

The interconnected building can be explored from the covered courtyard of the General’s House. The exhibitions of the Museum Quarter are interconnected at several points, forming a chain of exhibitions that explore the city’s past.

The Fabricius House exhibition of 17th- and 18th-century civic living, “At Home in the City,” has been expanded to include a 19th-century unit, and the existing rooms, including the Roman Lapidarium, have been renovated.

The historicized artist’s residence of the Storno family and the museum’s permanent exhibition on local history are also open to the public. The new exhibition entitled “King Matthias in Folk Tales and in Historiography” commemorates both the historical King Matthias (1443-1490) and the fairy-tale King Matthias.

The medieval residential tower has been restored with light-painted, filmed, animated and touchable props and tools, while the exhibition “Wandering Statues” of the modern Lapidarium offers a selection of works by Sopron stone sculptors and carvers from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The museum library was modernized, and the Storno Memorial Library was equipped with a room for library educational events.

In addition, the Fabricius House Gallery, the Storno Kitchen and the Castle Wall Garden are once again open to the public.

Via MTI, Ungarn Heute; Photo: Sopron Museum Quarter