Exhibition on Hungary’s Marine History Opens

Rijeka

A temporary exhibition on Hungary’s marine history opened at the Hungarian Natural History Museum on Friday.

The exhibition “Hungarian to the Sea – Hungarian Navy 1867-1945, ” jointly organized by the Hungarian National Museum and the Hungarian Natural History Museum, features new research, images, artifacts, and family-friendly content, with the aim of providing for the first time a comprehensive insight into the centuries of Hungarian merchant and naval history.

At the opening event on Friday, Máté Kocsis, Fidesz parliamentary group leader, pointed out that Hungarians have a special feeling when they arrive in Rijeka (Croatia), once the busiest Hungarian seaport, as the emblematic buildings of the town were designed by Hungarians and many Hungarian sailors served in the town.

Rijeka has a Hungarian history, Rijeka has Hungarian sacrifices, Rijeka bears the traces of the power of the Hungarian hand, and that is why Rijeka has an atmosphere that no one can confuse with any other coastal town,”

Kocsis emphasized.

He recalled that Rijeka became part of Hungary during the reign of Maria Theresa, and prospered most between 1870 and 1914, when it was one of the fastest growing and one of the largest ports in Europe, where Hungarians, Italians, Croats, and Austrians lived peacefully side by side.

Zsolt Bernert, Director General of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, pointed out that Hungarian collectors took part in one of the first expeditions to explore the Adriatic, and despite wars and historical misfortunes,

many artifacts from the voyage of discovery have survived, some of which are now on display to the public for the first time.

The temporary exhibition (curated by Gábor Zsigmond, Director General of the Hungarian National Museum) includes scientific material from the Hungarian Adriatic expedition before the First World War, and specimens studied by Hungarian marine biologists in 1913, and 1914.

The panels show the port of Rijeka, once the 10th busiest sea exit in Europe and built by the Hungarian state. The exhibition also highlights the Adriatic aspects of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, including the Fifth Crusade led by King Andrew II, that started from the present-day port of Split.

Besides the most successful period of the Hungarian navy in the dualism era, the public can learn about the Danube navigation that was successfully built up in the Horthy era (1920-1946), the development of relations with the Middle East, and the fate of the Hungarian navy in the Second World War. The exhibition concludes with the story of how Hungary sold its last large merchant ship in 2004, thus removing the Hungarian tricolor from the great sea.

As well as telling the stories of the Hungarian navy, an installation reminiscent of a ship is used to bring Hungarian seafaring closer to families with children. The exhibition will be open until June 21, after which it will be shown in several venues throughout the country.

Via MTI, Featured image: Wikipedia