Bereg Museum - Tomcsány Castle - Vásárosnamény

History of the Bereg Museum and the castleThe Bereg Museum was founded in 1963 by Árpád Csiszár, a Reformed pastor from Gergelyiugornya. Until 1975, it operated as a real one-person collection, Árpád Csiszár was the only four-hour scientist, director, the only ethnographer, archaeologist, historian, photographer, ie everything in the collection.

He worked with inimitable energy and efficiency until 1971. In 1975, the staff was expanded to include two four-hour cleaning attendants and the status of a museologist. That's when Sarolta Felhősné Csiszár, a high school teacher and museologist, came to the institution and managed the museum from 1978-2011. Since 2011, János Varga is an ethnographer and museologist and the head of the institution.
The collection area of the museum is the same as the area of the former Vásárosnamény district. This includes the 22 villages of Bereg that remained here after the Trianon and some closely related settlements, Ilk, Gemzse, Kisvarsány, Nagyvarsány, Gyüre and Vitka, Olcsva and Olcsvaapáti belonging to Szatmár.
The material of the collection founded by Árpád Csiszár exceeds 70,000 pieces. Our ever-growing ethnographic artefacts number more than 13,000; a separate unit includes a collection of more than 3,000 pieces of textiles, a collection of nearly 800 pieces of authentic male eggs, a collection of nearly 700 pieces of ceramics, and hundreds of pieces of household and artistic cast iron. The number of objects in the archaeological collection exceeds 18,000.
Our historical document repository contains more than 12,000 registered items. It contains unique school history material on elementary folk high schools. Our numismatic collection exceeds 900 pieces, and we have more than 5,000 copies in our collection of picture postcards.
Our photographic library, which is considered an auxiliary collection, consists of more than 20,000 registered photographs. Contains more than 2,000 items on 20,000 pages.
Our collection is up-to-date and accessible to researchers. The Bereg Museum has considered the digitization of its collection to be a key task for many years. Digitization is an ongoing job performed by the staff of the institution. Digitized items are available to anyone on the Museum’s website.
The collection is currently housed in two buildings.
Some of our exhibitions can be seen in the most beautiful building of Vásárosnamény, in a baroque building in the city center, in the Tomcsányi Castle, renovated with EU support, at 31 Szabadság Square.
In the main building there is an exhibition garland of eight units equipped with modern technical equipment and a showroom. The exhibitions are built on top of each other, but they also provide a complete picture of the characteristics of the area.
Most of the museum material, the school history collection and exhibition in the other building of the museum, Rákóczi u. It is located in Máthé mansion at number 13. The building, which many call the "little Tomcsányi", has been used for museum purposes since 1971.