The Museum of Pásztó has started to operate on 1st October 1984, the starting point of the institution is connected with the opening of the „Schoolmaster’s House” in the town. It is an original construction, a dwelling house built in the 15th century, in its ramped-term cellar, the exhibition of medieval grape culture was displayed.
Besides the further development of the downtown, in the neighbourhood of the Schoolmaster’s House, a medieval Glasswork and a Smithery have also become outdoor exhibition places that are unique industrial monuments.
The permanent and temporary exhibitions of the museum were given a worthy place in the baroque Cistercian cloister building, rebuilt in 1717-18. The building originally built in the Benedictine, later taken over by the Cistercians, was a cloister until the 1950s. Later a machine station, a vocational school, a kindergarten, a library worked there, but the museum has got the complete ownership of the building since 1997.
The museum’s exhibition units have expanded over the time, with the Csohány Kálmán Gallery in 2001, and with the Memorial Room of István Gaál in 2011.
In addition to our permanent exhibitions, there is also space for period exhibitions, usually 4-5 exhibitions a year which are of great interest to the local population.
The excavation of the medieval monuments of the museum and the monumental quarter, and their construction into an exhibition place is due to the archeologist Dr. Ilona Valter, an honorary citizen of Pásztó.
Awards and appreciations of the Museum of Pásztó:
- 1999 The Ministry of National Cultural Heritage has donated the third place in the „Museum of the year 1998” category to the Museum of Pásztó.
- 2009 In recognition of our museum pedagogical work, the Museum of Pásztó has won the National Museum Pedagogical Level Award in the Best Museum Pedagogical Initiative category awarded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Education and Training Centre for Outdoor Ethnographic Museums.
- 2012. Within the framework of the national series of events May of the Museums, the Museum of Pásztó has won the certificate of the jury in the “Museum of the Year 2011” competition for its systematic developments, children’s programmes and the implementation of high-quality museum pedagogical publications.