The new permanent exhibition of the Göcsej Museum, The Life of Our Ancestors, guides the visitor into the everyday life of the former inhabitants of Zalaegerszeg. In each room, the once-living citizens of the settlement appear one after the other: the serfs of the medieval market town, the border soldiers of the Turkish times, the 18-19. 19th century guild craftsmen, small town commoners of the Reformation, intellectuals modernizing the city at the end of the 19th century, city and county officials forming the local elite between the two world wars, and finally factory workers moving and settling here during the decades of socialism. For each social group, the exhibition primarily answers where our predecessors lived, ie what Zalaegerszeg was like at the time, where they lived, what their living conditions were, what was the object culture that surrounded them as they were engaged, and finally: what community spaces were used as they spent their free time.
The exhibition presents all this to visitors with traditional and modern exhibition methods. In addition to billboards, photo enlargements, interiors, and artefacts presented in the showcase, animations, sound materials, and interactive games make viewing the exhibition and gaining the knowledge of visitors an experience.
The audioguide, which can be downloaded to your phone, provides additional information about individual themes, artefacts and scenes arranged in the interior. We can find out, for example, what a medieval fair was like, what the border castle of Egerszeg looked like, how its plank walls were made. By the time the guild flag was used, it was János Gotthárd, whose special tombstone would be one of the important pieces of the exhibition. We can also hear about the passion of the commoners of the reform era, what books were most often shot, what battalions the people of Egerszeg fought during the war of independence. We can learn how in happy times of peace they prepared girls for their vocation, to serve their husbands and their children. In addition to the exhibited velociped, it will be revealed who are the people of Eger who have introduced cycling to the city.
In the hall, which evokes the era between the two world wars, the girl is dressed in a weekly outfit. But how did the characters of Göcsej Week, who want to promote Göcsejt, get into weekly wear? It also turns out who was once called the Dankó Pista of Zalaegerszeg, who made the carved, painted table that the Soviet city commander, Pohodenko, had reserved for himself.
Listening to the audioguide about the period of socialism, we can learn, among other things, how the first series-produced furniture, the Békés set, was made in the 1950s, what the first days of May in Zalaegerszeg were like, why the cinema became the most popular cultural institution.
In addition to the ones listed, the curious visitor can get answers to quite a few more exciting questions by listening to the audioguide content while viewing our exhibition.