Whit Sunday in 1999 was the day when the first visitor entered to the greatest doll museum of Central Europe..
The folk costums and clothes of burghers and craftsmen of the historical Hungary are presented by about
half thousand dolls. The heads, hands and legs of these dolls are made of porcelain, but the bodies are made
of textile. There are two separate glass-case where the 120 dolls from Transylvania can be found.
We have advertised a competition with the help
of a children-newspaper called "Kolozsvári Napsugár".
We asked pupils and their parents to send the folk costums of their villages in the given doll-size to us.
They got different prizes for this work. The result
of the competition surpassed our expectations because
we received a really valuable collection.
This collection was evaluated by a jury of ethnographical experts. According to some opinions, this collecting work happened in the last hours becaüse - unfortunately -
folk traditions have seen tfíeir best days in Transylvania
as well. We have advertised competitions in the other countries as vvell where Hungarian minorities live.
We received about 20 doll-dress from Pozsony
(now: Slovakia), Beregszász (now: Ukraina) and Újvidék (now: Serbia).
When people are visiting the museum they can feel that it is not too easy to stop enjoying the sight of the wonderful dolls.
Among them there are dolls from Kalotaszeg with their special pearl needlework, and colorful costum
of "csángó" people. `
The colours, shapes and original materials of the special head-dress called "párta" from Torockó, and the clothes from Csík-land, Háromszék, Gyergyó, Gyimes and Kászon have a real astonishing effect.
The costum of the Székely family from Kászonú falu
is the most fascinating one from the everyday clothes, because these clothes are made of about 1 50 years old hemp and flax linen. There is a glrl among them wearing woodslipper holding a pail. The grandmother is sitting
in front of the dista f.
The head of the family is going to the fields vvearing simple poor clothes. All of these give us a valid, real pic- ture about the working weekdays of these people.
On the third floor there are not dolls/people, but visitors can find their houses, churches and farm-buildings.
The buildings are illuminated by a special technic which reflect the atmosphere of period villgés.
Here we can meet the more than three dozen painted
and carved "Székely"-gate, which are very special
to Székely - land.
The buildings are diminished in 1 :25 dimension.
Among them the visitor could find alpine houses called "szála", mansions, shingled houses from Csík-land
and Háromszék (in Transylvania), reedthached coúntry house from Csököly (Somogy county), Svabian house
from Nyitra, houses with veranda from Fertőd, mills and tread-wells.
In spite of the diminished forms we can perceive
the greatness of the church and belfries from Szatmár and Máramaros. Moreover we can see the graves of priests who are buried behind the walls of the fortress church from Csíkkozmás, and who defended the flock
from Tartar and Turkisch army for nearly 500 years.