"TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall will visit the Hungarian Open-Air Ethnographic Museum, or Skanzen, to witness an important part of the work being done to preserve Hungary's cultural and environmental heritage.This work is being done in a setting that allows people to learn from traditional values and customs, through active participation in genuine historical settings recreated in the museum, which is the largest of its type in Hungary.
Founded on 1 February 1967, the Skanzen museum not only seeks to preserve and display part of Hungary's cultural heritage through the relocation and restoration of historic buildings from around Hungary, but also to educate today's generation.
Today the museum offers visitors the opportunity to visit 340 buildings relocated from seven Hungarian regions. However, the museum is not just a collection of buildings, but a cross-section of life as it was lived at a particular time in a particular village or market town, the homes being furnished with the tools of the "owner's" particular craft or trade, as well as with the customary utensils of the family's day-to-day rituals (baking bread, doing the laundry, serving family meals, and so on).
The dedication to historical and ethnographical authenticity helps make the Szentendre complex a "living" museum of folk culture and social history.
Hungarian and British models of heritage management
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has a well known interest in heritage conservation and he will visit the Ráday castle at Pécel, to see a property held by the Hungarian National Trust, which is in the process of being conserved.
At Raday, The Prince will also take part in a round table meeting of expert guests who will discuss British and the Hungarian heritage management models."
Source: British Embassy Budapest
16.03.2010