Discover Horpács: Mikszáth Memorial Museum and the history of the manor house

• Szontágh Manor House in Horpács was built in the 19th century.
• The Mikszáth Memorial Museum is Hungary’s only Mikszáth memorial museum; it has served this function since 1954.
• The permanent exhibition “A mesélő Mikszáth” opened at the Mikszáth Memorial House on June 8, 2024.
• In 1906, Mikszáth Kálmán commissioned local builders to construct a new castle next to the old, single-storey manor house.
• Horpács is among the villages named on the “Örökségeink Útján Zöldút,” established in 2006. The themed route connects nine neighboring settlements.

The manor house and the Mikszáth memorial highlight different aspects of history. Szontágh Manor House dates from the 19th century; the museum is dedicated to the writer Mikszáth Kálmán and has served this function since 1954. As Hungary’s only Mikszáth memorial museum, it is a distinctive literary point of reference for Horpács.

The exhibition’s history includes the permanent exhibition “A mesélő Mikszáth.” Its opening date, June 8, 2024, is a separate historical fact and should be distinguished from the museum’s longer-standing function. For orientation, this gives you both a 19th-century building and a later exhibition history, without suggesting that the two dates refer to the same development.

Two buildings should be distinguished in the architectural history: the old, single-storey manor house and the new castle built beside it. Mikszáth Kálmán had the castle built by local builders in 1906. The manor house is generally dated to the 19th century; the more precise date of 1906 applies to the castle. This distinction helps avoid conflating the two building phases into a single history.

The “Örökségeink Útján Zöldút” was established in 2006 by the Sugárkankalin Turisztikai Egyesület together with local communities. The themed route connects nine neighboring settlements; Horpács is listed among the villages along it. This makes the village part of the route’s documented description. The fact that Horpács is one of the villages named describes its connection to the route, not the route’s course through the village.

The cultural range of the wider destination of Neuburg extends beyond Horpács. The old village of Hollókő is a Palóc settlement in Nógrád County in northern Hungary and a deliberately preserved, living example of rural life before the 20th-century agricultural revolution. At the Madách Imre Memorial House in Csesztve, a permanent exhibition focuses on the history of the Madách family and, in particular, the work “Az ember tragédiája.”

Museums also have different focuses: the Pásztó Museum is housed in a Baroque Cistercian monastery building reconstructed in 1717–1718. Its medieval glassworks and blacksmith’s workshop are presented as an open-air exhibition and as a unique industrial heritage monument in Hungary. In Szécsényi Castle Park, the Kubinyi Ferenc Museum features permanent exhibitions on archaeology and natural history, a Körösi-Csoma memorial exhibition, and an exhibition on the history of Szécsény Castle.

The wider destination of Neuburg offers a different perspective on geology. The Boszorkány-kő educational trail is located in the Karancs-Medves Landscape Protection Area, established in 1989 and currently covering 6,928.6 hectares. It illustrates basalt volcanism from 2.4 to 5.2 million years ago. The formations described include sediment inclusions from deep underground, curved lava slabs, and basalt columns formed by weathering. The Ipolytarnóc Fossils Nature Reserve, protected since 1944, preserves evidence of a prehistoric world destroyed by a volcanic catastrophe 17 million years ago, including shark teeth, petrified trees, leaf imprints, and fossilized animal tracks.

The themes are therefore easy to distinguish: here, Horpács represents manor house history and the Mikszáth memorial; other places in the wider destination of Neuburg add rural cultural heritage, museum collections, and geological evidence.

Discover more destinations: Romhány, Legend, Bánk, Szendehely, Rétság, Felsőpetény, Nőtincs and Kétbodony.

What makes the Mikszáth Memorial Museum special?

It is Hungary’s only Mikszáth memorial museum and has served this function since 1954. The permanent exhibition “A mesélő Mikszáth” opened at the Mikszáth Memorial House on June 8, 2024.

When was the new castle built?

Mikszáth Kálmán commissioned local builders to construct the new castle in 1906, next to the old, single-storey manor house. Szontágh Manor House dates from the 19th century.

What is Horpács’s connection to the “Örökségeink Útján Zöldút”?

Horpács is one of the villages named on the themed route established in 2006. The route connects nine neighboring settlements.

For the wider travel overview: Rétsági.