Museum of Zemplén

The history of the Rákóczi family, that became more and more wealthy and highly respected since the beginning of the 17th century, and the history of the market town Szerencs in the Hegyalja are connected.

The Rákóczi family is the descendant of the Bogát-Radvány family. The name Rákóczi was first used in 1328 by a member of this family with the first name Balázs. for several centuries their primary residence was Zemplén county.

The wealth, and therefore the respect and influence of the family was established by Rákóczi Zsigmond. He made the comprehensive political carreer of his time. He was born in 1544 in a family of lower nobility, and became the owner of significant lands, castles and fortresses as a result of intelligent financial strategies and his andvantegous marriages. In the last years of his life he was elected the Prince of Transylvania.

By the end of the 15th century Szerencs received the rank of a market town, and in the times of the turkish invasion it had an important geographic and strategic role. Because of the fortress, built by Némethy Ferenc, the captain of the castle in Tokaj, and the towns position in the wine-growing area, Szerencs had an important function in the region. Rákóczi Zsigmond received the landed property of Szerencs, that was cut out of the property of Tokaj as a pledge in 1583, and in 1603 it became the terminal property of the family. Zsigmond built a fortress here, the first castle of the family. His sons, György, (who also was the Prince of Transylvania), Zsigmond and Pál were born here. For several decades (until 1616) Szerencs was the primary residence of the family, and the centre of the Rákóczi properties. As he requested in his last will, the first Rákóczi, who was the Prince of Transylvania, was buried here.

Szerencs also had an important role in the life of his son, Rákóczi György the First, because he was born and raised here. After he married, he moved to Sárospatak and this town became his residence. After these events he still had an eye on the fortress of Szerencs, which was the centre of the properties and military actions. After the siege of 1644 to Szerencs, he decided to reconstruct the castle.

At the time of Rákóczi György and his descendants the family became very wealthy, with a lot of money and properties, and as a result the importance of Szerencs faded. Until the end of the century garrison resided in the castle, but after the turkish invasion came to an end, its function as a border castle ceased. It still had an economical function, and was used as a hunting seat by the members of the family.

Rákóczi Ferenc the Second spent much time in the castle, now without a garrison. The building had an important role again in the Rákóczi’s War of Independence (the uprising against Austria) the Prince and his company resided here often in 1708 and 1709, and he also ordered the rebuilding of the castle.

A few years after the treaty of Szatmár, in 1715 the Habsburg family, emperor of Austria decided over the fate of the Rákóczi properties. The part of Rákóczi Ferenc was confiscated, but his sister, Julianna could keep the other half of the mighty fortune. This way Rákóczi Julianna, and the family of her husband, the Aspremont inherited half of the Szerencs property. Later the owners changed, but the memory of the Rákóczi didn't fade in the centuries, the castle was and still is known as Rákóczi castle. The inhabitants of Szerencs are proud of this tradition, and are eager to keep the memory of the great historical family.

Our permanent exhibition displays the time of the Rákóczi using original objects, mostly found in excavations, and recontructions. Out visitiors can viewpersonal items, weapons, ceramic tiles, and the ceremonial dresses of the Prince and his second wife, Gerendi Anna. We also demonstrate the different stages of the construction of the castle, the most important object in this regard is our model of the fortress.

Fery Antal grafic designer was an important artist of the hungarian grafic art of the 20th century, his favourite genre was the small graphic made with the woodcut technique. He created a significant amount of these type of graphics. He is well known in Hungary and internationally, and especially among the many ex libris collectors.

He was born on the 12th June 1908 as the tenth child of his family. His father, Fery Altó came as a factory worker to Szerencs, but unfortunately the family lost him very early. Fery Antal began to work in the sugar factory, like his siblings. He used every free minute at his workplace to draw, and this caught the attention of his superiors, who made it possible for him to study art from 1927 in Budapest. Simay and Helbig were his teachers and masters in the Iparművészeti Iskola (School of Fine Arts).

He received his degree in graphic design in 1935, and he began to design advertisements, posters and stamps. He created his first small graphics under the supervision of Varga Nándor Lajos in 1939. Just when he got familiar with this genre, the World War Two began. Art collectors were not interested in ex libris anymore, so the collecion of these graphics stagnated, and completely stopped by the end of the war, the ex libris organisations disbanded. The small graphics of Fery Antal were exhibited on one occasion in the Műcsarnok (Kunsthalle) in 1943, but then his life took a turn, and he received his call up papers. Because he was a graphic designer, he served in the general staff, he was a common soldier who had to draw maps. His unit was deployed to the West, he was in Germany, where he became a prisoner of war. When he arrived in Hungary, he was punished, although he didn't commited any crimes. He stood under the supervision of the police for four years. It is very likely, that he was convicted because of the two antibolsevic posters, he created in the fourties. He could only find employment in a collective atelier with other artists, who were condemned like him, they worked on „decorations”.

He started to create ex libris and small graphics again in the middle of the fifties.

In 1959 the organisation KBK, Kisgrafika Barátok Köre (Circle of Small Graphic Friends) was born again, and this led to a new era in the life of the genre. Fery Antal was the chairman of the KBK from 1978 until his death.

Fery Antal had many individual ex libris exhibitions (Budapes, Prague, Moskva, big hungarian cities), and he took part in exhibitions with other artists. He won international prizes, and took part in ex libris congresses. There are many books and journals written about his work.

His clean style is free from every kind of ostentaniousness – writes dr. Soós Imre in appreciation of his art – he stays true to the realistic way of perception, he withstands the attractions of the abstract, he never desired to be surrealistic.

Fery Antal was a modest person and artist with a good sense of humour. Creating a graphic or a woodcut was a very joyful act for him. He followed the motto of the first german printers, he strived to keep his work clean, simple and easy to understand.

The Zemplén Museum in Szerencs took on the task to bring out a catalogue of his work. The book was published in 2005, and there is a list of his designs and essays about his art.

Fery Antals life-work is demonstrated in a permanent exhibition since 1992. Our visitors can view the exhibition in a renovated form since 2002. We offer the artists best, selected works in thematic groups.

The modern history of Szerencs is closely related to the factories of the town: the history of the sugar and chocolate factory. The success of these two factories contributed to the towns economical and cultural life, and they played a very important role in the introduction of the industrial culture in the region.

The sugarfactory began to produce in 1889, the chocolatefactory in 1923. By this time chocolate wasn't a wide spread sweet, and the factory had a limited number of machines, so it only produced chocolate bars and cocoa powder. In 1923 only fifty people worked in the factory, they produced ten waggons of goods.

The first manager of the factory was Liechti Frigyes, a foodindustrial specialist and engineer with swiss origins, who was chosen for this position by the board of directors, and was leading the factory for twenty-five years. In this period of time the products with the picture of a cat on the packaging reached worldwide fame. This was achived by the continuos improvement of the products, the packing and the technology, and the promotion and sale done in a network of representatives. Selected workforce produced first class goods from raw material of excellent quality. The production grew from year by year, and the chocolate from Szerencs was more and more famous and requested.

Before the second world war the chocolate factory in Szerencs was the biggest in the country, and it didn't lose its prestige after it was taken ower to the state either, because it produced chocolate of first-class quality untiol 1994. Szerencs is also nowdays famous for its chocolate, the Szerencsi Bonbon Kft. (Szerencs Bonbon Ltd.) is producing chocolate, and preserves and continues this tradition.

Our exhibition, which is based on the private collection of Maszler László commemorates the well known chocolate factory, its founders and workers. The exhibition discloses the history of the factory with the help of original documents and photos, and our visitors can view the objects, tools, moulds, and packing materials. There are also chocolate figures, for ex. the main caracter of a hungarian cartoon by Csukás István and Sajdik Ferenc, Gombóc Artúr, the chocolate-loving bird. The exhibition is open until the end of the Chocolate Festival in August 2014.