The idea and necessity of founding an ecclesiastical museum was already articulated at the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, financial difficulties and the burden of maintaining buildings forced many Reformed parishes to convert their communion vessels and textiles into money. The need to establish a museum was formulated by Lajos Szádeczky in his expert proposal of September 1906, in which he called upon the Church District to create a museum collection from these old objects. No substantial progress was made at that time. The fate of the disused, valuable sacred objects (clenodia) and textiles continued to concern the Church’s leaders in the years that followed. In a circular letter dated 21 June 1923, the Directorate Council asked the deans of the dioceses to take stock of such items and to make proposals regarding their storage.

In the absence of an ecclesiastical museum, in the first half of the 20th century the safeguarding of ecclesiastical sacred vessels, textiles, and furnishings was undertaken by the Numismatic and Antiquities Collection of the Transylvanian National Museum and by the Székely National Museum. After the Second World War, the political situation did not allow for the founding of an ecclesiastical museum. From the late 20th century onwards, leaders of the Church District increasingly voiced the promise of founding a museum at various forums and conferences on the protection of monuments and works of art. In parallel, from 2005 onwards a five-member research team led by Dr. Dezső Buzogány began surveying the holdings of objects and documents of Transylvanian Reformed parishes. The nearly decade-long fieldwork of this research team — operating from 2012 as the Pokoly Society — and the results published in specialised volumes further underlined the need to establish a museum. The art historians, historians, and archivists involved called above all for the collection of objects and documents from diaspora congregations, and for the safeguarding of fragile (textiles, pewter vessels) and disused items.

The final decision to establish the museum was made in 2014, when, by Resolution No. 42 of the Directorate Council, the Reformed Church District of Transylvania founded the Transylvanian Reformed Museum. At that time the museum building was designated and its renovation works began. The institution, bearing the name Transylvanian Reformed Museum, officially opened its doors to the public on 30 September 2017, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, with the temporary exhibition Piety and/or representation. Transylvania’s Reformed Heritage.

By founding the Transylvanian Reformed Museum, the Reformed Church District of Transylvania filled a gap of more than a century. It created an institution which, on the one hand, provides storage conditions meeting professional standards for the disused objects of the parishes and, on the other hand, has — for the first time in the history of the Church District — formally registered the historically valuable sacred vessels, textiles, and archival materials of the congregations, and taken conservation measures for their protection.

For further details, you can read Márta Kovács-Mária’s study Az Erdélyi Református Múzeum megalakulása és szerepe az Erdélyi Református Egyházkerület értékmentő tevékenységében by clicking here.