Déri Museum

The Déri Museum is located in the centre of Debrecen, on Déri Square, in a neo-empire style building that opened to the public in 1930.

In addition to the ever-growing collections of archaeology, natural history, history, ethnography, applied arts and fine arts, the world-famous Christ Trilogy by Mihály Munkácsy is on display at the Déri Museum in Debrecen.

Permanent exhibitions:

Cívisek Világa - Urban History Exhibition
Our main aim with this exhibition is to give people living today a piece of the city's history, the stories that make the past worth telling. Because the city where we live determines almost every important aspect of our lives. But it is not only the city of the present where we live our daily lives, but also the city(s) of the past that we cannot see. It's strange, a little chilling, to think that the house we live in, the shopping centre where we regularly shop, the school our children go to or any other building today was once a cemetery, a church or the home of someone famous or anonymous. We may be walking in the footsteps of Péter Méliusz Juhász, Lajos Domokos, István Hatvani, Sámuel Kiss, Mihály Fazekas, Dániel Rakovszky, Imre Simonffy, József Csanak and others unknown to us every day. The inhabitants of this invisible city are with us.

2. "The inhabitants of the starry sky" - archaeological exhibition
In our archaeological exhibition entitled Inhabitants of the Starry Sky, the artists sketched a general picture of death.
The exhibition mainly presents the results of our excavations in the museum's collection area over the past twenty years, from a unique perspective. The time frame ranges from the Middle Neolithic to the Hungarian occupation. In addition to the customs and artefacts, the exhibition also presents the intellectual background and ideas related to burial, death and the afterlife. At this point, the archaeological exhibition is linked to the unique Egyptian collection of the Déri Museum. Visitors can discover it in the tomb of an Egyptian nobleman.

3. Samurai mansion - Martial arts or arts and combat?
The Japanese collection of the Déri Museum is not only significant in Hungary, but also internationally. In his collecting work, Frigyes Déri was primarily looking for typical Japanese objects from the Edo period (1603-1867). As a result, many objects from the flourishing Japanese craftsmanship can be seen in the museum today.

4. Weapons history exhibition - Deadly beauties:
One of the largest and most colourful groups of artifacts in the Déri legacy is the modern weapons collection. Frigyes Déri's primary aim was not to assemble the most complete set of weapons of any one type, but to include as many and as varied a range of weapons as possible.

5. Old Gallery - Treasures of Fine Art
In the old picture gallery you can see works of art from the 17th and 19th centuries, most of which were donated to the museum by Frigyes Déri.
The exhibited works present a period rich in turns, from the Baroque monuments to the Classical works of art, to the most outstanding period of our national painting, the flowering of historical painting.

6. Déri Memorial Hall - "I give to Debrecen..."
The year 1920 brought a decisive turn in the history of the museum in Debrecen. Frigyes Déri visited the museum for the first time on 18 October and announced that he would donate his collection to Debrecen. His wish was that his collection should be placed in a Hungarian city which, by its size and character, was suitable for becoming a public treasure of Hungarian culture.

7. The Munkácsy Trilogy - "I wanted to depict God in human form."
This is how the artist, whose monumental works depicting the Passion of Christ are on display in the Munkácsy Room, perhaps the museum's most popular exhibition space. The paintings depict the conflict between Christ and his accusers, culminating in the fulfillment of the Word, Christ's death on the cross.

8. Great Forest - Nature's garden
The permanent natural history exhibition offers a glimpse into the past and present of the forest north of Debrecen, which has been extensively merged with the city. The collections of plants and animals, the tools of the past and present, the relics of the history of science and the special world of forest people: hunters, beekeepers, carob gatherers, forestry pickers, etc. are presented in a cosy environment.

Opening hours
Monday: closed
Tuesday: 10.00-18.00
Wednesday: 10.00-18.00
Thursday: 10.00-18.00
Friday: 10.00-18.00
Saturday: 10.00-18.00
Sunday: 10.00-18.00

Last time for ticket sales: 17.00.
Closing of the exhibition halls: from 17.30