The Deri Museum

Frigyes Deri, a silk manufacturer who made his money in Vienna, gave his collections to Debrecen in the 1920s and the city built a museum for them beside the Reformed College. The holdings are mixed and slightly eccentric: Egyptian and East Asian objects, arms and armour, local ethnography and the picture galleries. What most people come for is a purpose-built room holding three enormous canvases by Mihaly Munkacsy - Christ before Pilate, Ecce Homo and Golgotha - painted in the 1880s and brought back together here. They are lit on a timed cycle with a spoken commentary, which is theatrical but does force you to look properly. Four bronze figures by Ferenc Medgyessy sit on the terrace outside.

What you actually see

• The Munkacsy trilogy - three vast Passion canvases reunited in one purpose-built room.
• The timed lighting - a commentary cycle that lights each canvas in turn.
• The Deri collections - Egyptian, East Asian and European objects from the founder's gift.
• The Medgyessy bronzes - four seated figures on the terrace in front of the museum.

When to go

Closed on Mondays and best on a weekday, since the Passion room takes one group at a time and a coach party means waiting for the next cycle. The commentary runs in Hungarian with headsets in other languages; ask at the desk. Winter is a reasonable time to come, as the whole visit is indoors and Debrecen has little else to do in bad weather.

Honest expectations

Outside the Munkacsy room the displays are old-fashioned and thinly labelled in English, and some sections feel like a provincial museum from forty years ago. The Passion room runs on a fixed cycle so you may stand about for ten minutes before it starts. Photography is restricted in that room. Debrecen is a long day trip from Budapest for one collection.

Nearby

The Great Reformed Church and the Reformed College are immediately in front of the museum.