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 between the early 1880s and 1896 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 to look for

• 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.

Before you go

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.

Key facts