Museum sights in Szombathely
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A
Bishop's Palace
Maulbertsch frescoes in the upstairs Reception Hall at the Bishop's Palace, built in 1783 and south of the cathedral, miraculously survived the air raids, but are not usually open to the public. You can, however, admire the murals of Roman ruins and gods painted in 1784 by István Dorffmeister in the Sala Terrena on the ground floor.
Other rooms contain photographs of the cathedral before and just after the bombing of WWII and the Diocesan Collection and Treasury (Egyházmegyei Gyüjtemény és Kincstár), including missals and Bibles from the 14th to 18th centuries, Gothic vestments, a beautiful 15th-century monstrance from Kőszeg and even a bejewelled replica of St Stephen's…
reviewed
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B
Vas Museum Village
The Vas Museum Village, on the western bank of the fishing lake northwest of the Szombathely city centre, is an open-air museum with some 40 18th- and 19th-century porták (farmhouses) moved from more than two dozen villages in the Őrség region. They're arranged around a semicircular street, as was usual on the western border. The most interesting of these are the Croatian, German and 'fenced' houses.
Nettles from a strange plant called kővirózsa (stone rose) growing on the thatch were used to pierce little girls' ears.
reviewed
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C
Smidt Museum
In a baroque mansion just south of the Bishop's Palace in Szombathely, the Smidt Museum contains the private collection of one Lajos Smidt, a pack-rat hospital superintendent who spent most of his adult life squirreling away antique weapons, furniture, fans, pipes, clocks, Roman coins and so on. None of it looks like it's worth very much, but the volume and zaniness of it all makes the museum worth a visit. (Keep an eye open for Franz Liszt's pocket watch.)
reviewed
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D
Savaria Museum
The Savaria Museum fronting a little park east of Mártírok tere, is worth a short look around. The ground floor is devoted to highly decorative but practical items carved by 19th-century shepherds to while away the hours; the cellar is full of Roman altars, stone torsos and blue-glass vials found at Savaria excavation sites. There's a local history exhibit on the 1st floor and a collection devoted to the Romanesque church at Ják.
reviewed
