Csontváry Museum
Neo-Renaissance townhouse displaying the major canvases of the painter Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka.
Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka (1853-1919) trained as a pharmacist and began painting in his forties, travelling through the Mediterranean and the Middle East in search of subjects and light. His work was largely ignored in his lifetime and the canvases were nearly sold for their raw material after his death. The collector Gedeon Gerlóczy bought them instead, and in 1973 the city of Pécs opened a dedicated museum in a turn-of-the-century neo-Renaissance building in the cathedral quarter, part of the Janus Pannonius Museum.
The display fills a sequence of high rooms arranged so that the largest works can be seen at a distance. Among them are the Lonely Cedar, the panoramic Ruins of the Greek Theatre at Taormina and the monumental Baalbek, alongside scenes from Mostar, Jajce, Castellammare and the Tatra Mountains. Smaller early studies and drawings trace the painter's development. The building stands a short walk from Pécs Cathedral and the UNESCO-listed Early Christian necropolis, and also hosts short temporary displays.
Highlights
- Lonely Cedar, the painter's best-known canvas
- Monumental Baalbek and Taormina panoramas
- Mediterranean and Middle Eastern travel scenes
- Neo-Renaissance rooms in the cathedral quarter
