The foundations of the collection began before 1985, when Attila Szigethy, the head of the investment department of the Gyula Meat Factory at the time, recognized that our predecessors, deserve recognition for their hard work and admirable attitude, which made Gyula sausages famous all over the world.
The material of the exhibition, which opened in 1985, was assembled from his own collection and from tools donated to the museum by butcher families from Gyula and the surrounding area. The noble aim was to preserve the past with memories and relics of Gyula’s meat industry. The collection remained unchanged until 1998. After the restoration of the building, it was open to the public only by appointment, mainly for groups of professionals.
The year 2007 was a dark one for the museum. The collection was dismantled and most of the equipment was moved to Békéscsaba. Some of the pieces were probably lost forever. At the same time, the Gyula Municipality put the building up for sale.
At a meeting on October 22, 2007, the Council of Representatives accepted the proposal of Károly Durkó, the City Councilor for Culture, and decided not to sell the old slaughterhouse in Gyula. Furthermore, the Meat Industry Collection would be re-located to the slaughterhouse in the foreseeable future. The building could be re-established as a living, working museum, that would hold gastronomic events in order to restore the faded reputation of Gyula sausage. At the time, several butchers from Gyula said they supported the idea of the Friends of the City group. In January 2008, after more than two months of preparation, the Gyula Butchers' Traditionalist Association was founded. This organization undertook the restoration, operation, and development of the exhibition on the history of the meat industry and related meat and gastronomic traditions as its main activities.
The Museum building offers a wide range of activities: from sausage making demonstrations and pig slaughtering, with the active involvement of the participants to small family and friends’ gatherings. Thanks to all these efforts, it has become an integral part of Gyula's culture, gastronomy and tourism.
Visit Gyula Card discount:
40% off the price
Opening hours
Contact
- 5700 Gyula, Kétegyházi street 3/1.
