Permanent Exhibitions

ESSENCE

To celebrate the founding of the NSZL, a new exhibition in Hungarian and English was opened in the building of the national library, paying tribute to the foundation of the library and its founder, Count Ferenc Széchényi, and also recalling the Corvina Library, which can be considered a historical predecessor, and presenting the complexity and multi-layered nature of the more than ten million documents, representing the totality of the written Hungarian cultural heritage.
Narrated on the walls, in the exhibition cases and through the touchscreens, several exhibition sections, independently interpretable, highlight a theme or aspect.
The exhibition, of interest to families, students, and all ages, occupies two floors of the building.

LAND OF POEMS
Hymn, Appeal, National Song – our emblematic poems

The National Anthem, the Appeal and the National Song - three iconic poems of patriotic sentiment, the embodiment of patriotism turned into three poems. The poems transcend themselves; they have acquired many meanings over their one and a half to two centuries of history. They have become the defining works of our collective memory and national identity, our national memory space.  
National Széchényi Library, Floor 5

Exhibition on the history of the institution

Our exhibition on the history of the institution located on the main entrance floor presents the classic library interior in a renovated and rearranged setting, showing the intellectual and material environment of librarians and readers between 1802 and 1985.

The exhibition features furniture valuable from the point of view of library history, former institutional inscriptions, office equipment, machines and tools used in the processing and workshop activities, documents and photographs, and two sliding monitors that allow visitors to explore the furniture, tools and objects in detail.

Additional photos, newspaper advertisements and stories add to the inscriptions previously displayed in display cases. The exhibition's importance for the viewpoint of cultural history lies in the fact that it gives a taste not only of the national library but also of the equipment and office supplies of libraries and other institutions in Hungary. National Széchényi Library, Floor 5