Déri Museum

The Déri is Debrecen's main museum, an early-twentieth-century building behind the Reformed College packed with the eclectic collections of Frigyes Déri, a Hungarian-born silk merchant who made his fortune in Vienna. Egyptian mummies, Japanese samurai armour, medieval altarpieces, Hungarian folk costume, archaeological finds from the puszta — Déri collected almost everything, and the museum still presents it as a Victorian-style cabinet of curiosities.

The signature attraction is Munkácsy's Christ trilogy (see above), housed in its own dedicated wing. Allow two hours minimum, more if you read every caption. Closed on Mondays; combined tickets with the Reformed Great Church are available.

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The museum's holy of holies is Mihály Munkácsy's enormous Christ trilogy — three giant canvases depicting Christ before Pilate, Golgotha, and Ecce Homo. Painted in Paris in the 1880s, the trilogy was scattered for decades before all three pieces were finally reunited in this building in 1995. The viewing room is dimmed and silent; the effect is closer to a chapel than a museum gallery.

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