Tokaj Museum

The Tokaj Museum occupies a fine 18th-century Greek merchant house on the main square, a reminder of how cosmopolitan this small town once was during the height of the wine trade. The collection covers the history of Tokaj winemaking from the first written mentions of Aszú in the 1630s to the communist nationalisation of the cellars in 1948 and the long recovery since then.

Inside, exhibits include period wine-making equipment, maps of the historic wine districts, and documents tracing the royal connections — Polish, Russian, and French courts all paid premium prices for Tokaji Aszú. The museum also runs a tasting programme in the cellar beneath the building, where you can try wines from local producers alongside the historical context that makes them make sense.

things to do museum
A story
The building that houses the museum was originally erected by Greek wine merchants in the 18th century, when Tokaj wine was so valuable that Greek trading houses maintained permanent representatives in the town. The cellar beneath it — several hundred metres of tunnels — was dug partly by hand over centuries and still holds the residue of wine that has evaporated through the walls, a dark mould called "noble rot's cousin" by locals.