Rakoczi Museum: House of exile
by Recep Peker Tanıtkan
In a corner of Eastern Thrace, Turkey and Hungary are preserving precious pieces of one another’s history: the civil architecture of the early 18th century, and the legend of Ferenc Rakoczi II.
“We have a home here now; we have reached peace and quiet. I like Tekirdağ very much but I cannot forget Zagon.” So wrote Mikes Kelemen on May 28, 1720, from his new abode in Tekirdağ in the most northwestern corner of today’s Turkey. The celebrated Hungarian writer’s words did not merely commence a letter but also opened an early chapter of what would be his most famous work: Letters from Turkey, a series of 207 unsent dispatches to a fictitious aunt, the last of which would flow from his pen a full 38 years later. Published in 1794, the letters shed light on the futile exile of the Hungarian nationalists, detail a running personal battle between faith and frustration, and provide future generations with vivid glimpses of eighteenth century Ottoman folklore, ceremony and social life.
March of time
The lonesome scribe Kelemen makes a solemn foil to the intrepid hero to whom he owed his presence on Ottoman soil, his employer and leader, Prince Ferenc Rakoczi II. From 1703 to 1711, Rakoczi led a struggle for independence from the Hapsburg Empire. Though it ended in defeat, he was to secure himself a lasting place in Hungarian folk memory – complete with a marching tune that inspired romantic composers Berlioz and Lizst a full century after his death.
After taking refuge in Poland, England and France, Rakoczi and his entourage arrived in Turkey in 1717 aboard a vessel provided by Sultan Ahmed (Ahmed II). Rakoczi was welcomed with pomp in Gallipoli and Edirne, and received by the Sultan. But Austria was rolling back the Ottoman expansion into Europe. In 1718, the two empires signed the treaty of Passarowitz (Pasarofça). Thereafter, upon a complaint from the Austrian ambassador, the Hungarian exiles were to be accommodated not in Istanbul but in a street of 24 houses purchased for them by the government from members of the local Greek Orthodox community in Tekirdağ.
Rekindling the past
The gratitude tinged with nostalgia expressed in Kelemen’s missive was equally valid for the prince. He spent his days receiving visitors, organising dinners, hunting, praying and petitioning the Ottoman government. In 1735 he passed away, his dreams unfulfilled, to be followed gradually by the remnant of his loyal followers. One gallant survivor is the house which Rakoczi used as his headquarters, now owned by the Hungarian government and preserved as the Rakoczi Museum.
The museum contains a collection of period furnishings and artefacts. The chattels used by Rakoczi himself were eventually repatriated, together with the prince’s ashes, to Kosice – then Hungary, now Slovakia - in 1906. The three-storey house preserves the Ottoman civil architecture of its era. The ground floor consists of a selamlık, entrance hall, kitchen, store-room and servants’ room. On the first floor are the low-ceilinged winter quarters, warmed by hot-coal braziers where a bitter Turkish coffee might simmer. The high-ceilinged second floor summer accommodation includes Kelemen’s office and a guest room decorated with stained glass windows and fruit reliefs - a style inspired by a dining room at Topkapı Palace and once popular in the nearby Ottoman “summer capital” of Edirne.
Three centuries on
In recent years, Tekirdağ has acquired touching monuments to Rakoczy and Kelemen symbolising the friendly relations between Turkey and Hungary. In 2003, a week of Hungarian cultural exhibitions and performances was staged to mark the third centenary of the start of Rakozcy’s ill-fated resistance. It proved so popular that it is being repeated every year in the first week of June, at least until 2011. Hungary has an honorary consul in Tekirdağ. An initiative to restore several more of the Rakoczy houses awaits attention.
Open: 9.00-12.00 and 13.00-15.00 (except Mondays)
Curator: Ali Kabul
Tel: 0282 263 85 77 or 0282 293 20 87
Consular Agency of the Republic of Hungary (Erdoğan Eken)
Orduevi Sokağı, Günaydın Apt. No: 7, Tekirdağ
Tel: 0282 261 15 49 or 0282 263 03 13
(DIPLOMAT - July 2005 - Ankara)