LŐRINC SZABÓ MEMORIAL ROOM · BUDAPEST
A whole world remains
In the apartment on Volkmann Street, Lőrinc Szabó’s writing desk still stands among his books and personal belongings. The Memorial Room is not a reconstruction, but the actual place where the poet lived, read, translated and wrote.
The Lőrinc Szabó Foundation works to preserve and document this remarkable place – currently closed to the public – with the aim of making it accessible to visitors again in the future.
A POET’S HOME
Twenty-two years in Buda
Lőrinc Szabó (1900–1957) was one of the major voices of twentieth-century Hungarian poetry and one of Hungary’s most important literary translators.
In 1935, he moved with his family to Volkmann Street in Buda. For the next twenty-two years, the apartment was both his family home and his principal place of work – the setting for an extraordinary life of writing, reading and translation.
He returned here from his travels and from summers spent writing at Lake Balaton. His books accumulated around him; poems and translations took shape at his desk. Much of this physical world has survived.
More than a room has survived
His writing desk. His typewriter. His books, many containing his handwritten notes. Personal objects, photographs and manuscripts. Even the traces of everyday family life remain.
Together, they preserve something more than a collection of objects. They offer a rare glimpse into the working environment of a writer and translator whose work became an important part of modern Hungarian literature.
The Memorial Room is therefore not simply about remembrance. It preserves the material setting in which literature was actually made.
Discover this world
THE MEMORIAL ROOM
A writer’s home preserved in Budapest
Step inside the Volkmann Street apartment: the study, the library, the books and objects that surrounded Lőrinc Szabó during more than two decades of his life.
LŐRINC SZABÓ
Poet and translator
Discover the life and work of a major Hungarian poet whose translations brought some of the great works of world literature to generations of Hungarian readers.
THE FOUNDATION
A legacy preserved across generations
Founded in 1994, the Szabó Lőrinc Foundation continues the work of preserving, documenting and sharing the poet’s literary and material legacy.
LOOKING AHEAD
Preserving the past – making it accessible again
Safeguard
Carry out the most urgent repairs and preservation work needed to protect the Memorial Room.
Document and digitise
The books, objects and collection so that they can be made accessible even while the room remains closed.
Secure its future
Create sustainable conditions for the long-term care of the Memorial Room.
Reopen
So that readers, researchers and students can once again enter this remarkable literary space.
Help us open the door again
Our goal: HUF 10 million (€28,000 / $32,000)
Urgent repair and preservation work has become necessary in the Memorial Room and can no longer be postponed.
We are raising HUF 10 million to carry out the essential work, safeguard the Memorial Room and its collection, and create a secure foundation for the documentation, digitisation and future reopening that can follow.
LŐRINC SZABÓ FOUNDATION &
MEMORIAL ROOM
THE FOUNDATION
CONTACT
Lőrinc Szabó Foundation
1026 Budapest
Volkmann utca 8.
Hungary
© Lőrinc Szabó Foundation. All rights reserved.