The museum won a HUF 2 billion grant for the projects from state and European Union funding available under the New Hungary Development Plan in April, Mr Cseri said. The Ministry of Education and Culture complimented the funding with HUF 222 million, he added.
The ministry gave the museum 24 months to complete the four projects, which is a tight deadline by Hungarian standards, he said.
The most visible of the projects will be the Palóc village, consisting of eleven homes and 30 other buildings. The exhibition will show some 5,000 objects from the area where the Palóc live.
The narrow-gauge railway has generated the most interest, Mr Cseri said. The area of the museum is 12 hectares larger than that of Margaret Island in the capital, so it is a challenge to walk its entire distance. A 1927 Ganz-Jendrassik engine will start bringing passengers along a 2.2-kilometre line from April 2009.
The new reception hall will take the form of a modern wing built onto the museum's current main entrance: a village train station from the southeast of Hungary. The new wing will have a parking lot and bicycle racks, as well as a place to store bags and a diaper changing station.
The Open Museologists Workshop will operate as a knowledge centre as well as provide an exhibition space for very large objects.
With the developments, the museum aims to boost its visitor numbers from last year's 205,000 to 300,000. From 2010, the museum will be open year-round.
The museum also wants to make it easier for visitors to travel to the site from Budapest, and it is in talks on commissioning an old Ikarus Omnibus that would make runs from the Árpád Bridge in the north of the capital straight to the museum entrance.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
Photo: Tibor Illyés (MTI)
