Only 3 km from Sátoraljaújhely, you can find Széphalom, the centre of language reform in the early 19th century. The leading person of this movement, Kazinczy Ferenc (1759-1831) lived here. His family graveyard has been a pilgrimage destination since the Hungarian Reform era (1825-1848). The memorial hall was designed by Ybl Miklós and is considered to be a fine piece of work in Hungarian classicist architecture. This unique tourist attraction was made complete with a modern building opened for the Museum of the Hungarian Language a few years ago.

In the memorial hall, Kazinczy and his wife were buried under the memorial column, around which their 4 children were buried and their servant, who was kept in captivity with the writer in the castle in Munkács. Their three grandchildren were also buried here, only their youngest son, who was martyred in Arad, was not buried here.

The exhibits were collected by the writer’s grandson, and the museum was founded at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century. The furniture in the mausoleum was made by Dobay István. In addition to Kazinczy’s personal belongings, we can admire at manuscripts, paintings and a white marble bust of Kazinczy. It is worth looking at the beautiful boarded ceiling of the memorial hall.
The park belonging to the mausoleum is a nature reserve, so when we visit it, we can salute not only the memory of the writer and literature, but we can also admire the garden surrounding it and its varied flora.

The modern building next to the memorial hall was opened in 2009. The unique exhibition here shows the past, present and future of the Hungarian language with colourful pictures, intriguing texts. We can study how the Hungarian language developed from old Hungarian texts to today’s slang. One of the most fascinating parts shows the various dialects. The trees in the park next to the building symbolize the various language families.