The establishment of the exhibition called “The Vizsoly Bible” in the building of the Study Room of Historical Holdings and Regional Literature at Pri Miklušovej väznici 1 in Košice is one of the main results of the project titled “A Unique Part of Hungarian Literature – the Vizsoly Bible – can also be found in Košice”.

The project was created through the partnership of:

The State Scientific Library in Košice and the Reformed Church Congregation in Vizsoly

The concept behind the establishment of the partnership and the cooperation on the project was to present to present a unique part of Hungarian literature, the Vizsoly Bible, to both the Hungarian and Slovak public. How was this possible? The State Scientific Library in Košice holds two original copies of the Viszoly Bible in its collection, but the Bibles were not accessible to the public and had not been displayed adequately. The unique Bible was first printed in the village of Vizsoly in Hungary between 1589 and 1590, and the Reformed Church Congregation in Vizsoly recently opened a Visitors’ Centre dedicated to this historical book.

The main objective of the project was to:

• To promote the cross-border exchange of experience in the preservation and promotion of a unique work of written cultural heritage – the 16th century Vizsoly Bible (also known as the Károli Bible).
• To ensure the preservation of the cultural and historical heritage of Vizsoly and Košice and to increase interest in this heritage among citizens by drawing attention to the shared religious, economic and social roots of Vizsoly and Košice, and the multi-ethnic and multicultural cooperation involved in the creation, translation and printing of the Bible.
• To develop a new institutional cooperation between public sector and religious organisations by creating common cross-border media content and an active exchange of information and experience.

The village of Vizsoly and the city of Košice are part of the so-called Gothic Route, a tourist trail which serves as a guide to selected historical monuments in Košice Region and the County of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and which is intended to spread awareness of the cultural and historical heritage of these regions to both visitors and locals.

The project was supported by the Small Projects Fund under the cross-border Interreg V-A Slovakia – Hungary Cooperation Programme with a grant totalling € 58,696.52 for both partners. The Small Projects Fund is a programme which supports smaller-scale projects at the regional level and the Košice-based EGTR Via Carpatia is part of its umbrella organization.