In 1857 Benedictin monk and creator of the Museum of History and Art Flóris Rómer suggested an idea of establishing the institution and wrote an article in the local newspaper about it. His attempts were successful, and the 6th May of 1859 it was established by order of the Central Imperial Royal Commission of Architectural Monuments’ Study and Maintenance. His followers considerably enlarged the collection and named the museum in honor of Rómer.

One of the most beautiful Baroque palaces of Györ became the home of the museum in 1949. Initially, this building was the propriety of an abbey in the 1740s. It changed the owners many times: it was used as a casern, then as an orphanage. In 1802 it was bought by Benedictines, and in 1816 - by an institution of priests’ teaching. In 1857 the palace became a small seminary, in 1910 – a normal school. Now, this is the headquarters of the country museum direction. 

The authorities had an idea to turn the palace to the museum in the 1920s, but that time they could just take the 1st floor of a cultural center. After the Second World War, in 1949, the exhibits were transported to the former abbey palace in the city center. The collections, exhibitions and souvenirs shops were enlarging over time. In 1974 the museum got a new collection of a famous sculptor Margit Kovacs, in 1979 – an exhibition of Miklos Dorsos, in 1986 – a permanent exposition representing the collection of  a journalist and art critic Imre Patko.

Since 2013, the Museum of History and Art became an institution with a wide range of disciplines. Its functions were the education of visitors, the transmission of values, preservation, and presentation of the local culture. The new slogan of the museum is “Open, vivid, alive!”.