The building of Cifrapalota in Kecskemet is a former apartment house, today – an opened gallery and museum.

The building situated between the main square and the Rakochi street was projected in the Modern style by Geza Markus in 1902. He followed the national design of Lechner, an architect who created the unique Hungarian style, using the elements of the country’s folk art. Previously, there were shops, apartments and a commercial casino, now it is the museum and the main gallery of Kecskemet.

The most important feature of the object is a bright majolica decoration of the facade wall, which is enriched by the colors of the Hungarian folklore. The building has a wavy closed 2-floor facade and a richly decorated high roof. The glazed facade decoration and the tile were made in the Zholnaisk China factory. 

The gallery has been functioning since 1983. The museum has 3 important collections. One of them was offered by Marcel Nemes – the most famous Hungarian collector of the artworks of the century beginning. In 1911 he offered 81 paintings to the city – the main part of them was the works of the Hungarian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of them were precious at that time – the Mihai Munkachi, Bertalan Szekely, Odon Marffy and others. Marcel Nemes attracts people’s attention to Kecskemet, because that time there was created the new association of painters, and it was a very perspective place. 

The other collection was presented by Ferenc Glucks. He was a baker in Budapest, and he received the paintings’ collection from sons of a famous painter Istvan Farkash. Owing to him, today the gallery of Kecskemet has the largest collection of a landscape painter Laszlo Mednianski in the country.

The third one and the biggest collection of the museum is the art of Menichert Thoth (1904-1980), consisting of 2000 paintings and 8000 engravings.

Since 2002 there has been shown the National Exhibition of Fine and Applied Arts. The collection of the museum is enlarging because of the donations and philanthropic activity. The large number of the second-floor rooms, which presents the Hungarian painting of the 20th century, are now keeping the works of Menichert Thoth. The selected art treasures of the gallery are sent to the mobile exhibition.