The Cholnoky Map Collection from Cluj-Napoca / Kolozsvár (Romania)

The collection was established in 1895 and later built up by Jenő Cholnoky. Professor Jenő Cholnoky was one of the greatest Hungarian geographer, head of department on the Francis Joseph University of Kolozsvár (Austro–Hungarian Monarchy) between 1905 and 1919. His photo collection and the map collection of his department had disappeared in the fifties but it was discovered in 2001. Since 2001 the collections are maintained by the Cholnoky Geographical Society.

The photo collection contains more than 5000 individual photos dating from the beginning of the 20^th century (the administrator of the photo collection: Zoltán Imecs, zimecs@yahoo.com).  Most of the photographs were taken by Cholnoky in Transylvania, but hundreds of photos also derive from travels he undertook in other continents such as China and the United States.

The map collection was catalogued between 2006 and 2008 under the supervision of Bartos-Elekes. The map collection contains 6500 items. Of these items 3200 are chorographic and thematic maps, 3150 (mostly Austrian) topographic map sheets, and 150 atlases. The oldest maps date from the 17^th century, but the majority of maps is from the 19^th century, and in the collection we can find some valuable manuscripts also (e.g. one map by the explorer of Angola, László Magyar).

This collection of historical maps it could be considered the second largest collection of historical maps in Romania after the collection of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest. The Cholnoky Collection has same quantity of maps as the Central University Library of Cluj-Napoca, and it is larger than the map collection of the Romanian National Library.

The website of the Photo Collection (in Hungarian)

Studies about the Map Collection (in Hungarian and in English)

Browse and download digitized maps (in Hungarian)

Administrator: Zsombor Bartos-Elekes  (bezsombor@yahoo.com)