The chance to found a museum in Baja first occoured in 1914. Right before World War I Frigyes Déri had offered his valuable collection of cultural history and his library to the town of his childhood. He had planned to build a culture house, so he bought a site and gifted it to Baja.

Salla, the Roman settlement, is situated near the center of the town Zalalövő. Salla and Zala county was named after the Illyr-Celtic name of the rivers Salla or Salle. Salla was declared town by Hadrianus in 118 and became the center of the region.

The historic library is found on the second floor of the Abbey building. The first books were brought here by the monks of Heinrichau in the 18th century when they came and founded again the Cistercian Abbey. The number of books swell to 65,000 volumes by 1950 when the State took possession of the library following the dispersal of the monks of the Cistercian Order. Fortunately, the National Library was allotted the task of its upkeep, and this task they have performed and are performing today, while the proprietary rights have reverted to the Cistercians.

The house of medieval atmosphere had two floors in 1703, and later a manzard roof was attached to it. A permanent exhibition of the works of Margit Kovács was arranged here in 1974. This was further extended in 1982. A number of the works were gifted to the town by the artist, and other items belong to the Kovács Margit Collection of Szentendre.

The Antiauity Department of the Museum of Fine Arts bought the copy collection at the beginning of the 20th century.The collection in the Kuny Domokos Museum is shown downstairs the synagogue. The gallery holds 100 works born in Hellenism.

The Water and Conservation Management of the Upper Tisza Region pays a lot of attention to tending the past. It has operated the Historic Museum of Water management in Nyíregyháza since 1962. They had long planned to form a collection of the old machines and equipments.