Things to see and do Hungary

An integral part of the urban development of Budapest at the end of the 19th century, and of the Andrássy Street route, this neo-Renaissance style palace designed by Miklós Ybl was inaugurated in 1884 after nine years of work. It was inaugurated with great pomp and ceremony, in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Sissi. Moreover, the emperor was his generous patron for half of the work, on the condition that the proportions of the Budapest building did not exceed those of the Vienna Opera! In addition to several statues (including two sphinxes that frame the facade), a portico with three arches serves as an entrance and is topped by the muses of the dramatic arts. Inside, the grand staircase, made of grey Croatian marble and covered with a red carpet, is flanked by columns of Carrara marble. On the upper floor, communicating with the royal box, the red salon was used by the imperial couple. Mór Than's delicate paintings depict (from left to right) Love and Psyche, Paris holding the golden apple to Aphrodite and The Three Graces. Once an important place for socializing, the foyer now serves as a bar during intermissions. The auditorium, wooded and arranged in a horseshoe shape, is partly gilded with gold leaf. The acoustics are remarkable. If you look up, you will not fail to marvel at the frescoes on the ceiling: The Apotheosis of Music, signed by Károly Lotz, encircles a three-tonne bronze chandelier. The institution finally reopened in 2022 after several years of closure for renovation.

The Szent Gellért monument is the presumed place from which, in the 11th century, the Benedictine Gerard was thrown by Hungarian pagan rebels who refused to convert. Classic arched columns encircle the bronze monument, erected in 1904 by Jankovits Gyula, which stands at 40 m (the statue itself is 7 m high). One climbs up stairs: a beautiful view and the start of trails that lead up to the east side of the citadel.

This building is a pure example of Art Nouveau achievement designed by Gyula Fodor. It houses an excellent center dedicated to photography (and the visual arts), named after the Hungarian-born photojournalist Robert Capa (real name Endre Ernő Friedmann). Various exhibitions of classic and contemporary photography (several at the same time) to admire throughout the year. Don't come here to look for the great master's pictures, they are only rarely exhibited here.

His head is lowered, his body is covered with a loose coat, you can't see his face, protected by a hood, he looks like a hermit, but no, it's Anonymous. Far from being an anonymous in Hungary, he is a distant ancestor of the Budapest historians, he wrote a chronicle of the history of the Kingdom of Hungary (the famous Gesta Hungarorum) under the reign of King Bela III of which he was the notary. He describes in great detail the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian basin.

The lead balls embedded in the walls of the Ministry of Agriculture (Agrár miniszterium) - bullet holes fired by the Red Army in 1956 at Hungarian protesters - bring us back to still nearby wounds in the monumental Parliament Square, completely reorganized in 2014, by Orbán's government. A memorial hall of the revolution was inaugurated under the square. Statues of Kossuth, Tisza, and Rákóczi stand in its vicinity.

The Baradla-Jósvafői cave in Aggtelek is an impressive natural site well worth a visit. With its various guided tours, visitors can explore the different parts of the cave and admire its unique rock formations. In addition to cave tours, the park also offers other activities such as hiking and environmental education programs.

This museum pays tribute to the hundreds of thousands of Hungarians, Jews and Roma, who perished in the Holocaust. An excellent museography, all in light and sound, where multimedia tools and personal stories are mixed. An 8-meter high wall of remembrance displays the 180,000 names of known victims of the Holocaust in Hungary. Go up to the top floor to admire the beautiful synagogue on Páva Street: the second largest synagogue in the capital has been completely restored. Its regular temporary exhibitions are also worth a look.

This southern region, where the Great Plain is cut in two by the Tisza, is on the axis of major waves of migration. In the year 896, it was here in Ópusztaszer that Árpád, head of the first seven Magyar tribes, spent 34 days preparing the laws of what would become those of their new country, Hungary.

The park and the rotunda. You can visit the excavations of a medieval market town, Szer, a complex of pseudo-Hungarian houses (called the Temple of the Forest), all wood and forms inspired by tents, as well as an open-air ecomuseum that brings together typical farms and houses of villages from different regions of Hungary. In the park, lawns have been arranged for children and open-air barbecue facilities are available to visitors. During the tourist season, we can attend equestrian performances on the theme of "The time of shamans".

Within the new tourist centre is the rotunda, whose shape is inspired by a nomad quartile. A small wax museum honours the great characters of Hungary's early centuries, and a costume museum offers an Exhibition of fashion fashions at the end of the last century.

Panorama. The centrepiece of the tourist centre is an astonishing panoramic painting by Árpád Prof, the Hungarian conquest, which represents the arrival of the Magyar tribes in the Carpathian Basin. For the landscape, the artist was inspired by the Volóc Valley, currently located in the Carpathians of Ukraine. According to legend, the first Magyar tribes arrived through the passage of Verecke, before settling in the Carpathian Basin. Measuring 120 m in height 15 m in length, this surprising table is set out in a circular room specially constructed for this purpose. It was realized in 1896, for the millennium celebrations of the founding of the Hungarian State. Exhibited in Budapest, this work was one of the most popular attractions of the capital until the bombing of the city in 1945.

From that date, the table disappeared to reappear only 50 years later. Since 1995, after a restoration by Polish experts, it has again been exposed to the public. This slightly kitsch painting shows the arrival of the nomadic tribes guided by their chef Árpád who, from the top of his horse, stares the large plain plain on the horizon.

At his side, a barbaric queen is transported to a trolley fired by four long horns grey oxen. Before, we see a stone altar with the bodies of the vanquished inhabitants sacrificed. At the other end of the circular paint, a shaman dressed with beast skins is preparing to sacrifice a white horse. White smoke rising to heaven is a good omen. The crowd of nomadic tribes advances towards their new homeland, invading the entire region. This kind of painting was very popular in Europe at the end of the last century.

It was, in a way, the precursor of modern cinema. The viewer in the centre of panoramic painting hears recorded noises from behind the canvas: sounds of horse hooves, gnashing of wheels of a car pulled by the horse, sound of arms and din din of the horde in the distance…

Fleeing the Ottoman Turks, the Serbian refugees took the body of their national hero, Prince (Tsar) Lazar Hrebeljanović. He was killed in the battle of Kosovo at war with the Ottoman Sultan in 1389. The Serbs settled in Szentendre buried it in a church built later, in 1690, and took it with them when they returned to Serbia. The location where these relics had been hidden has been marked with a cross since 1778.

Built between 1837 and 1846 to the plans of Mihály Pollack, this neoclassical palace owes much to the treasures amassed by Ferenc Széchenyi, a great collector. In 1848, the institution became a rallying point for the March 15 uprising against the Habsburgs. The young revolutionary Sándor Petőfi gave a speech there at the time. Visiting the National Museum is an excellent way to learn about Hungarian history. The museum's permanent exhibition features a rich Roman lapidary in the basement, revealing the nuggets of Pannonia. On the first floor, adoor opens onto the room reserved for the coronation robe. This Byzantine silk chasuble dates from 1031 and depicts the coronation of St. Stephen and his wife, Gisela. It was worn by all Hungarian rulers during their coronation from the 13th century onwards. On the mezzanine floor, one can navigate from prehistory to the arrival of the first Magyar tribes. Then on the second floor, 28 rooms allow to go back ten centuries of Hungarian history, from the Arpadian dynasty through the Middle Ages, then the Ottoman occupation (1541-1686) and the liberation by Ferenc Rákóczi, hero of the war against the Habsburgs (1703-1711). In 1867, Vienna gave in to Magyar demands. The period of prosperity that followed was ended by the First World War and the Treaty of Trianon. In 1989, after more than four decades of communist rule, Hungary regained its sovereignty and democracy.

This sublime building (1896) was built on the occasion of the Millennium celebrations of the creation of the Hungarian state, according to the plans of the master of the Hungarian Secession, Ödön Lechner. Elements of Hindu, Islamic, Moorish and Persian art, together with majolica tiles from the famous Zsolnay porcelain factory, make the building one of the finest examples of the Magyar Secession. A bright white Moorish-style patio covered by a huge glass roof leads to the collections.

In 1694, the Buda Council decided to erect this monument to the Holy Trinity to protect its residents from the plague. Made by Ceresola Vereio and Bernardo Ferretti, the original object was placed in another district ravaged by the plague. It was decided to make a more monumental column here. At 14 m, it is the highest point of the hill. At number 2 of the square stands the former Buda Town Hall, which has been without function since the unification of Buda and Pest in 1873.

The turbeh of Baba Gül (16th century) is one of the few remaining traces of the Ottoman occupation of Buda. The funeral monument is a high place of pilgrimage for Muslims, who consider the dervish a true saint. The turbeh itself is a small building crowned with the Muslim crescent. The monument is impeccably maintained and even has a cultural center and a small museum that tells the story of the Ottoman period. Majestic Danubian view from the garden.

This cultural space has a long political history. Located in a renovated former 1848 Ganz factory, the Millenáris was inaugurated by the right-wing Fidesz in 2001, just before the parliamentary elections. The whole thing was demolished and sold in 2002. The left, who had come to power in the meantime, decided to keep and review the complex. Today the Millenáris, a pretty contemporary park, includes several buildings including an exhibition and fair room of all kinds.

Originally intended for the city of Zenta (today Senta, Serbia), the equestrian statue of Eugene of Savoy was purchased by Emperor Franz Joseph and erected in front of the present entrance to the Hungarian National Gallery, at the very place where a monument to the emperor was to be installed in 1900. Eugene of Savoy liberated Buda from the Turks in 1697, so he is still in this triumphant position. Damaged in 1944-1945, the statue was taken down in 1968 and restored in 1971.

On the second floor of the former site of the Academy of Music was the apartment of Franz (Ferenc) Liszt, its founder, who lived there between 1881 and 1886. The apartment now houses a fascinating little museum that provides an insight into the artist's daily life and social life through an exhibition of personal objects such as scores, portraits, rare musical instruments including his travel keyboard and glass piano. Regular concerts in the large hall of the former Academy of Music in the same building.