MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS (SZÉPMŰVÉSZETI MÚZEUM)

To mark the Millennium celebrations, the Hungarian government decided to build the Museum of Fine Arts, completed in 1906. The two Austro-Hungarian architects drew their inspiration from ancient Greece, borrowing elements of the pediment from the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. After a lengthy renovation, the museum reopened at the end of 2018. And it's a little splendor! Modernized, the institution has been enlarged by several rooms previously inaccessible to the public, such as the Romanesque hall and the Michelangelo room. Inaugurated in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph, the museum, which adjoins the Place des Héros, is an integral part of the Millennium celebrations. Like the Bois-de-la-Ville, it also celebrates the thousand years of Hungarian presence in the Carpathian Basin. This is the first institution in the country's history to permanently collect and display works of art. While the Museum of Fine Arts contains international masterpieces, it also exhibits all Hungarian artistic creations dating from before 1800. Later works are housed in the Hungarian National Gallery (Magyar Nemzeti Galéria) in Buda Castle (Budavár Palace). The Museum of Fine Arts features art collections from Antiquity to the ^18th century (Egyptian mummies, Etruscan vases, etc., presented interactively), as well as a fine collection of Flemish, Italian, French, German, English, Hungarian and Spanish Old Masters.