NATIONAL GALLERY (MAGYAR NEMZETI GALÉRIA)

The Hungarian National Gallery's permanent collection features paintings and sculptures by Hungarian artists of the ^19th and ^20th centuries, as well as religious art objects, sculptures and frescoes dating from the ^11th to the ^18th century. The medieval section impresses with Gothic statues in carved wood, late Gothic triptychs and Renaissance works.

The heart of the visit lies in the rooms dedicated to the major periods of modern Hungarian art. The tour begins with early ^19th-century portraitists and landscape painters such as János Donát and Károly Markó, then moves on to Biedermeier figures like Miklós Barabás, József Borsos and Jakab Marastoni, founder of the first Hungarian painting academy. There are also historical painters emblematic of national Romanticism, such as Soma Orlai Petrics, Mór Than, Viktor Madarász and Bertalan Székely.

The late ^19th century is represented by major works by Mihály Munkácsy, a master of large-scale religious and historical scenes, and Pál Szinyei Merse, a pioneer of plein-air painting. Naturalists and artists from the Nagybánya colony, such as Károly Ferenczy, Adolf Fényes and Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch, illustrate the aesthetic research of the end of the century.

Modernism is brilliantly represented by József Rippl-Rónai, a figure of the Nabi movement, János Vaszary, and by painters with a more introspective or symbolist style such as László Mednyánszky, Lajos Gulácsy and Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka. The museum also preserves key works from the early ^20th century avant-garde, notably those of the Group of Eight (Károly Kernstok, Béla Czóbel, Róbert Berény), who introduced Fauvist and Cubist aesthetics to Hungary.

Sections devoted to the interwar period highlight artists such as Gyula Derkovits, Aurél Bernáth, József Egry, István Farkas and Lajos Vajda, as well as representatives of the Szentendre School and the post-impressionist Gresham group. Outstanding works from the artistic diaspora, such as those by Lajos Kassák and the MA (Aujourd'hui) circle - an exiled avant-garde, constructivist, modernist and revolutionary group founded by Kassák - testify to the richness of Hungarian creation in exile.

Regularly renewed temporary exhibitions are an excellent complement to this already impressive panorama.

Allow between 1h30 and 3 hours for a complete visit.