Museums of Budapest, Budapest

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We tried to visit the Parliament on a rainy day, there were no tickets left, it had just started raining again, and the most logical thing to do was to step into the Ethnographic Museum on the opposite side of the square, Kosuth Lajos Ter.

The main appeal to us, as for most visitors that day, was not the permanent museum collection but the temporary exhibition of World Press Photos. This also accounted for the expensive entrance ticket, 2500 Ft per adult for the conbination ticket.
The museum is located in an imposing 19th century building which used to serve as district court and appeals court. The huge open internal space was now used for the World Press Photo competition exhibition, which was most impressive, artistically portraying human suffering all over the globe.

The permanent exhibitions had very few visitors, but were also interesting. Colorful costumes from various parts of the Greater Hungary; the life cycle in rural Hungary, from cradle to grave; agricultural tools; country markets; festival masks and costumes; old furniture and interiors from the countryside.

This museum is worth visiting, especially if you are already in the Parliament Square.

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If you are marcipan lover you should see this...
Though the museum is very little, it is quite cool. There is a shop where you can buy marcipan as well.
The entire exhibition consists of two rooms, and in these you can see famous buildings (most of them from Budapest), famous characters and other cool stuff.

I thought it was a rather small collection considering it is a national museum. Though it was fairly chronological it was a bit hard to follow since so little of the exhibition had any description in English. They could have done a bit better with the museum collection, especially considering that hungarian history is so eventful.

The one part of the exhibition that i really liked more than anything was the exquisite collection of meerschaum pipes, intricately carved.

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f you go to Budapest you should visit the Ludwig Museum, whisch is Hungary's largest museum of contemporary arts. Recently the most famous exhibition is The Art Of Light by Moholy-Nagy László, who was one of the most recognized artist in the 20th century's Europe. It was my favourite exhibition in Budapest! :)

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If you like trains and you have 15 minutes to spare, give this museum a chance. It portrays the history of their metro network and the environment you see on any station of the Millennium Line when it comes to decoration. They have a train with mannequins of people inside and they show models of trains, helmets and some tools for construction.

Practical info: the museum is free with the Budapest Card, otherwise you pay a fee of 230 HUF. Open Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm.

The Museum of Ethnography is a kind of museum that I like. It shows traditional Hungarian life and the exhibitions starts in a room with folkloric dresses. In the other rooms you will see items from the daily life of farmers and craftsmen in the 19th century. There are tools, painted furniture, ceramics and woven and embroidered clothing etc.
Entrance was 700 ft (February 2006).

On the left of the wonderful Hosok tere there is the nice Szepmuveszeti Muzeum, museum of Fine Arts. It was built by Albert Schickedanz and Fulop Herzog and it has got a neoclassical facade. The timpan is a copy of the Centauromachia of the Temple of Zeus in Olympia (Greece). The major part of the collection was created in 1802 when people created the National Museum of Hungary and they started to collect many old pieces and paintings. In 1870 arrived from Vienna the Esterhazy collection. In the 1957 the Magyar paintigs were transfered in the Etnographic Museum and in the 1975 transfered to the Buda Castle. Inside there are paintings made by Chagall, Severini, Guttuso, Leonardo da Vinci (drawings), Segna da Bonaventura, Sassetta, Verrocchio, Giovanni Santi, Piero di Cosimo, Ghirlandaio, Gentile Bellini, Giorgione, Veronese, Tiziano, Bronzino, Raffaello, Correggio, Lotto, Carracci, Guardi, Memling, David, de Witte, Cuyp, Rembrandt, Durer, Brughel, van Dyck, El Greco, Murillo, Goya, Ribera, Kupezky, cranach the old, Poussin, Corot, Coubert, Monet, Manet, Pisarro, Cezanne, Toulouse Lautrec, Gauguin, REnoir and much more.

The Hall of Art was founded in 1877, it's first home was the actual Art University's building under Andrassy Avenue 69-71.

The buiding of the "new" Hall of Art was built according to the plans of Albert Schikedanz in 1896, together with the Millenium Memorial and the Museum of Fine Arts on the other side.

The Museum is hosting Hungarian and international contemporary exhibitions and other art related events (furniture and antiques expositions) as well. At the entrance there is an excellent art-book shop.

Opening hours: 10 am to 6 pm every day (10am to 8 pm on Thursday), closed on Mondays.