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Miksa Rth Memorial House
This fabulous museum exhibits the work of the Art Nouveau stained-glass maker Miksa Róth (1865-1944) in the house and workshop where he lived and worked from 1911 until his death. Less well known are the master's stunning mosaics. Róth's dark brown, almost foreboding, living quarters stand in sharp contrast to the lively, technicolour creations that emerged from his workshop.
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Military History Museum
Loaded with weaponry from before the Turkish conquest, the Museum of Military History also does a good job with uniforms, medals, flags and battle-themed fine art. Exhibits focus on the 1848-49 War of Independence and the Hungarian Royal Army under Admiral Miklós Horthy (1918-43) and has all you could want to know about Hungary's rich military history.
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Műcsarnok
Műcsarnok (Palace of Art) is among the city's largest exhibition spaces, and hosts temporary exhibitions of works by Hungarian and foreign artists in fine and applied art, photography and design. A 3-D film that whisks you around Hungary in 25 minutes.
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Museum of Commerce & Catering
The catering section of this museum, to the left as you enter the archway, contains an entire 19th-century cake shop in one of its three rooms, complete with a pastry kitchen. There are moulds for every occasion, a marble-lined icebox and an antique ice-cream maker. The commerce collection traces retail trade in the capital. Along with advertisements and electric toys that still work, there's an exhibition on the hyperinflation that Hungary suffered after WWII when a basket of money would buy no more than four eggs.
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Museum Of Fine Arts
The city's outstanding collection of foreign art works is housed in this renovated building dating from 1906. The Old Masters collection is the most complete, with thousands of works from the Dutch and Flemish, Spanish, Italian, German, French and British schools between the 13th and 18th centuries, including seven paintings by El Greco.
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Nagytétény Castle Museum
In a baroque mansion in deepest south Buda, Nagytétény Castle Museum contains an exhibition from the Applied Arts Museum tracing the development of European furniture - from the Gothic to Biedermeier styles (approximately 1450 to 1850) - with some 300 items on display in more than two dozen rooms.
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Palace Of Miracles
This is a wonderfully thought-out interactive playhouse for children of all ages with 'smart' toys and puzzles, most of which have a scientific bent.
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Planetarium
This large planetarium has star shows as well as 3-D films and cartoons.
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Postal Museum
The museum exhibits the contents of original 19th-century post offices - old uniforms and coaches, those big curved brass horns etc - that probably won't do much for you. But the museum is housed in the seven-room apartment of a wealthy late-19th-century businessman and is among the best-preserved in the city.
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Semmelweis Museum Of Medical History
This museum traces the history of medicine from Graeco-Roman times through medical tools and implements and photographs, and yet another antique pharmacy makes an appearance. Ignác Semmelweis (1818-65), the 'saviour of mothers' who discovered the cause of puerperal (or childbirth) fever, was born in this house.
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Telephony Museum
This museum, set within a lovely backstreet garden, documents the history of the telephone in Hungary since 1881, when the world's first switchboard - a 7A1 Rotary still working and the centrepiece of the exhibition - was set up in Budapest. Other exhibits pay tribute to Tivadár Puskás, a Hungarian associate of Thomas Edison, and of the latter's fleeting visit to Budapest in 1891.
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Terror Háza
This museum, housed in the same building that served as headquarters of the dreaded ÁVH secret police, purports to focus on the crimes and atrocities committed by both Hungary's fascist and Stalinist regimes, but the latter, particularly the years after WWII leading up to the 1956 Uprising, gets the lion's share of the exhibition space.
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Transport Museum & Aviation Museum
In an old and a new wing, this museum has scale models of ancient trains (some of which still run), classic late-19th-century automobiles and lots of those old wooden bicycles called 'bone-rattlers'. There are a few hands-on exhibits and lots of show-and-tell from the attendants. Outside are pieces from the original Danube bridges that were retrieved after the bombings of WWII and a café in an old MÁV coach.
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Underground Railway Museum
In the pedestrian subway beneath V Deák Ferenc tér and next to the main ticket window, the Underground Railway Museum traces the history of the capital's three underground lines and displays plans for the future. Much emphasis is put on the little yellow metro (M1), Continental Europe's first underground railway, which opened for the millenary celebrations in 1896 and was completely renovated for the millecentenary 100 years later.
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Vasarely Museum
In the crumbling Zichy Mansion, this museum (part of the Museum of Fine Arts) contains the works of Viktor Vasarely (or Vásárhelyi Győző before he emigrated to Paris in 1930), the late 'father of op art'. The works, especially ones like Dirac and Tlinko-F, are excellent and fun to watch as they swell and move around the canvas. On the 1st floor are exhibitions of works by Hungarian artists based abroad.
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Zoltán Kodály Memorial Museum
In the flat where the great composer lived from 1924 until his death in 1967 is the Zoltán Kodály Memorial Museum, with four rooms bursting with furniture, furnishings and other personal items. One room is devoted to Kodály's manuscripts.
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Zsigmond Kun Folk Art Collection
Most of the pottery and ceramics in this charming small museum are from Mezőtúr near the Tisza River, but there are some rare Moravian and Swabian pieces, as well as Transylvanian furniture and textiles. The attendants are very proud of the collection (housed in an 18th-century townhouse); be prepared for some lengthy explanations.
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Zwack Unicum Museum & Visitor Centre
If you really can't get enough of Unicum, the thick brown medicinal-tasting bitter aperitif made from 40 herbs and weighing in at 42% alcohol - and supposedly named by Franz Joseph himself, visit this very commercial museum tracing the history of the product since it was first made in 1790 and inviting visitors to buy big at its mintabolt (sample store).
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