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Hungary

Museum sights in Hungary

  1. A

    Royal Wine House & Wine Cellar Museum

    Housed in what once were the royal cellars below Szent György tér dating back to the 13th century, this new 1400-sq-metre attraction offers the chance of a crash course in Hungarian viticulture in the heart of the Castle District. Tastings cost 1350/1800/2700Ft for three/four/six wines. You can also elect to try various types of Hungarian champagne and fruit brandy (pálinka).

    reviewed

  2. B

    Semmelweis Museum of Medical History

    This museum traces the history of medicine from Graeco-Roman times, through medical tools and implements and photographs; yet another antique pharmacy also makes an appearance. Ignác Semmelweis (1818–65), the ‘saviour of mothers’, who discovered the cause of puerperal (childbirth) fever, was born in this house and much is made of his life and works.

    reviewed

  3. C

    Franz Liszt Memorial Museum

    This small but perfect museum is housed in the Old Music Academy, where the great composer lived in a 1st-floor apartment for five years until his death in 1886. The four rooms are filled with his pianos (including a tiny glass one), the composer’s table, portraits and personal effects. Concerts (included in the entry fee) are sometimes held here on Saturday at 11am.

    reviewed

  4. György Kohán Museum

    The György Kohán Museum , in quiet Göndöcs-Népkert, is Gyula's most important art museum, with more than 3000 paintings and graphics bequeathed to the city by the artist upon his death in 1966. The large canvases of horses and women in dark blues and greens, and the relentless summer sun of the Great Plain, are quite striking and well worth a look.

    reviewed

  5. D

    Bakery Museum

    From the House of the Two Moors, walking west along Fövényverem utca, you'll soon reach Bécsi út and the Bakery Museum, a fantastic reminder of a bygone era. It's actually the completely restored home, bakery and shop of a successful 19th-century bread and pastry maker named Weissbeck, and contains some interesting gadgets and work-saving devices.

    reviewed

  6. Tokaj Museum

    The Tokaj Museum, in the 18th-century Greek Trading House, leaves nothing unsaid about the history of Tokaj, the Tokaj-Hegyalja region and the production of its wines. There's also a superb collection of Christian liturgical art, including icons, medieval crucifixes and triptychs, and Judaica from the nearby Great Synagogue, and temporary exhibits by local artists.

    reviewed

  7. E

    Toy Museum & Workshop

    The Toy Museum & Workshop has a small collection of 19th- and early-20th-century dolls, wooden trains, board games and so on, dumped haphazardly in glass cases. But the museum spends most of its time and money on organising events and classes for kids. Much is made of Ernő Rubik, the Hungarian inventor of that infuriating Rubik's Cube from the 1970s.

    reviewed

  8. F

    Hungarian Museum of Trade & Tourism

    A shadow of what it was when based on Castle Hill, this museum deals almost exclusively in temporary exhibitions, and serves as an educational centre for schools and those in the catering and hospitality trade. Only one small room of restaurant items, tableware, advertising and packing contains remnants of the original collection. Bring it back, we say.

    reviewed

  9. G

    Ferenc Hopp Museum of East Asian Art

    The Ferenc Hopp Museum of East Asian Art is housed in the former villa of its benefactor and namesake. Founded in 1919, the museum has six rooms showing an important collection of Chinese and Japanese ceramics, porcelain, textiles and sculpture, Indonesian wayang puppets and Indian statuary as well as lamaist sculpture and scroll paintings from Tibet.

    reviewed

  10. H

    Hungarian Open-Air Ethnographical Museum

    The Hungarian Open-Air Ethnographical Museum, 3km northwest of the centre of Szentendre and accessible by bus from bay 7 at the main bus station, is Hungary’s most ambitious open-air folk museum, with farmhouses, churches, bell towers, mills and so on set up in five regional units. Craftspeople and artisans do their thing on Sundays and holidays.

    reviewed

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  12. I

    Óbuda Museum

    Sharing the same building as the Vasarely Museum, but with its entrance facing the inner courtyard, this museum contains a motley assortment of exhibits related to Óbuda’s past: the interior of a three-room 19th-century farmhouse from Békásmegyer, the output of master cooper Simon Tóbiás and toys through history.

    reviewed

  13. J

    Janus Pannonius Archaeology Museum

    The Janus Pannonius Archaeology Museum, in the 17th-century home of a janissary commander just behind the Mosque Church in Széchenyi tér, traces the history of Baranya County up to the time of Árpád. It also contains many examples of Roman stonework from Pannonia, a model of St Bertalan's Church and medieval porcelain.

    reviewed

  14. German Minority Museum

    The magnificently restored Nepomucenus Mill (Alkotmány utca 2), built in 1758, now houses the German Minority Museum. Like Pécs and Székesfehérvár, Tata was predominantly German-speaking for centuries, and the exhibition ('Living Together for 1100 Years') explores all aspects of the German experience in Hungary.

    reviewed

  15. K

    Péter Váczy Museum

    The late Renaissance Hungarian Ispita (Magyar Ispita), once a charity hospital, now houses the Péter Váczy Museum. Váczy, a history professor and avid antiques collector, managed to assemble quite an eclectic assortment of pieces, from Greek and Roman relics to Chinese terracotta figures, all of which are on display.

    reviewed

  16. L

    Bálint Balassi Museum

    The Bálint Balassi Museum, in an 18th-century baroque building, has objects of local interest, with much emphasis on the churches and monasteries of medieval Esztergom. The museum is named in honour of the general and lyric poet who was killed during an unsuccessful attempt to retake Esztergom Castle from the Turks in 1594.

    reviewed

  17. Százéves

    The Százéves cake shop and museum is a visual and culinary delight. Established around 1840 (no doubt Mrs Ladics bought her petits-fours here), the Regency-blue interior is filled with Biedermeier furniture and mirrors in gilt frames. It is one of the most beautiful cukrászdák in Hungary.

    reviewed

  18. M

    Foundry Museum

    This museum – a lot more interesting than it sounds – is housed in the Ganz Machine Works foundry that was in use until the 1960s, and the massive ladles and cranes still stand, anxiously awaiting employment. Alas, time has frozen them. The exhibits also include cast-iron stoves, bells and street furniture.

    reviewed

  19. N

    Pasha Hassan Jakovali Mosque

    Southwest of Pécs' inner town and opposite the Pátria hotel is the Pasha Hassan Jakovali Mosque, wedged between a trade school and a hospital. The 16th-century mosque - complete with minaret - is the most intact of any Turkish structure in Hungary and contains a small museum of Ottoman objets d'art.

    reviewed

  20. O

    Déri Museum

    Folklore exhibits at the Déri Museum offer excellent insights into life on the puszta and the bourgeois citizens of Debrecen up to the 19th century. Mihály Munkácsy's mythical interpretations of the Hortobágy and his Christ's Passion take pride of place in a separate art gallery.

    reviewed

  21. P

    Hungarian Folk Craft Museum

    The Hungarian Folk Craft Museum, the granddaddy of all museums in Kecskemét, is further southwest and a block in from Dózsa György út. Some 10 rooms of an old farm complex are crammed with embroidery, woodcarving, furniture, agricultural tools and textiles, so don't try to see everything at once.

    reviewed

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  23. Nepomucenus Mill

    The magnificently restored Nepomucenus Mill, built in 1758, now houses the German Minority Museum. Like Pécs and Székesfehérvár, Tata was predominantly German-speaking for centuries, and the exhibition ('Living Together for 1100 Years') explores all aspects of the German experience in Hungary.

    reviewed

  24. Q

    Pick & Paprika Museum

    If you'd like to know more about the making of Szeged's famed salami - from hoof to shrink-wrap - the Pick & Paprika Museum can oblige, and if that doesn't satisfy your taste buds, there's plenty of paprika to burn them into submission. Pick salami can be purchased from the Pick shop next to the museum.

    reviewed

  25. R

    Balaton Museum

    The Balaton Museum was purpose-built in 1928 and contains much on the Roman fort at Valcum (Fenékpuszta) and traditional life around Lake Balaton. Also of interest are exhibits depicting the history of navigation on the lake and the photographs of summer frolickers at the start of the 20th century.

    reviewed

  26. S

    Ferenc Martyn Museum

    Káptalan utca, running east from Dóm tér to Hunyadi János út, contains a plethora of museums, all of them in listed buildings. The Ferenc Martyn Museum displays works by the Pécs-born painter and sculptor (1899-1986) and sponsors special exhibits of local interest.

    reviewed

  27. György Thury Museum

    The György Thury Museum was in the process of refurbishment when we called, but expect to find exhibitions on folk art from the area and displays on the daily life of peasant workers during the first decades of last century. Check with Tourinform for prices and opening times.

    reviewed