Palace sights in Hungary
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A
Festetics Palace
The Festetics Palace, built in 1745 and extended 150 years later, contains 100 rooms in two sprawling wings. The 19th-century northern wing houses a music school, city library and conference centre; the Helikon Palace Museum (Helikon Kastélymúzeum) and the palace's greatest treasure, the renowned Helikon Library (Helikon Könyvtar) are in the baroque south wing.
The museum's rooms (about a dozen in all, each in a different colour scheme) are full of portraits, bric-a-brac and furniture, much of it brought from England by Mary Hamilton, a duchess who married one of the Festetics men in the 1860s. The library is renowned for its 90,000-volume collection, but just as…
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Esterházy Palace
About two-dozen renovated rooms at the horseshoe-shaped Esterházy Palace are open to the public; the rest of the huge complex houses a hotel and a secondary school. You can only tour the palace with a guide, but armed with a fact sheet in English (available from the ticket office), try to lag behind and explore the rooms away from the crowds.
On the ground floor of the palace you'll pass through several rooms decorated in the pseudo-Chinese style that was all the rage in the late 18th century. On the 1st floor are more sumptuous baroque and rococo salons as well as the lavish Concert Hall and Ceremonial Hall, which lead on to one another. There's also an exhibit…
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B
Kecskemét Gallery
One of the buildings in the square is among the city's finest. The Art Nouveau Ornamental Palace (Cifrapalota), which dates from 1902 and is covered in multicoloured majolica tiles, now contains the Kecskemét Gallery. Don't go in so much for the art; climb the steps to the aptly named Decorative Hall (Díszterem) to see the amazing stucco peacock, bizarre windows and more tiles.
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C
Bishop's Palace
The Bishop's Palace, dating to 1770, to the southwest of Dóm tér is only open to groups (and even then, rarely), but have a look at the curious statue of Franz Liszt (Imre Varga; 1983), peering over from a balcony.
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D
Reök Palace
The Reök Palace is a mind-blowing green and lilac Art Nouveau structure built in 1907 that looks like an aquarium decoration. Sadly, it's been left to the elements and is coming off second-best.
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Archbishop's Palace
The Great Hall and the chapel of the Archbishop's Palace (1766) contain magnificent frescoes by Franz Anton Maulbertsch, but you won't get to see these unless there's a concert on.
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E
Archbishop's Palace
Northeast of the Basilica in the Archbishop's Palace is the Ecclesiastical Collection, with priceless vestments, church plate and liturgical objects.
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F
Gróf Palace
The Gróf Palace is a fantastical office building completed in 1913 in Secessionist style.
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