There are a few buildings that I love in Budapest, Mai Manó House is one of them. It’s such a special building near Andrássy avenue, full of little details and a facade that tells you many stories. We walk by the building very often while we discover the Pest side of the river.

It was designed for Mai Manó, photographer of Emperor Franz Joseph in the 1890’s. As he was a renowned photographer, his profession was clearly demonstrated on the facade, you can see the little angels holding cameras and you can also observe the muses of photography. The main front of the building is full of colours and is richly decorated by colourful ceramic tiles. The style is Neo-Renaissance with a lot of flower and animal motifs.

The House of Photography is home to permanent and temporary exhibitions, and the interior is just as fascinating as the outside.

A new museum opened in the City Park of Budapest, the museum of Hungarian Music. We had a private tour in the museum last week and were truly impressed by both the design of the building and the museum’s programmes and exhibitions.

The building was designed by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, to me it looks like an extremely ornate spaceship abandoned in the woods. For example I love the 12m high glass windows and panels and the hundreds of golden stylised leaves decorating both the interior and the outside. As a result it looks like a huge forest of gold, which is even more beautiful in the sunshine when the lights are nicely reflected on each and every gold leaf.

In the sound dome you can enjoy a unique audio-visual experience with sounds and music coming from all directions. I loved when all the sounds and music came together by the end of the show. It really felt like as if we witnessed a special chemistry experience in a musical laboratory. As an addition the permanent exhibition offers a musical journey in space and time. You must take some time to explore it, because you can easily spend hours in this underground musical maze. Music lovers should plan to spend some 2-3 hours in the building. Visitors can expect to get a better understanding of Hungarian music from the different periods of our musical history.

(On a personal note I have to add that I’m very much against all new constructions in the second largest public park of Budapest. The reason is that I think we should preserve and enlarge the green spaces in the city. However, I like the modern approach and the fact that the building is supposed to use sustainable and climate-friendly solutions.)

We celebrate Independence Day on the 15th of March, the Hungarian freedom war against the Habsburgs started on the 15th of March in 1848.

I collected some Hungarian flags from all around Budapest for celebration. On the Hungarian flag RED stands for life, blood and passion, WHITE stands for honesty and GREEN stands for hope.

Independence Day Hungary 15th of March
Independence Day Hungary 15th of March

Yes, it’s relatively cold and some days may be foggy and gray but Budapest is still the most beautiful city of the world. However, I’d recommend to book shorter tours if you don’t want to stay out in the cold for a full day 🙂

Merry Christmas from Beautiful Budapest! #merrychristmas #boldogkarácsonyt #budapest#beautifulbudapest #christmas

 

Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas

Days are getting shorter and nights are getting longer and this is how Beautiful Budapest looks like with all the amazing lights.

Beautiful Budapest by night
Beautiful Budapest by night

Sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed in the morning but by the time I get to downtown Pest for a tour I’m the most grateful to live in the most beautiful city of the world.

The bells of Matthias Church early in the morning right after sunrise on a beautiful day of autumn.