This truly magnificent Neo-Renaissance building is on Andrássy street, right across from the State Opera House. I keep telling stories about the building, home of Drechsler Café, that was originally built for the pensioners of the National Rail Services. For many many long years the building was hiding behind scaffolding and recently it reopened as the W hotel. I hope you agree with me when I say that the renovators made a wonderful job and filled the palace with elegance and charm.
Thank you for all your great reviews and comments, it’s always a pleasure to read your kind words. And, I’m very proud to announce that I just got this very special award from Tripadvisor – Travelers’ Choice 2023.
I’m truly happy and promise to do my best to help you collect the nicest memories while I’m showing you around my Beautiful Budapest. And please keep sharing your comments!
Every year, at the end of August some of the great Hungarian folk artists have a special opportunity to put on display their talent and products: the folk art festival in the Buda Castle district. Visitors can watch and also participate in activities, such as sewing, lace or embroidery making, wood carving and many more. It’s a great occasion to meet local craftsmen and craftswomen, observe their techniques and tricks and also to buy local folk products. I loved the little old ladies teaching me sewing, trust me, they are very patient with visitors much less talented and experienced than they are.
The 20th of August is the only Hungarian national holiday in the summer, celebrations usually go on for days and the city is filled with visitors from all around Hungary and from abroad. The most special attraction every year is the fireworks on the night of the 20th, that can be seen from the banks of the river and the hills around it.
Heroes square truly is the alpha and the omega of all Budapest tours, driving or walking. It’s beautiful, monumental and the entire Hungarian history is on display. It’s the entrance to City Park, where there is so much to do or to see: the Zoo, Széchenyi bathhouse, the open-air ice skating rink, the Vajdahunyad Castle, the city Circus, some museums and great playgrounds for kids. It is very rare to see it as empty and deserted as it was this morning.
The ancient Roman Empire was the largest empire of the world, at its peak the greatest territorial extent of the empire was almost 2 million square miles with a population from 50 to 90 million people. From the 1st century Romans created settlements along the Danube river to protect the empire from the east. There were several settlements created in the actual territories of Hungary, some ruins can be seen in the Northern part of Buda even today.
You can visit the ruins of an amphitheatre or Aquincum, the centre of the settlement with the remains of the governor’s palace and many residential buildings.
The Orthodox synagogue in Kazinczy street was bulit in Art Nouveau architecture in the early 1900’s. The Art Nouveau characteristics are truly magnificent: the rose window on top of the facade, the various building materials including raw brick and colourful stone pieces, the floral ornaments, the stained-glass windows. The building is a masterpiece of the architects, Sándor and Béla Löffler.
The synagogue was badly damaged during WW2 and the building was restored after the war. It’s part of a complex where there are apartments, two kosher restaurants, a little design shop, a kosher grocery store and offices of the Orthodox community. The visit of the synagogue can be included in the Budapest Jewish district tour.
The Citadel on the top of Gellért hill is being renovated, and unfortunately the entire area is closed because of the construction works. It also means that a truly popular tourist attraction of Budapest is closed and it’s impossible to enjoy the most magnificent views over Buda and Pest. The very bad news is that it remains closed for another few years and it’s impossible to estimate when it reopens. It’s just my personal opinion that they could have left a little path open for the tourists to enjoy the view, but that’s not the case.
You can still take a walk on Gellért hill, and you can climb to the statue of Saint Gellért from where you’ll have a great view over the Pest side of the river.
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.)
