One of the most interesting museums in Hungary happens to be also one of the less known, a great chance for residents and tourists for a different, original day at the museum. In fact the Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism in Budapest is the only museum of this kind in the world.
Originally founded in 1966, after many attempts and experimenting, only to collect memoirs from the catering industry, the museum started exhibiting trade history relics as well in 1970. In the catering history collection you can find furniture, equipment and tools from restaurants and confectioner’s shops, while in the trade history collection you have signboards, name-boards, store furniture and equipment, tools and scales, as well as of tools of trade administration, merchandise samples, merchandise boxes and bottles, souvenirs and promotion materials. Keep in mind that those are all part of the Permanent Exhibition, closed at the moment but due to reopen on October 19th.
If that was enough the Temporary Exhibitions are between the most original in the world. From now until the end of 2009 you can find:
Sacher: an exhibition telling you everything about the history of the famous cake and Austrian hotel.
Catering on the Hungarian railways in the 60s: memories of the blue logos on the railway stations of Lake Balaton, nice dining cars with Herendi porcelain plates, well-dressed conductors in the sleeping-cars.
The juice of lemon – Lemon squeezers: Who would have thought? Such an ordinary object can have incredible shapes and colors. You can see the most gripping pieces from the Swedish Anders Alvarsson’s collection of lemon squeezers.
We are opening… Posters in the socialism: Posters from 1945 to 1989 reflecting the various trends that characterized that era; also informing us on what products were advertised most, what kind of stores were typical, and what slogans were used in a given time.
Did you know that just under the Buda Castle Hill there’s a complex of caves and cellars that goes for miles? A good part of it is called the Buda Castle Labyrinth, and can be visited joining one of the guided tours provided by the cultural association looking after it, Budavári Labirintus.
The labyrinth is indeed a fascinating place, and the tours don’t really take away any of the magic, as many of them take place during the night, with lanterns provided to the visitors as the only lights available.
Many passages, corridors vaults and halls are visible, all with fascinating names like The Prehistoric Labyrinth, the Shaman Passage, the Path of the Magic Deer and more. The Labyrinth is such an unreal and magic location that has also been described as one of the 7 Underground Wonders of the World.
If you’re looking for even more excitement you can book a personal tour, where you’ll go down totally on your own and in pitch dark, while if it is romance that you’re after you can book the Labyrinth of Love tour. It take place only at night, with the woman and the man going into two different paths that will eventually meet in a space with very special atmosphere. Sounds like a great place to propose!
2009 is an important year to commemorate the death of two of the biggest composer in the history of classical music. This year is in fact the 250th anniversary of the death of German composer George Frideric Händel, and the 200th anniversary of the death of Austrian composer Joseph Haydn.
2009 is also the Haydin year all over the world, with Hungary being particularly involved given the many links the “father of symphony” had with the country. Throughout the year we’ve seen Joseph Haydn’s The Creation performed as the New Year’s Concert in the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, during the Haydn Year 2009, a Haydn mass performed at the Parish Church (Március 15 Square in Budapest) one Sunday afternoon each month, and even the First International Trumpet Competition in Memory of Joseph Haydn.
Now the Budapest Baroque Festival is celebrating both Haydn and Händel dedicating its fourth edition to them. The location choosen for the festival is once again the newly renovated baroque church of Szent Mihály (Saint Michael, in Váci street, Budapest). This come as no surprise given the spectacular setting and the perfect acoustics of the church.
The festival runs from September 17th to October 11th. More info:
Following fate similar to that of many other artists, Márta Pán is not widely known in the country that gave her birth (Hungary, although from 1952 she became a French national) but her sculptures are displayed in public spaces all over the world. Her works are erected in Ottawa, Amsterdam, Paris and in Japan, where there are around 30 of her works, she was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Prize by the Emperor. The award is an equivalent of a Japanese Nobel Prize.
Just one year after her death, Budapest Museum visitors are able to see ten of the artist’s monumental steel sculptures, displayed one after the other in the impressive Renaissance and Baroque Hall on the ground floor, and on the first floor, displayed among the paintings of German and Flemish masters.
Culture.hu defines walking among Páns works “like being in a dream city where gravity does not pull one downward, but lifts one up. Her sculptures radiate perfection, like survivors of the loss of the sense of beauty”. Indeed an exhibition not to miss, considering also the numerous other collections to see once in the Museum of Fine Arts.
