Liszt Academy of Music (Zeneakadémia)
Why is it significant?
At the far end of Liszt Ferenc tér, past the café terraces and the bronze Liszt with his hair flying in the middle of the square, a building rises like a jewel box: green-gold mosaics, a deep entrance, and above it a seated statue of Liszt looking down at you.
Key Facts
| Place | Liszt Academy of Music (Zeneakadémia) |
|---|---|
| Address | Liszt Ferenc tér 8, 1061 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.50330, 19.06440 |
| Part of Walk | Budapest's Musical Boulevard: Andrássy Avenue from the Opera to Heroes' Square |
| Generated | Generated |
At the far end of Liszt Ferenc tér, past the café terraces and the bronze Liszt with his hair flying in the middle of the square, a building rises like a jewel box: green-gold mosaics, a deep entrance, and above it a seated statue of Liszt looking down at you. This is the Zeneakadémia, the Liszt Academy of Music.
The academy itself was founded in 1875, and Liszt was its first president, with Ferenc Erkel as director. In those days it worked from Liszt's own building further up Andrássy út, which you will visit shortly. This palace came later. It opened in 1907, designed by Flóris Korb and Kálmán Giergl, at the height of the Hungarian Art Nouveau... and they treated it as a total work of art, down to the door handles.
Inside, the Grand Hall seats around nine hundred people under a ceiling of gilded leaves and Zsolnay ceramics, with organ pipes rising behind the stage. The building was restored and reopened in 2013, and musicians from all over the world describe the sound as warm and almost unbelievably clear. Some say the hall itself plays along.
Now think of the names who climbed these stairs as students or teachers. Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály both taught here. Ernő Dohnányi ran the place. Georg Solti, later one of the great conductors of the century, studied piano here, and so did György Ligeti before he left Hungary. Corridors that produced that list deserve a little reverence.
And here is a detail most passers-by miss. The academy faces a quiet square, not the grand avenue, almost as if music preferred to keep a little distance from parades. When the windows are open in spring, you can sometimes hear students practising scales above the café chatter. Walk back up the square to Andrássy út, cross the great eight-sided Oktogon, and continue north-east until you reach a grey building with a black stone frame cut into its roofline.