Műcsarnok & the Museum of Fine Arts
Why is it significant?
Stand at the foot of the broad steps and look up at the Műcsarnok, the Hall of Art: a Greek temple front with columns, and above them a pediment glowing with a golden mosaic. Then turn your head across the square, to its twin, the Museum of Fine Arts, with an even bigger portico.
Key Facts
| Place | Műcsarnok & the Museum of Fine Arts |
|---|---|
| Address | Dózsa György út 37, 1146 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.51390, 19.07890 |
| Part of Walk | Budapest's Musical Boulevard: Andrássy Avenue from the Opera to Heroes' Square |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand at the foot of the broad steps and look up at the Műcsarnok, the Hall of Art: a Greek temple front with columns, and above them a pediment glowing with a golden mosaic. Then turn your head across the square, to its twin, the Museum of Fine Arts, with an even bigger portico. Two temples facing each other across the heroes, like bookends.
Both were designed by the same pair of architects, Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herzog, the men behind the monument itself. The Műcsarnok came first, finished for the millennium year of 1896. It has no permanent collection at all. It was built as a Kunsthalle, a hall for changing exhibitions, and it is still the city's great stage for contemporary art.
The Museum of Fine Arts opposite opened in 1906 and holds one of the richest collections of old masters in Central Europe: Spanish painting, including works by El Greco and Goya, Italian and Dutch masters, Egyptian and classical antiquities. Its Romanesque Hall, damaged in the war and long used as a storeroom, was restored and reopened in 2018, and it is breathtaking, like walking into a painted medieval church.
Now come back to these steps for a moment. On 16 June 1989, the facade behind you was draped in black and white, and the coffins of Imre Nagy and his fellow martyrs of 1956 were laid out here. A sixth coffin stood empty, for all the unnamed victims of the revolution. People filed past for hours, and the ceremony was broadcast live on Hungarian television. It is often remembered as the moment the old regime lost its grip on the country.
Art, memory and politics have always shared this square. Behind the museums begins City Park, and there, a few minutes away among the trees, waits the newest temple in the city, one built entirely for music. Walk past the side of the Műcsarnok into City Park, and follow the path towards the lake and the striking white building with a roof full of holes.