Vajdahunyad Castle
Why is it significant?
Cross the little bridge over the moat and walk into the courtyard. On one side, a Gothic castle with pointed towers; on another, a Romanesque church portal; then a Baroque palace, a Renaissance loggia... It looks like several centuries got into a fight and nobody won. That is exactly the point.
Key Facts
| Place | Vajdahunyad Castle |
|---|---|
| Address | Vajdahunyad sétány, 1146 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.51540, 19.08190 |
| Part of Walk | Budapest's Musical Boulevard: Andrássy Avenue from the Opera to Heroes' Square |
| Generated | Generated |
Cross the little bridge over the moat and walk into the courtyard. On one side, a Gothic castle with pointed towers; on another, a Romanesque church portal; then a Baroque palace, a Renaissance loggia... It looks like several centuries got into a fight and nobody won.
That is exactly the point. Vajdahunyad Castle was built for the Millennium Exhibition of 1896 by the architect Ignác Alpár, as an encyclopaedia of Hungarian architecture. Each part copies or paraphrases a real building from the old Kingdom of Hungary, including the castle of the Hunyadi family in Transylvania, today in Romania, which gave the whole complex its name.
And here is the surprise: the first version was temporary, made of wood and cardboard. Visitors loved it so much that the city decided to keep it, and between 1904 and 1908 Alpár rebuilt it in stone and brick. The Romanesque chapel copies the portal of the abbey church of Ják in western Hungary, carved apostles and all. Today the Baroque wing houses the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, which might be the most unexpected tenant a fairytale castle ever had.
In the courtyard, find the bronze figure sitting in a hooded cloak with no face visible under the hood. This is Anonymus, the unknown medieval chronicler who wrote the first history of the Hungarians and never signed his name. The statue is by Miklós Ligeti, from 1903. Students and writers rub his pen for luck, which is why it shines gold... notice it.
In winter the lake around you becomes one of Europe's largest open-air ice rinks; Budapest has skated here since the 1870s, and the music played over the ice is part of the ritual. In summer, rowing boats glide where the skaters were. Leave the castle by the far side and walk a few minutes north to a yellow neo-Baroque palace with green domes, where steam rises from the pools all year round.