Hungary 1, Budapest

Aquincum was a Roman settlement. From the metal parts of the hydraulos from 228 AD ─ found here in 1931 ─ the organ builder Angster made the (partially disputable) reconstruction that is exposed. Let’s hope, the original find will be exposed too, being one of the oldest objects in this website.

Béla Bartók lived here from 1922 to 1928.

The 'Heritage House', a centre for traditional culture, organises numerous events in the realm of folk culture: conferences, courses, workshops, performances. Folk dance promotion is one of its tasks. It also runs a museum of applied arts and the László Lajtha Archive. The building is named Budai Vigadó [Buda entertainment centre], not to be confused with the concert hall Pesti Vigadó (> 1129).

House of Jenő Hubay (1858-1937), a great violinist – pupil of Joachim – and a rather conservative composer of stage, orchestral and violin works.

St. Ann’s church was built between 1740 and 1805 and is perhaps the nicest baroque church of the city. The organ is by Jehmlich (1985) in a beautiful 18^th century case which was moved hither from an dissolved Carmelite church. The church is often used for concerts.

Monumental house of Liszt’s friend Antal Augusz, frequently visited by the composer.

The Erdődy palace houses the music department of the Academy of Science, including the Bartók and Dohnányi archives. The museum is devoted to the musical history and contains pictures and other memorabilia and a variety of instruments. Beethoven visited the befriended family here in 1800.

The German composer Robert Volkmann (1815-1883) settled in Budapest in 1841 and stayed here until his death.

The Kodály monument by Imre Varga from 1982 was originally situated in the popular park Europa liget at the edge of the castle hill, overlooking the city (photo 1). Due to repeated vandalism, it was moved to this quieter spot (photo 2) .

The castle theatre was built 1784. Beethoven gave a concert here in 1800. Today it is used as a ballet theatre.

No one contributed as much as count István Széchény (1791-1860) to the modernization of Hungary. He had not only built the famous ‘chain bridge’ between Buda and Pest, but established the Academy of Sciences (1825). The great library from 1802 in wing F of the Royal palace was named after his father Ferenc Széchény, who donated thousands of old books and manuscripts. The rich musical department contains autographs and letters by Haydn and many of his contemporaries and of Hungarian composers.

House of the well-known conductor János Ferencsik (1907-1984). From 1953 he was the general musical director of the Budapest opera and the PO.

Bust of Josef Haydn, who visited the city in 1800. Strangely enough, his name is not mentioned.

This non-descript church was visited by Liszt, clearly a reason to place a commemorative plaque.

Plaque of the Hungarian lutenist Bálint Bakfark (1507-1576), one of Europe’s greatest virtuosos of the 16^th century. In the 1540s he left Budapest and worked in France, Italy and Poland. A victim of plague, he died in Padua.

House of Lajos Bárdos (1899-1986) from 1938 until his death. His activities as a composer, conductor and musicologist were in the first place directed towards cultivating Hungarian choral life.

The Beethoven monument in memory of his visit in 1800 was erected in 1932; the sculptor was János Horvay.

Béla Bartók lived here from 1928 to 1932.

Bartók’s last Hungarian house (1932-40), an elegant art-deco villa, became the actual Bartók museum. It contains many authentic pieces, including the peasant furniture that Bartók had made, other folk art, his Bösendorfer grand and his phonograph. Some parts of the house have been recently added, including a small concert hall. Monument in the garden.

The composer Ernő Dohnányi (1877-1960) lived here from 1928 to 1940. Afterwards, the remarkably designed villa was divided into four apartments, one of which is still inhabited by a relative of the composer; the vast garden looks rather unkempt today.

House of the composer Ferenc Farkas (1905-2000). His oeuvre compasses all genres, including over seventy film scores. Himself a pupil of Respighi, which explains the richness of his orchestral palette, he became the teacher of the avant-gardists Ligeti and Kurtág.

Farkas was interred at the Farkasréti cemetery, as were his 20^th century colleagues Kodály and Lajtha. The remains of Bartók, buried in 1945 in Hartsdale, N.Y., were moved here in 1988 with great ceremony.

Plaque of Karl Goldmark, (1830-1915), the composer of some still popular works, incl. the opera Die Königin von Saba and the symphonic poem Ländliche Hochzeit.

House of the musicologist Bence Szabolcsi (1898-1973). He worked as music critic, editor, professor at the music academy and writer of numerous books and articles about Hungarian, European and non-European music. Famous is A melódia története (1950; English A History of Melody, 1965).

Relief of Béla Bartók in the street named after him; in the opposite park, near the lake Feneketlen tó, a large monument by József Somogyi.

This World Music Centre in an old industrial complex is the best place to get acquainted with the 'tancház' [dance house] tradition: youth dancing on live music by renowned folkloristic groups. Dance houses of this kind also can be found elsewhere, both in Budapest and in other cities.

The heart of this new complex is the National Bartók concert hall, with 1700 seats and a large organ (5 manuals, 94 stops). It was opened in 2005.

This Unitarian church exists since 1929. The name of Bartók was added in 2001. The reason couldn’t be clarified; after all, Bartók was a confirmed atheist.

House of László Lajtha (1892-1963). As a composer, he was influenced by the French music of his age; as an ethnomusicologist he followed the path of Bartók and Kodály. The Lajtha Archive is in the ‘Heritage House’ (> 1012).

A plaque on the house and the Lajtha kút [fountain] outside remember him.

A plaque commemorates the site of the music academy Országos Magyar Királyi Zeneakadémia, which was established by Liszt in 1875. The building was used until 1879; it has been demolished.

This church was frequently visited by Liszt; he had his own seat, at the first row right, which is still marked by a brass nameplate.

Another church visited by Liszt is the Parish Church of the inner city, built in the 14^th century and partly rebuilt after a fire in 1723. It is the oldest extant building of Pest. The Liszt plaque is inside, at the left.

Teachers' training department of the Academy of Music. The building housed from 1836 the first conservatorium of the town.

The music collection of the metropolitan public library is the largest of the town (books, periodicals, scores, notes, records and CDs). The building is a former Pálffy palace

Since 1912, Rózsavölgyi was a household word among musicians. The music shop is still in operation and since 2012 a ‘Rózsavölgyi Szalon’ was added, which by day serves as a café, in the evenings as concert- and lecture hall.

Former establishment Zu den sieben Kurfürsten, where Liszt made his debut as a 12 year old boy.

The Vigadó is the successor of the historic Redoute from 1833, where Liszt and Strauß appeared; it was destroyed in 1849. The present building from 1864 is an important concert hall, where Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Debussy and Bartók performed; the latter is honoured with a plaque. The building is also used for folklore presentations, balls, conferences and exhibitions and is run today by the Academy of Sciences.

On this site, as the plaque mentions, was the hall in which Joseph Joachim, the great violinist and friend of Brahms, made his debut in 1839 as an eight year old boy.

House of the nationalist composer, music critic and teacher Mosonyi Mihály (the Hungarian name of Michael Brand, 1815-1870). The plaque is in a finely wainscoted but – as observed in 2008 – seemingly abandoned shop gallery; present state unknown.

The composer György Kurtág lives since 2015 on the upper floor of this building, belonging to an enterprise which operates in the performing arts industry.

In this building of the Academy of Sciences, the study of Bartók and Kodály is marked by a plaque.

House of Liszt from 1871 to 1873. At the opposite side (n. 20) lived his friend Antal Augusz.

Plaque of the operetta composer Imre [Emmerich] Kálmán (1882-1953).

The ethnographic collection of the National Museum was moved in 1973 into this former court house from 1896. The exhibits include a collection of mostly Hungarian folk instruments. The phonograph recordings by Bartók and Kodály with transcriptions belong to the fund.

Plaque of János Bihari (1764-1827). This gypsy violinist and composer, a contemporary of Beethoven, laid the foundations of the Verbunkos-music, the predominant aspect of the Hungarian urban folk music. Echoes of it resound in numerous compositions of Liszt and other composers.

Plaque of Leó Weiner (1885-1960), a distinguished teacher and composer with a large oeuvre in a more romantic idiom than that of his contemporaries.

House of Leó Weiner. The plaque is somewhat hidden in the portico.

Béla Bartók lived here from 1907 to 1911.

House of Gustav Mahler, working from 1888-91 as chief conductor of the Opera, bringing it to a higher level. Also the first performance of his 1^st Symphony took place in Budapest.

The Operetta theatre started in 1894 as the Variété house Somossy Orfeum – architects: Fellner & Helmer – and changed its name and function after a reconstruction in 1923. There are 900 seats. The bronze person on a bench before the entrance is Imre Kálmán.

At the opposite side (nrs. 22-24) is the theatre Arizona, specialising in musicals.

The Budapest Opera was built in 1875-88 after the design of Miklós Ybl; Mahler was its first director and is honoured with a bust (inside). In the beginning, foreign operas were translated into Hungarian. There are 1261 seats. The façade is decorated with statues of Erkel and Liszt and on the roof twenty foreign opera composers. One can visit a museum about the history of the house and join into guided tours.

The music Academy (Zeneakadémia) was founded by Liszt in 1875 (> 1115); the third – and present –huge building after the design of Flóris Korb and Kálmán Giergl, a fine example of Art Nouveau, came into use in 1907. The list of famous teachers and alumni is endless. Bartók’s study is marked. The large concert hall is excellent.

Around the corner is a plaque of Dohnányi.

The second building of the Music Academy (1879-1907), now an annex of the head building. Here a concert hall too and a library. At the second floor Ferenc Erkel lived until 1883.

Between 1881 and 1886, Liszt had an apartment at the first floor of the academy building, which he alternated with his stays in Weimar and Rome – a ‘vie trifurquée’, as he called it. It is an interesting Liszt museum now, with a lot of authentic objects.

Ferenc Erkel is considered the creator of the national opera. Hunyadi László (1844) and Bánk Bán (1861) are still popular. He lived in this house from 1883 until his death in 1893.

Zoltán Kodály lived here from 1924 until his death in 1967. The interior was largely kept in its original state and made accessible to the public. Like Bartók’s house (> 1051), it is filled with folk art. The Kodály archive is in an adjacent flat.

The National Museum possesses a couple of interesting musical instruments, including the harp of Marie Antoinette and a baryton of Nikolaus Esterházy. Mozart's travel clavichord by Stein was acquired via Hummel and Mozart’s sister in law, Sophie Haibl.

Birthplace of the violin virtuoso and composer Jenő Hubay, °1855. The musician families Hubay and Doppler offered a favorite meeting place to many musicians, including Erkel, Liszt, Wagner, Meyerbeer, Goldmark, Rubinstein and Moscheles.

This theatre was originally built in 1911 as a ‘people’s opera’ for the working class, but from 1915 it suffered various reorganizations and reconstructions. In 1951 it became the second performance venue of the Hungarian State Opera, but from 2007 to 2013 it was closed again for a renovation. In the meantime, the Köztársaság tér [Republic square] was renamed into Pope John Paul square. The theatre has over 1900 seats, being the largest opera house in Central Europe.

Graves of Bihari, Erkel, Hubay, Mosonyi, Volkmann, Weiner. (The younger composers – Bartók, Kodály, Farkas and Lajtha – were interred at Farkasreti cemetery in Buda, > 1061).

This park in the district of Kőbánya has various monuments of celebrities, including the foreign composers Berlioz, Chopin and Tchaikovsky.

Bartók’s stage works – Bluebeard’s Castle, The Wooden Prince, The Miraculous Mandarin – were composed in the former village of Rákoskeresztúr. In this house he lived from 1912 to 1920. Now it serves as a culture centre of the town quarter, with a Bartók bust before the entrance.

Another Bartók monument in Rákoskeresztúr.

One of the best known jazz clubs in town. Opened all days except Sundays.

The island in the Danube is a favorite place of entertainment with a beautiful park, an open air theatre and a yearly pop festival which attracts people from all Europe. There are monuments of the composers Bihary, Erkel, Liszt, Bartók and Kodály. As we have noticed, Budapest hasn’t shown any thriftiness in erecting monuments.