Romanesque Hall of the Museum of Fine Arts to reopen after 70 years

The Romanesque Hall of the Museum of Fine Arts has been closed since the Second World War and has been functioning as storage. However, the whole museum has been going through a complete renovation since 2015, and a decision has been made to renew the famous Romanesque Hall as well, reports PestBuda.hu.

Visitors will be able to see the renewed Romanesque Hall free of charge from 15 March to Easter (1 April).  Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Capacities, told during the preview:

“One of the Hungarian cultural policy’s major debts was repaid by renovating the Romanesque Hall.”

The Romanesque Hall was severely damaged during the Second World War, so one of the Museum of Fine Arts’ most beautiful halls had to be closed. The damage was deemed to be unfixable. The Romanesque Hall remained closed for 70 years.

The Liget Budapest Project provided an opportunity to renovate and modernise the building of the Museum of Fine Arts, which is the most important reconstruction in the building’s history. The government provided HUF 15 billion for a comprehensive restoration and thousands of artworks.

HUF 8.3 billion out of the total amount of HUF 15 billion was spent on the renovation of the Romanesque Hall.

The Romanesque Hall has a floor area of 900 square meters. 70 restorers were working for a whole year on the renewal of the hall’s murals. 1500 l of preservatives, 100 kg of pigments in various colours, and 5.5 kg of gold have been used to renew the 2500 square meter wall in the hall. The museum also got new cooling and heating systems, as well as a very modern lighting system.

Approximately 40% of the building has been renovated, a total area of 14,000 m2.

The following video summarises the renovation of the Romanesque Hall:

The Museum of Fine Arts will reopen on 25 October with a Leonardo Exhibition in the Michelangelo Hall (which has also been renovated).

Featured image: Youtube.com/watch?v=UWr_eO_T9Sk

Source: www.pestbuda.hu