Discover the biggest open-air museum of Hungary, the Skanzen!
If you are a fan of Carpathian folk culture and art, the only thing you have to do is visit the Skanzen in Szentendre and experience the many opportunities provided by Hungary’s biggest open-air museum. The city of Szentendre is a popular tourist destination among Hungarians and non-Hungarians as well, located not far from Budapest, to the north.
Read alsoThe Hungarian city of arts – Szentendre
Kafkadesk reported that the simplest way to reach Szentendre is taking suburban railway line H5 from Batthyány Square to Szentendre. After arriving at Szentendre, take some time to explore the city before heading to the Skanzen. The town is famous for its well-preserved 18th-century Baroque townscape forming the historical inner city. Do not forget to take a stroll through the narrow, cobbled streets, popular on social media for the colourful lamps and umbrellas hanging from strings.Â
Inspired by the Skanzen established in Stockholm in 1981, the Hungarian open-air museum was founded in 1961 and was part of the Budapest Ethnographic Museum’s “Village Department” for a while.
The founding aim of the museum “was to represent folk architecture, interior decoration, farming, and way of life in the Hungarian language area from the 2nd half of the 18th century to the 1st half of the 20th century.” Hungarian ethnographers selected buildings from across the country that were re-located to the Skanzen one by one and made into replicas. The museum is made up of eight areas, and each represents a different region of Hungary. One of the main attractions of the museum is its very own railway that connects all of the eight regional units. With its 2.2 km of length, it is the longest museum-railway in Europe.Â
The oldest and one of the most popular regional units is the Upper-Tisza region. The architecture exhibits the heavy influence of Protestantism, which was spreading across the region especially in the 16th century. Do not miss the region’s exhibited protestant church with the adjacent black bell tower.Â
In the region of the Great Plain, visitors can see and even touch traditional Hungarian animals like the Hungarian Grey and Mangalica. One of the other great features of the Skanzen is that the majority of the houses are furnished and decorated based on how the houses looked.
Featured image: www.facebook.com/SKANZEN.HU
Five exciting Hungarian museums in the countryside
The best places for exploring Hungarian and other cultures are museums. Budapest has many iconic institutions representing Hungarian and international exhibitions, for example, the Kunsthalle, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Hungarian National Gallery, and the Hungarian National Museum. Besides these, there are several other collections in the countryside you might be interested in.
Source: www.kafkadesk.org