Budapest Uncovered: Movie Theatres

The holiday movie season is upon us: although this winter we’ll have to do without a new Star Wars film (we’ll let you decide if that’s a good or a bad thing), luckily there will be no shortage of Oscar baits and studio tentpoles. And what better place to get lost in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood than in Budapest’s most prestigious motion picture palaces?

This collection is brought to you by Funzine.

Uránia National Film Theatre

1088 Budapest, Rákóczi út 21.

Opened first as an orpheum in 1895 on the lower two floors of a four-storey apartment building, it wasn’t until 1917 that Uránia was officially designated as a cinema. However, its history as a venue screening moving pictures dates all the way back to 1899, making it Hungary’s oldest continuously existing film theatre.

Designed by German-born Hungarian architect Henrick Schmal (a student of Miklós Ybl, and the architect behind several other iconic buildings in the city such as the eclectic Párisi Udvar), the building’s architecture mixes elements from the Moorish, Venetian Gothic, and Renaissance styles, resulting in an oriental monument unlike any other in Budapest.

It was on the rooftop terrace of Uránia where the first independently produced Hungarian movie, titled Dance, was shot in 1901, to illustrate one of the lectures of the Uránia Scientific Theatre through 23 episodes from the history of dance, making it the birthplace of Magyar movie-making.

Unfortunately, the film was destroyed in a fire soon after it was made, and all we have left is a couple of still images. Regularly named as one of the most beautiful movie theatres in the world thanks to its ubiquitous ornamental decoration, the elegant, dimly-lit, gilded cinema hall of Uránia (capable of seating 412 people) looks as though it would be better suited for marathon-length operas than 90-minute screen projections. Apart from movies, you can also catch a concert or a ballet play at Uránia rather frequently, or enjoy turn-of-the-century opulence sitting at one of the wooden tables of the first floor café anytime you feel like. The prestigious University of Theatre and Film Arts is also housed in the building located halfway between Blaha Lujza tér and Astoria.