PHOTOS, VIDEOS: Madame Tussauds opens in Budapest on Thursday

A new Madame Tussauds will open in Budapest on May 25, featuring 51 Hungarian and international celebrities and historical wax figures.

At the media premiere at Palazzo Dorottya, Chris Scurrah of franchise owner Merlin Attractions Operations Ltd. noted that the Madame Tussauds brand was part of UK-based leisure park operator Merlin Entertainments Group. Madame Tussauds Budapest is the first such franchise to be fully uniquely developed and newly built with local partners, he said. Paul Fox, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Hungary, said the opening of Madame Tussauds Budapest was also a celebration of the Hungarian capital’s rich cultural heritage and vibrant spirit. He noted that the Budapest museum was the only Madame Tussauds in central Europe.

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said Madame Tussauds was a “gift” to the capital marking its 150-year anniversary, adding that its figures of the present, past and distant past made it “a bit like this city itself”.

Madame Tussauds Budapest will feature a total of 51 wax figures, including 17 Hungarian or Hungary-related ones created specifically for the Budapest museum. Those include historic figures such as Saint Stephen, Hungary’s first king, King Matthias, reform politicians Lajos Kossuth and István Széchenyi, poet Sándor Petőfi, pianist Ferenc Liszt, computer scientist János Neumann, Dracula actor Béla Lugosi, and soccer legend Ferenc Puskás. International figures include Queen Elisabeth II, Pope Francis, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, among others. The Budapest Tussauds is the only one to have Bud Spencer, Chuck Norris and Peter Falk, the organisers said.