The best places to learn about Hungarian history

Hungarian history is exciting right from the beginning – just think about the adventures of Árpád and the Hungarians during the Conquest of the Carpathian Basin – but there is much more to learn about these past centuries. Luckily, Hungary pays attention to preserving cultural and national heritage so there are many museums both in Budapest and elsewhere to learn about history.

Ópusztaszer National Heritage Park

Here: Ópusztaszer (near Szeged), Szoborkert 68, 6767
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday: 10:00 – 18:00 (in the summer season)

The Ópusztaszer National Heritage Park is a 136-acre large theme park, with five different sections dedicated to ancient Hungarian history. The heritage park’s location in itself is mysterious: this is the site where Árpád and his chieftains took the blood oath and founded the Hungarian ‘nation’.

You can walk along the park, enjoying a breath of fresh air, while learning about the secrets of the world-famous Hungarian horsemanship, or checking out the yurts and finding out how our ancestors lived. The other three areas include a medieval monastery, an Open Air Museum focusing on village life in the interwar period, and the Feszty-panorama, a large cyclorama depicting the Hungarian Conquest of the Carpathian Basin.

Hungarian National Museum

Here: Budapest, Múzeum körút 14-16, 1088
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday: 10:00 – 18:00

At the Hungarian National Museum (not to be confused with the Hungarian National Gallery), exhibitions are divided into two sections: permanent and temporary. The latter usually focus on world history or on special Hungarian topics.

The permanent exhibitions provide visitors with an insight into the development of art, archaeology and the progress of Hungarian (and Transylvanian) history, from prehistoric times all the way to modern times, to the fall of Communism.

Hospital in the Rock

Here: Budapest, Lovas út 4/c, 1012 (under Buda Castle)
Hours: all days 10:00 – 20:00

The Hospital in the Rock offers to take you back in time, to the 1944-45 Siege of Budapest, to be precise. This was an actual, operating hospital during WW2, that was turned into a museum recently. With the help of the old equipment (including a helicopter that was disassembled to be taken in and then re-assembled inside) and wax figures creating day-to-day scenarios, you are taken back in time.

The museum offers only guided tours.

Holocaust Memorial Centre

Here: Budapest, Páva utca 39, 1094
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday: 10:00 – 18:00

Budapest’s once second largest praying site, the Páva Street Synagogue was renovated and a modern building was attached to it, making up the Holocaust Memorial Centre today. The main subject of this museum is the treatment of Jews during the Second World War in Hungary, but there are sections dedicated to Gypsies, homosexuals and the disabled who were similarly mistreated.

The Centre gives you an insight through temporary and permanent exhibitions, along with a research centre, where people can update the database and look for their family members.

House of Terror

Here: Budapest, Andrássy út 60, 1062
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday: 10:00 -18:00

The House of Terror guides visitors through the cruelties of the Fascist and Communist regime in Hungary with the help of video and audio materials in addition of exhibited items, including a T-54 tank. The museum in the building that was used by the State Protection Authority (ÁVH), Hungary’s secret police (much like the KGB) during these decades. The House of Terror will shake and shock you, especially since you can visit the torture cells in the basement where people were kept by the ÁVH.

featured image: terrorhaza.hu