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House of Terror Museum - Budapest - Hungary
Photograph: Shutterstock

The 13 best museums in Budapest

Terror, pinball, fine art and more, you'll find it all in the very best museums in brilliant Budapest

Jennifer Walker
Written by
Jennifer Walker
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The best museums in Budapest cover plenty of ground. That seems like something said about every city, but just think about this for a moment; the Hungarian capital has a museum dedicated to terror and another to retro pinball. It doesn’t get more opposite ends of the scale than that.

Throw in some art, history and literature, and culture vultures are in for a treat. After all, Budapest is a city on the move, with a nightlife scene to rival Berlin and a food scene to challenge Europe's best. All you need now is to learn about the history and culture of this marvellous place, by checking out the best museums in the city.

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Jennifer Walker is a writer based in Budapest. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines

Top museums in Budapest

Hungarian National Museum
Photograph: Goodfreephotos / Szilas

1. Hungarian National Museum

You’ll have no trouble finding this museum on Múzeum Körút (part of the Small Boulevard), which resembles a huge, ancient Greek temple. The Hungarian National Museum was once the epicentre of the 1848 revolution against the Habsburgs when rebels gathered on its steps. Today it’s the largest museum in the country, featuring an extensive collection of archaeological findings and relics from prehistory to the communist era. Unlike the Budapest History Museum, this museum goes beyond the capital to cover the entire history of Hungary and the Carpathian Basin.

Hungarian National Gallery
Photograph: Wikimedia Commons / Nelson PĂ©rez

2. Hungarian National Gallery

Inside the royal palace of Buda Castle, the vast collection traces the country’s creative history from medieval triptychs through to post-1945 art and sculpture. One highlight is the interior of the palace dome, hung with elegant wire-like sculptures. In peak season (and when the weather’s nice), you can climb up to the National Gallery's viewing platform at the top. Be sure to check out Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka’s dream-like landscapes and Mihály Munkácsy’s realist masterworks.

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Museum of Fine Arts
Photograph: Museum of Fine Arts

3. Museum of Fine Arts

After being closed for renovation for a few years, the Museum of Fine Arts unbolted its doors overlooking Heroes’ Square with much fanfare. The Romanesque main hall – closed since a bomb damaged it during the Second World War – reopened to the public with a colourful cast of characters on its gold-fringed frescoed walls. This impressive fine art collection spreads over five floors, with treasures from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome to Baroque art. Highlights include a horse sculpture attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and paintings by El Greco, Titian and Raphael.

Museum of Agriculture
Photograph: Flickr / Thanate Tan

4. Museum of Agriculture

Set in the heart of City Park, this place is worth visiting for the location alone. Housed inside the grand Vajdahunyad Castle, a 19th-century construction based on a Transylvanian castle, the Museum of Agriculture takes up a palatial space with chandelier-lined halls and frescoed rooms. The collection is eclectic: think vintage farm equipment, taxidermy animals, and loads and loads of antlers.

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Zwack Unicum Museum
Photograph: Wikimedia Commons / Mister No

5. Zwack Unicum Museum

Unicum is a bitter digestive liquor you’ll find in every Hungarian bar and restaurant. A trip to the original factory in the IX District offers hints into the closely guarded family recipe, made with 40 herbs and spices – and much more. You’ll wander through Zwack's cellars and taste a shot straight from the barrel, and there’s also a display of – completely unconnected – the world’s largest miniature bottle collection.

Budapest History Museum
Photograph: Wikimedia Commons / Szilas

6. Budapest History Museum

This bookish museum, in the southern wing of Buda Castle, explores the history of Budapest from prehistory to the communist era. The History Museum's collection includes Roman relics, Ottoman remains, medieval tapestries and gothic statues, but the thrilling stuff is found on the lowest level. Here you can explore the oldest rooms of Buda Castle, plus vaulted chambers and a 14th-century tower chapel.

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Holocaust Memorial Museum
Photograph: Wikimedia Commons / Takkk

7. Holocaust Memorial Museum

This poignant, modern exhibition space wraps around a beautiful 1920s synagogue in the IX District. It’s a rather difficult museum to stomach as it takes you through the history of the Holocaust in Hungary, including some graphic depictions of the concentration camps. The exhibition blends interactive displays, installations and personal artefacts, like glasses, pens and toys. At the end of the Memorial Museum's dimly lit chambers, you enter the breezy blue hall of the former synagogue.

Hungarian House of Photography
Photograph: Måté Balåzs, Mai Manó House, 2018

8. Hungarian House of Photography

Walk along NagymezƑ Utca just off Andrássy Avenue, and you’ll spot a gorgeous house clad with ceramics and frescoes. The building once belonged to Mai Manó, a 19th-century imperial and royal court photographer. Today the House of Photography is a museum dedicated to Hungarian photography. The highlight is Manó’s preserved former studio, but there’s an array of other brilliant exhibitions in this quirky museum.

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Budapest Pinball Museum
Photograph: Budapest Pinball Museum

9. Budapest Pinball Museum

After something a little more light-hearted? Then delve into this curious basement in the Újlipót neighbourhood, where you’ll find Europe’s largest interactive museum dedicated to pinball machines. Enter the Pinball Museum, some 130 vintage consoles flash ready to play (no need to bring any change – once you get your ticket, you can play on as many as you like). Some date back to the 1880s – not pinball machines, but bagatelles, their predecessors – and you can also examine a Humpty Dumpty game from the 1940s, one of the first with flipper bumpers.

Ludwig Museum
Photograph: Wikimedia Commons / Thomas Robbin

10. Ludwig Museum

The Ludwig Museum is a core component of the Millennium Quarter, a multi-building arts complex in a former industrial neighbourhood in Pest. It shares the same contemporary, cube-like building as the Palace of Arts, a state-of-the-art music hall. This contemporary museum contains an impressive pop art collection, including some Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and modern art from Central and Eastern Europe.

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Kiscelli Museum
Photograph: Wikimedia Commons / Vadaro

11. Kiscelli Museum

The Kiscelli is tucked in a dramatic 18th-century former monastery in the Óbuda neighbourhood. These days it’s a museum housing a curious collection of artefacts that depict life in Budapest from the 18th century to the early 19th. Highlights include lush stained-glass, antique furniture and an array of beautiful vintage shop signs.

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Number 60 on Andrássy Avenue once inspired fear as the headquarters of the secret police. In 2002 it opened to the public as a museum to commemorate the victims of the fascist and communist regimes. The House of Terror stretches from the basement – where political prisoners were once interned – to the exhibitions on the second floor. You could spend hours here, whether playing around with the interactive installations or watching gripping first-person accounts from survivors.

 

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RĂłth Miksa Museum
Photograph: RĂłth Miksa Museum

13. RĂłth Miksa Museum

You can find Miksa Róths stained all over the place – from the windows of the Hungarian Parliament to Mexico City. This small museum, tucked in a house in the outer VII District close to Keleti Train Station, offers a fascinating glimpse into the glass artist’s life and work. Visitors could probably spend a good couple of hours in this place, packed as it is with some of his most beautiful stained-glass works.

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