Erotic Panoptikum

Lake Balaton & Southern Transdanubia

　　Full disclosure: this is an X-rated wax museum. Kind of tacky – yes. Fascinating – absolutely. The tiny subterranean space brings to 'life' lust and sex scenes from illustrated books about Renaissance erotic fiction by the likes of Voltaire, Rousseau and others. Think wax figures of women in bodices with...

Model Railway Museum

Lake Balaton & Southern Transdanubia

　　On the top floor of a former military building, this grin-inducing museum exhibits one of the world's largest mountain railway layouts. Trains whiz round a 40m-long railway network straight out of a picture book: one section contains the historic Vienna to Trieste train line and an awe-inducing section of Austrian...

Festetics Palace

Lake Balaton & Southern Transdanubia

　　The glimmering white, 100-room Festetics Palace was begun in 1745, and the two wings were extended out from the original building 150 years later. Some 18 splendid rooms in the baroque south wing are now part of the Helikon Palace Museum, as is the palace’s greatest treasure, the Helikon Library,...

Plague Pillar

Danube Bend & Western Transdanubia

　　The erection of this monument was the town's way of giving thanks when a plague epidemic passed it by. ...

Danube Museum

Danube Bend & Western Transdanubia

　　This surprisingly interesting (and quite high-tech) museum has exhibits on all aspects of the history of Hungary's greatest river, including its mighty floods and how best to control them. With all the hands-on exhibits, it’s a great place for kids. ...

Balassa Bálint Museum

Danube Bend & Western Transdanubia

　　This museum, in an 18th-century baroque building, has a small collection of black-and-white photos of the excavations of the town's castle, as well as a wealth of archaeological finds, a display of model boats and a collection of Hungarian coins through the ages. ...

Mária Valéria Bridge

Danube Bend & Western Transdanubia

　　Cross the bridge from Watertown over to Primate Island (Prímás-sziget) and to the southwest is the Mária Valéria Bridge, connecting Esztergom with the Slovakian city of Štúrovo. Destroyed during WWII, the bridge only reopened in 2002. The bridge’s original Customs House (Vámház) is on the left as you cross. ...

Castle Museum

Danube Bend & Western Transdanubia

　　The Castle Museum is housed in the former Royal Palace, built mostly by French architects in the 12th century during Esztergom’s golden age. The palace was largely destroyed by the Turks; today the structure is a combination of modern brickwork and medieval stone masonry. Highlights among the 20-odd rooms are...

Öziçeli Hacci Ibrahim Mosque

Danube Bend & Western Transdanubia

　　This 400-year-old mosque was built in the 17th century, during the Ottoman occupation of Esztergom. In its later incarnations it served both as a granary and as a residence before becoming a museum that showcases its remarkable history. The mihrab (prayer niche facing Mecca) is largely intact, and it is...

Christian Museum

Danube Bend & Western Transdanubia

　　The former Bishop’s Palace in the picturesque riverbank Watertown (Víziváros) district houses the Christian Museum, home to the largest and finest collection of medieval religious art in Hungary. It contains Hungarian Gothic triptychs and altarpieces as well as later works by German, Dutch and Italian masters. The most prized piece...

Centre of Modern & Contemporary Art

Great Plain

　　Hungary’s second-largest contemporary art gallery after the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, MODEM (as it is called) houses the country's most significant private art collection. ...

Ferenc Medgyessy Memorial Museum

Great Plain

　　This memorial museum for local sculptor Ferenc Medgyessy is in an old burgher house to the northeast of the Déri Museum; the museum entrance is flanked by four superb bronzes by the artist. ...

Status Quo Ante Synagogue

Great Plain

　　Debrecen had a Jewish population of 12,000 people up to the end of WWII. This Conservative synagogue, just south of Bajcsy-Zsilinszky utca, dates from 1909 and is once again in use. ...

Tímárház

Great Plain

　　East of the city centre, the Tímárház is a folk-craft centre and workshop run by the Debrecen Cultural Centre, where potters, cheesemakers, weavers and carvers (but no tanners) do their stuff in rotation. ...

Déri Museum

Great Plain

　　Folklore exhibits at the Déri Museum offer excellent insights into life on the plain and for the bourgeois citizens of Debrecen up to the 19th century. Mihály Munkácsy’s mythical interpretations of the Hortobágy and his Passion of Christ trilogy take pride of place in a purpose-built gallery. The museum’s entrance...

Pászti Street Orthodox Synagogue

Great Plain

　　This beautiful pink synagogue built in 1893 has undergone a complete renovation and is once again open to the public. There are the remains of a mikvah in the basement. In the courtyard is a Holocaust memorial bearing the names of local people murdered in Nazi concentration camps. ...

Great Church

Great Plain

　　Built in 1822, the iconic Great Church accommodates 3000 people and is Hungary’s largest Protestant house of worship. The nave is rather austere apart from the magnificent organ; climb the 210 steps to the top of the west clock tower for grand views over the city and the 4.6-tonne Rákóczi...

Calvinist College

Great Plain

　　North of the Great Church stands the Calvinist College, built in 1816 on the site of a theological college dating back to the mid-16th century. Downstairs in two rooms there are exhibits on religious art and sacred objects (including an 18th-century chalice made from a coconut), and on the regimented...

Esztergom Basilica

Szeged

　　The largest church in Hungary sits on Castle Hill, and its 72m-high central dome can be seen for many kilometres around. The building of the present neoclassical church was begun in 1822 on the site of its 12th-century counterpart, which was destroyed by the Turks. József Hild, who designed the...

Fidelity Gate

Sopron

　　Fidelity Gate, at the bottom of the Firewatch Tower, depicts 'Hungaria' receiving the kneeling civitas fidelissima (Latin for 'the most loyal citizenry') of Sopron, together with Sopron's coat of arms. It was erected in 1922 after Sopron's citizens rejected the offer of Austrian citizenship in a referendum. ...

New Synagogue

Sopron

　　Like the Old Synagogue, the New Synagogue was also built in the 14th century; both are among the greatest Jewish Gothic monuments in Europe. The New Synagogue contains an exhibit on the Forgotten Sopronians – the 40 Jewish families that perished during WWII. Descriptions are in Hungarian only, but the...

Goat Church

Sopron

　　Built in the late 13th century, this mostly Gothic church gets its unusual name from the legend that the church had been built thanks to the treasure unearthed by a goatherd (hence the stone goat being cuddled by an angel on a pillar). The interior is mostly baroque, with a...

Harrer Chocolate Factory

Sopron

　　Sopron’s answer to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. The Austrian confectioner dynasty Harrer goes back four generations and aims to initiate you into the mysteries of pralines, truffles, flavoured chocolate and so much more. Visits to the factory (book in advance) involve a video on the production of chocolate and lots...

Old Synagogue

Sopron

　　The Old Synagogue, built in the 14th century, contains two rooms, one for each sex (note the women’s windows along the west wall). The main room contains a medieval ‘holy of holies’, with geometric designs and trees carved in stone, and some beautiful stained-glass windows. The inscriptions on the walls...

Fabricius House

Sopron

　　This baroque mansion is divided into three sections. The archaeological exhibition covers Celtic, Roman and Hungarian periods of history, the standout artefact being the 1200-year-old Cunpald Goblet – don’t miss the ‘whispering gallery’ either. The basement – a former Roman bathhouse – features impressive Roman sarcophagi and Scarbantia-era statues (including...

Firewatch Tower

Sopron

　　A narrow spiral staircase of 116 steps leads to the summit of this 60m-high tower, from which trumpeters would warn of fire, mark the hour and watch for salespeople trying to smuggle in non-Sopron wine. Apart from taking in the all-encompassing view of the hills and the Inner Town from...

Storno House & Collection

Sopron

　　Built in 1417, Storno House has an illustrious history: King Matthias stayed here in 1482–83, and Franz Liszt played a number of concerts here in the mid-19th century. Later it was taken over by the Swiss-Italian family of Ferenc Storno, chimney sweep turned art restorer, whose re-carving of Romanesque and...

Lyceum

Eger

　　Directly east of Eger Basilica is the Zopf-style Lyceum (1765), now headquarters of the Károly Eszterházy University of Applied Sciences. It contains a priceless historical library on the 1st floor of the south wing. Above that and spread over several floors is the so-called Magic Tower, a 'popular science centre'...

Kossuth Lajos Utca

Eger

　　Kossuth Lajos utca is a fine and leafy street lined with such architectural gems as the former Orthodox synagogue, built in 1893, and the former neoclassical synagogue, dating from 1845. You’ll pass several outstanding baroque and Eclectic buildings along the way as well, including the county hall, with its fine...

Observatory and Science Experience Center

Eger

　　Formerly called the Magic Tower, the Observatory and Science Experience Center above the Lyceum spans several floors. Attractions include an Astronomy Museum on the 6th floor of the east wing containing 18th-century astronomical equipment, a Magic Hall of interactive experimental devices, a planetarium with regularly scheduled shows and a panorama...

County Hall

Eger

　　Kossuth Lajos utca boasts dozens of baroque and Eclectic gems, including the delightful County Hall, with a wrought-iron grid above the main door portraying (from the left) Faith, Hope and Charity by Henrik Fazola, a Rhinelander who settled in Eger in the mid-18th century. Walk down the passageway, and you’ll...

Eger Archbishop’s Palace

Eger

　　This splendid 18th-century structure contains two very rich collections. On the ground floor is the Ecclesiastical Collection, with priceless vestments, church plate and liturgical objects. Don't miss the scale mode of the basilica from 1832. The 1st floor now houses the Eger Art Gallery, recently moved from the castle, with...

Lyceum Library

Eger

　　This 160,000-volume, all-wood library on the 1st floor of the Lyceum's south wing contains hundreds of priceless manuscripts, medical codices and incunabula. The trompe l’oeil ceiling fresco painted by Bohemian artist Johann Lukas Kracker in 1778 depicts the Counter-Reformation’s Council of Trent (1545–63), with a lightning bolt setting heretical manuscripts...

Eger Castle

Eger

　　Climb up cobbled Vár köz from Tinódi Sebestyén tér to reach the castle, erected in the 13th century after the Mongol invasion. Models, drawings and artefacts such as armour and Turkish uniforms in the Castle History Exhibition, on the 1st floor of the former Bishop’s Palace (1470), painlessly explain the...

Minorite Church of St Anthony of Padua

Eger

　　On the southern side of Eger's main square stands this church, built in 1771 by Bohemian architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer and one of the most glorious baroque buildings in the world. The altarpiece of the Virgin Mary and St Anthony of Padua is by Johann Lukas Kracker, the Bohemian painter...

Zsolnay Porcelain Museum

Pécs

　　The porcelain factory established in Pécs in 1853 was at the forefront of European art and design for more than half a century. Many of its majolica tiles were used to decorate buildings throughout the country, and it contributed to the establishment of a new pan-Hungarian style of architecture. Postcommunism...

Basilica of St Peter

Pécs

　　The foundations of the neo-Romanesque four-towered basilica dedicated to St Peter date from the 11th century and the side chapels are from the 1300s, but the rest is as recent as 1881. The most interesting parts of the basilica’s very ornate interior are the elevated central altar and four chapels...

Modern Hungarian Gallery

Pécs

　　This gallery exhibits the art of Hungary from 1850 till today across several floors; works run the gamut from impressionist paintings to visually striking and even menacing contemporary installations. Pay special attention to the works of Simon Hollósy, József Rippl-Rónai and Ödön Márffy. More abstract and constructionist artists include András...

Victor Vasarely Museum

Pécs

　　This museum exhibits the work of the father of op art, Victor Vasarely. Symmetrical, largely abstract pieces are exhibited with clever illuminations that intensify the 3D experience and make it seem as if the works are bursting forth from the wall, though there have been arguments about whether or not...

Csontváry Museum

Pécs

　　This museum shows the major works of master 19th-century symbolist painter Tivadar Kosztka Csontváry. Elements of postimpressionism and expressionism can be seen in such works as East Station at Night (1902), Storm on the Great Hortobágy (1903) and Solitary Cedar (1907). But arguably his best and most profound work is...

Széchenyi tér

Pécs

　　Surrounded by largely baroque buildings, Pécs' sloped main square is the city's hub, great for people-watching. With the Mosque Church at the north end, the square is anchored by the Trinity Column in the centre. At the southern end the porcelain Zsolnay Fountain boasts a lustrous eosin glaze and four...

Mosque Church

Pécs

　　The largest building extant from the time of the Turkish occupation, the former Pasha Gazi Kassim Mosque (now the Inner Town Parish Church) dominates the main square in Pécs. The Ottomans built the square-based mosque in the mid-16th century with the stones of the ruined Gothic Church of St Bertalan....

Zsolnay Cultural Quarter

Pécs

　　The sprawling Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, built on the grounds of the original Zsolnay porcelain factory, is divided into four sections (craftspeople, family and children, creative, and university) and is a lovely place to stroll around. Highlights include the Gyugi Collection of 700 Zsolnay pieces, the street of artisans' shops, the...

Contra Aquincum

Budapest

　　Under Plexiglas in V Március 15 tér you'll find the remains of a Roman fortress – an outpost of the Roman town of Aquincum – dating back to the 3rd century AD. ...

Aquincum

Budapest

　　The most complete Roman civilian town in Hungary was built around 100 AD and became the seat of the Roman province of Pannonia Inferior in AD 106. Visitors can explore its houses, baths, courtyards, fountains and sophisticated underfloor heating systems, as well as a recreation of a Roman painter's dwelling...