Art & culture

Wekerle Estate is a calm, green island in the rushing city, the living example of the garden city movement, with the added spice of Károly Kós‘s “Transsylvanian style”. Some of Budapest’s biggest roads frame the area, but heavy traffic luckily avoids these neat streets.

The end of the 19th century saw a boom in the number of Budapest residents. Housing developments could not keep up with population trends, thus the mayor, István Bárczy created a concept together with the architect Róbert Fleischl to build a separate estate for those in need. Enjoying the support of prime minister Sándor Wekerle, the project was carried out from 1908 to 1925 resulting in the construction of 4412 new apartments. In a few decades the city incorporated the estate, still, the rural atmosphere has been preserved until today.

Lots of trees (50,000 were planted during the constructions), small gardens, beautiful architecture – it is easy to fall in love with the place. Architecturally the area is very compact and integral, yet the buildings don’t look the same. Those were the good old days, when state intervention meant “getting things done properly”. I wish today’s developments would take Wekerle as an example.

Once it counted as the “faraway outskirts”, now it is pretty close to the city center with good transport connections. And you thought you actually had to move out of the city to live in a village?

Check out more photos here.

Gang is a German loanword in Hungarian meaning the open corridor that can be found in most of the houses in downtown Budapest. The typical „gang house” was built from the second half of the 19th century to the 1920s-30s and originally served as an apartment building with big flats.

Communist times turned the few big apartments into several smaller ones sometimes resulting in flats without toilets. So people had to visit the common toilet at the end of the corridor. These times are (almost) over, what’s left are the flats with their entrance door opening to the inner courtyards.

Some communities care more about these interesting yards, they have removed the clinkers to reveal the soil and plant flowers, lay it down with grass, even create a little kitchen-garden for the residents. But even if the tenants neglect the state of the premises, there is a type of tree that grows tall even in the crack of the wall and could be the symbol of urban survival: sumac.

Walk around in downtown, even further to the outskirts and carefully walk in if you see an open door. I promise, you’ll find real gems inside.

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Memento Park – or Szoborpark (“Statue Park”), is a depository for communist-era public statues.

Located on the very fringes of Budapest, you should allocate quite a bit of travelling time to getting there and back, or catch the once-a-day direct bus that leaves at 11:00 from Deák Ferenc Metro station and goes back to the city at 13:00 (or just drive).

Lots of people get a kick out of seeing these monumental statues in their new, “harmless” environment, but given nice enough weather, the park is also a good spot to get away from the city’s concrete for a bit.

Just outside the main entrance, there’s a barrack where they sometimes have temporary exhibits as well as some permanent information on the 1956 revolution and the 1989-90 change into democracy.

Definitely check it out, as there’s also a movie theater inside, showing a subtitled documentary called “Life of the Agent.” It’s a compilation of actual black-and-white training videos filmed by and for the communist secret police, teaching you how to conduct proper house searches, how to follow someone unnoticed, how to enlist someone as an informant, and other similar skills. You can also buy the movie on DVD at the ticket office, and it’s awesome.

The Hungarian Museum of Science and Technology is a place you’re unlikely to find on your own. Not only because it’s located a bit out of the way, but also because, well, would it occur to you to check out three large halls’ worth of machinery if I wasn’t prompting you?

When I first visited with some friends, I immediately fell in love with the place. What you have here is three separate exhibits, each in its own hall:one full of scientific instruments (telescopes, clocks, geodesic and meteorological machinery, etc.); one dedicated to engines of all sorts from steam through petrol to an actual fighter jet engine; and one – which I find the most interesting – for household electronics from the 20th century.

Among other cool stuff, this last gallery holds part of an ancient, room-sized Ural 2 computer; the first Hungarian robot toy, a giant ladybug; and a Hungarian invention whose idea was not patented because of the inventor’s boss’ incompetence, got stolen and later became the 3.5 floppy disk. You’ll definitely want a tour guide to point out the special items for you.

It’s really poetic to see all these man-made items collected and displayed as if they were works of art or wonders of nature. It’s also a great way to build up geek cred.

Practical note as of now, it’s a bit hard to get an English-speaking guide to the exhibits. To arrange for one, you should call 3612044092 at least 3-4 days (or preferably a week) ahead.

P60 is an art gallery specializing in experimental art – including but not limited to Avantgarde, Dada, and especially the Fluxus movement and Mail Art. It’s the exhibition and performance venue of the Artpool Art Research Center, one of the world’s biggest collections of this type of material.

The gallery doesn’t have a permanent exhibition, so if you’re planning to visit, you should check the center’s website to see if there’s anything going on at the time.

There’s not much to say about this kind of art on a blog like this – you’re either interested in it, or you’re not and no amount of galleries is likely to change your mind. But if you are interested in it, then this is a place you want to see while in Budapest; and if you don’t know much about experimental art, you have nothing to lose: check online if there’s an exhibition, then come and see if you like it – entrance is always free.