Vajdahunyad Castle (Vajdahunyad vara) is a fairytale castle in the City Park of Budapest, set on an island in the park lake near the Szechenyi Baths and Heroes' Square. Despite its medieval appearance, the castle is a deliberate architectural fantasy built at the end of the nineteenth century, combining copies of architectural elements from buildings across historic Hungary into a single picturesque composition that illustrates the development of Hungarian architecture across a thousand years. The castle was built for the great Hungarian Millennium Exhibition of 1896, which celebrated the thousandth anniversary of the Magyar conquest. It was designed by the architect Ignac Alpar, who conceived it as a three-dimensional survey of Hungarian architectural history, incorporating faithful copies and adaptations of the most significant historic buildings from across the lands of the historic Kingdom of Hungary. The original structure was built of temporary materials of wood and cardboard, but it proved so popular with the public that it was rebuilt in permanent stone and brick between 1904 and 1908. The castle combines four principal architectural styles in a single rambling complex. The Romanesque section is modelled on the medieval monastery church of Jak in western Hungary, with a faithful copy of its richly carved portal. The Gothic section reproduces elements of medieval castles and churches. The most prominent part, the Renaissance and Baroque wing, is modelled most famously on the Hunyad Castle (Vajdahunyad, now Hunedoara in Romania) of the great fifteenth-century Hungarian governor Janos Hunyadi, from which the whole complex takes its name. The varied turrets, towers, gateways and courtyards create a deliberately romantic and picturesque ensemble reflected in the waters of the park lake. The castle today houses the Hungarian Museum of Agriculture, the largest agricultural museum in Europe, with extensive displays on Hungarian farming, viticulture, hunting and rural life. In the courtyard stands the hooded bronze statue of "Anonymus", the anonymous medieval chronicler of the early Hungarian kings. The park lake in front of the castle is used for boating in summer and as a large open-air ice rink in winter. The castle grounds are freely accessible at all hours, and the museum is open Tuesday to Sunday.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Vajdahunyad var, Budapest, Hungary

Opening Date: 01/01/1908