Hungary celebrates Night of Museums event this weekend

Hungary will celebrate the Night of Museums on 25 June, with nearly 500 venues around the country participating and staying open for visitors from noon until early dawn.

Hungarian National Museum Budapest. Image by Top Budapest / CC BY 2.0

The theme for this year’s event, organised for the 13th time, is ‘Heroes, Explorers, Innovators’. The focus will be on the city of Kecskemét, the home town of Hungarian playwright and poet József Katona. Museum and gallery visitors will be able to take special guided tours with artists and learn about the roles of archaeologists, archivists or art restorers. As the event aims to educate and entertain at the same time, the programme includes not only exhibitions but also concerts, kids’ and gastronomy shows, and Midsummer’s Eve entertainment such as bonfires and jugglers.

House of Terror, Budapest. Image by Jessica Gardner / CC BY-SA 2.0

In the capital Budapest, more than two dozen museums have organised about 80 programmes. The Hungarian National Museum will host several exhibitions including ‘The Dance School a la ’50s’. The House of Terror will stage a special outdoor exhibition about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, as this year marks the 60th anniversary of the uprising. The historical Danubius Hotel Astoria will host an exhibition and ‘The Conquest in Gastronomy’ event.

Hungary’s second-largest city, often called the ‘Capital of the Eastern Plain’, Debrecen will host a special history class at the Déri Museum. In southern Transdanubia’s historic city of Pécs, an archaeological exhibition about the Roman era is on show at the Janus Pannonius Archaeology Museum.

At the hilltop Sümeg Castle near Lake Balaton, visitors will be able to take a guided tour by torch light and watch the bonfire celebration in the courtyard. The baroque and rococo Esterházy Palace in the small town of Fertőd will host an exhibition of architecture as well as a history-themed festival.