Budapest's Finest 2019-2020 Winter by Budapest Brand Nonprofit Zrt.

MOME’S TRANSFORMED CAMPUS

ON ICE, ON THE WATER OR ON HORSEBACK

FOR THE LOVE OF COFFEE

WINTER | 2019-2020

THE FIVE STAR CITY GUIDE

THE CITY CENTRE REBORN

WINTER FAIR AT VÖRÖSMARTY SQUARE

F RE E P U B L I C AT I O N

SPA CITY BUDAPEST

Photo: © Brigitta Vajk

Photo: © Bence Járdány

INTRODUCTION

DEAR READERS, I frequently cite the words of the legendary actor Dezsô Garas, an honorary citizen of Budapest, and I am grateful to the residents of Budapest that as of 13 October I can also cite him in my new role as the mayor of this city. Dezsô Garas once said that he wished to live in a city where there were signs everywhere which declared that stepping on the grass is permitted. I love those words. I love them because they encapsulate the two most important things for me and I believe for Budapest's future as well. That this city, our shared home, should be green. And that Budapest should be free. As to what makes Budapest green, it requires commitment; you may even need to fight some battles, but most importantly, it necessitates smart decisions and thoughtful investments. That is how we can make Budapest the greenest and most livable city in East-Central Europe over the upcoming five years. But what would make Budapest free? The answer to that is not self-evident, because freedom is diverse and multifaceted. Freedom is faith and passion. Freedom is a combination of principles and beliefs. Freedom is culture. If we make the cause of freedom a real cause and a cohesive force for the community, then we can make Hungary's capital a place that does not have to choose between homeland and progress, nation and Europe, or order and freedom. If we are able to coordinate these perspectives, we can make Budapest a city worthy of its past and also comfortable with its future. This city welcomes with open arms all those who would admire its historical past, experience its pulsating present, and contribute to its livable future.

Gergely Karácsony Mayor of Budapest

DEAR GUESTS, The year 2019 was a good one for Budapest, as not only did it win the title of European Best Destination, but the London-based Time Out magazine included Béla Bartók Boulevard and its surroundings in its list of 50 places that everyone should see at least once. The Hungarian capital is not only popular in trade circles, but the statistics for the number of guest nights spent in commercial accommodation will exceed 8 million by the end of the year. In December, records may be broken as for months there has already been considerable international interest surrounding the Budapest Advent and Christmas Fair. This multifaceted market has been internationally recognised for many years as one of the continent's top 10 winter festivals. For eight weeks the Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre offers quality handicrafts, traditional Hungarian cuisine, and just as importantly: cultural and family activities. Budapest's stunning location, historical and built heritage, and sophisticated cuisine are all excellent attributes. Budapest’s Finest has selected a few from each of these categories to highlight in this issue. We present the new campus of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, which is not simply modern, but also adds more green space to the city, for the park on its campus is open to everyone. We reveal the craftsmanship of young creators, showcasing the significant added value of intellect and ingenuity. We also feature the opening of a new hotel situated in a historic building. Our spas also look forward to the busy months ahead, and we provide a panoramic overview of these famous locations in our magazine.

Teodóra Bán Director Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre

WINTER | 2019-2020

Spa City Budapest

CONTENTS Béla Bartók Boulevard 4 The artistic promenade of Buda 6

Spa City Budapest 14 Topping the thermal water list 16

Cultural Quarter

From a university into a knowledge park 24 The treasures of the Artaria Donation 30 Beethoven’s genius via Busan 33

City Guide

MOME’s new campus

38 Monastery Hotel

A spiritual connection - Monastery Hotel Budapest 38 Handmade watches by Áron Becsei 42 Sporting events for winter 45 A little glide of joy 48 Matyó embroideries in the 21st century 50 For the love of coffee 52 Kés - Villa - Buda 54 Invigorating drops of elixir – Opera gin 58 Vörösmarty Square reborn 62 Programme Corner 64

Budapest

42 Bexei:

handmade custom watches

On the cover: the Vörösmarty memorial designed by Ede Kallós and Ede Telcs. The contemporary protective structure built by Hello Wood, which fits visually with the square, was completed in November 2019 and shields the statue of this great poet from the elements, while keeping it easily viewable. (Photo: © István Práczky)

To see the location on the map, simply scan the QR code with your smartphone.

anno 1935

THE BEST DOBOS CAKE Szamos Gourmet House

SzamosGourmetHaz | www.szamos.hu | Tel.: +36 30 570 5973 Budapest, 5th district, Vรกci street 1. (Enterance: Deรกk Ferenc street 5.)

Photo: © István Práczky – budapestinfo.hu

Béla Bartók Boulevard The London-based Time Out magazine assembled a list of the 50 places around the world that everyone has to see at least once. What made this impressive list special was that it included Béla Bartók Boulevard and its surroundings in Buda. Through its galleries, bookshops and cafés this quarter presents the creative forces at work today and in the past. The area was already very popular in the 1920s, and the Hadik Coffee House, for example, was frequented by the greatest Hungarian writers of the time.

The Saint Emeric group of statues, which are the work of Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl, were erected at Móricz Zsigmond Circus in the 1930s

CATCHING THE EYE OF THE WORLD Text: Gerda Seres

Photo: © István Práczky – budapestinfo.hu

Béla Bartók Boulevard (Bartók Béla út in Hungarian) departs from St. Gellért Square, where the Gellért Hotel has stood for more than a hundred years. Built in the late art nouveau style, the hotel was operated by Károly Gundel (today known primarily for his restaurant in the City Park) from 1927 onwards.

BÉL A BARTÓK B OUL E VARD

A HOTEL AT THE STARTING LINE According to hotel lore, three of Gundel’s famous dishes were invented there: the delicious zander prepared Rothermere style, the so-called Bakonyi roast (with mushrooms) and his Pittsburgh veal ribs. Two pastry delicacies also became famous from the desserts that were conceived there: the Gellért Pudding with dried fruits soaked in alcohol and the Gellért Roll filled with a rum-sour cherry chocolate cream. But there are other interesting tidbits as well: this hotel was the first to offer a mini bar service in Hungary in its rooms, and it was also the first hotel in Hungary where foreign guests could pay with the currency of their own country. In the 1920s, largescale balls were held within its walls, and in later years it received notable guests such as Richard Nixon, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Arthur Rubinstein and Yehudi Menuhin, after whom one of the hotel’s rooms was named. The building was severely damaged during World War II and renovation works lasted until the

early 1960s, after which the four-star hotel was once again completely renewed in 1973. Inside, its art nouveau character is reinforced by the highglass dome and wrought-iron decorations, and the glass window depicting the Hungarian origin myth the Legend of the White Stag by the staircase leads to the upper floor and allows light to filter through. The spa is also dominated by art nou-

Photo: © Krisztián Bódis

veau mosaics and decorated glass windows. The fountain located in front of the building no longer releases healing waters but drinking water instead, so that passers-by can refill their bottles.

Béla Bartók Boulevard is the only shopping street in Buda, says Zsófia Faur, who relocated her gallery from Ráday Street in Pest to District XI. In 2013, together with the other galleries and merchants, she established the Cultural Eleven Association, which currently has almost 50 members, and in addition to economic interests, it includes local boosters who spend time and money on making Béla Bartók Boulevard a vibrant cultural centre. “In the early 2010s Béla Bartók Boulevard had a fairly sad appearance. The shopping mall for the area opened in 2009, and siphoned away customers and businesses. Those who walked along the stretch between St. Gellért Square and Móricz Zsigmond Circus encountered closed or empty stores. The aim was to give this 8

Photo: © Norbert Hartyanyi

A GALLERY IN PLACE OF A SHOE STORE

Photo: © Hartyanyi Norbert

Photo: © Attila Balázs

BÉL A BARTÓK B OUL E VARD

prestigious street a new life, primarily along cultural lines,” says Faur. She believes that the secret of their success is that they all plan for the long term and think about building a community and city. “We regularly organise festivals; two years ago we added the month-long Slow Christmas event during Advent to our series of spring and autumn programmes. During this period, you can walk beneath beautifully illuminated trees on the street, and see the special programmes in the shops and their special holiday offers.” Budapest's newest metro line 4, which began operating five years ago, runs beneath Béla Bartók Boulevard, and has stops at St. Gellert Square and Móricz Zsigmond Circus. It is worth alighting at the former, however, because although each of the stations is a masterpiece of contemporary architecture, one of the most spectacular is the stop at St. Gellért Square, which has almost three million glass mosaic tiles. The line’s architectural solutions won many international prizes, with the St. Gellért Square station winning recognition from the Architizer.com architectural portal and also from ArcDaily. 9

Photo: © István Práczky – budapestinfo.hu

SPIRITUAL AND CULINARY DELICACIES

Photo: © István Práczky – budapestinfo.hu

If we continue walking along Béla Bartók Boulevard from here, we immediately come across the Szeged Restaurant, which offers home-cooked Hungarian flavours such as fisherman’s soup, pork roast with garlic and tripe stew, with all of it accompanied by cosy gypsy music for guests who are primarily visitors from abroad. The row of galleries along the boulevard begins here: there is an exhibition space at number 1 which is mainly used for group art exhibitions, showing creations by artists working in various regions of the Carpathian Basin. On the opposite corner you will find the Proféta Gallery, where in addition

to the galleries they also organise film screenings and lectures. If you continue walking on this side of the road, you'll shortly come across a small antique shop, after which the smell of chocolate will tickle your nose. The Stühmer Confectionery and Café offers their own specially flavoured chocolates such as those stuffed with elderberry cream, along with cakes and fragrant coffees in a Viennese atmosphere with large glass windows. On the opposite side the extremely spectacular window display of the Pagony bookstore will catch our attention, which also sells toys in addition to children’s books. You can even pop in for a cup of coffee and there is a children's play area with colourful pencils, small cars and toy dolls for those kids who have grown tired of sightseeing. A vegan restaurant is located next door, and one of the most popular bistros in the area, the recently opened Bartók – Reggel.Délben.Este (“Morning. Noon.Night”) which opened in the spring, is located nearby. Depending on the time of day, you can go for a breakfast atmosphere or that of a pleasant tavern. The neighbouring building provides space to the K.A.S. Gallery, which hosts the works of contemporary young artists, boldly taking on the role of being the “discoverer gallery”. But there are more than exhibition spaces on Béla Bartók Boulevard, however, for you can also find designers and architectural studios that distribute the products of the creative industry. On the even-numbered side of the boulevard, the aim of the KÉK-Contemporary Architecture Centre is to make the contemporary issues surrounding architecture and urban development accessible to the wider public. It should come as no surprise

Photo: © István Práczky – budapestinfo.hu

BÉL A BARTÓK B OUL E VARD

and shakshuka, hosting cultural programmes in its basement such as solo guitar performances and family concerts. With 4.5 stars on TripAdvisor, the bistro has a bit of an old-timey eclectic vibe which evokes an afternoon spent at grandma’s.

ART & SCIENCE It is worth observing the seemingly similar, multi-story houses on Béla Bartók Boulevard, since the area has many residential buildings with a beautiful façade that are over a hundred years old, some of which have recently been beautifully restored. In addition to BÉLA, Hungarian contemporary art is popularised by the Zsófi Faur

Photo: © István Práczky – budapestinfo.hu

that the CAFe Contemporary Arts Festival held its press announcement here in 2019. Located at the corner of Orlay Street, the Godot Gallery offers renowned contemporary Hungarian creators exhibition space, and is situated on the floor above the Moha Café, which features a variety of vegetarian and gluten-free dishes. Walking along to number 15 you will find the family-run Pékmûhely Bakery, which with the exception of Sundays awaits locals and customers from the more distant parts of the city each day with its sourdough breads, classic chocolate and cinnamon spirals, walnut and cherry rolls and savoury pastries. At numbers 24-26 stands the former Hadik barracks which are now in a very poor state. From 1945 the building served as the headquarters for one of the divisions of the communist-controlled Ministry of Defence and had a secret prison in its basement. On the upper floor of the former Szent Imre College we can find the Chapel of St. Emeric, which was originally built for the spiritual care of university youth, which has its modern interior decorated with paintings by Ernô Jeges. The National Portrait Archive is located a few houses over, which alongside genealogical research seeks to gather and exhibit the lesser-known portraits of the Hungarian nation’s towering figures. Next to the Gárdonyi Square School, Pupi Cake offers sugar, lactose and gluten-free delicacies. BÉLA, whose name is an acronym of the Hungarian words for bar, restaurant, apartment, and arboretum recently opened near the yoga studio. Among others, it serves tapas, flatbreads

Photo: © BME.hu

Gallery, which has recently hosted exhibitions by many contemporary Hungarian photographers. Across the street you can find the Artphoto Gallery, which also features pictures by excellent Hungarian shutterbugs. Next door, the Palmetta Design Gallery sells clothes, jewellery and handbags by the finest Hungarian and foreign designers, as well as unique and small-scale furnishings. The Fári Antique Store in turn has a wide range of furniture, artefacts and paintings. If you turn left towards the Danube, you will reach the campus of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics within a few minutes. This engineer-training institution established in the 18th century has almost 24,000 students. The “K” i.e. central building was erected in 1909 according to the plans of Alajos Hauszmann. At the entrance of this, the university’s largest building, there are statues of four female figures representing the four technical sciences, which were restored 10 years ago on the basis of contemporary images. The statues were destroyed during the Second World War and it was said that foreign soldiers used them for target practice. What is in-

teresting is that the second floor of the building has had a theatre hall for decades, which has hosted a number of excellent alternative and experimental professional troupes. The B32 Gallery and Cultural Space opened five years ago and hosts theatrical performances and exhibitions. On the corner of Gárdonyi Square you will find the legendary Hadik Coffee House. When it first opened, it was frequented by the defining literary figures of the era, and hosted intellectual discourses and banter similar to that found in the art worlds of Paris and Berlin, but in a typically Central European fashion. It is said that the writer Frigyes Karinthy, known for his fanciful sense of humour, decided to measure the speed of how quickly a joke made it around Budapest. For the sake of this experiment, he told a joke he made up in the Hadik. One and a half hours later, he was told the same joke in the Centrál Café across the river in Pest. After a long period of neglect, during which time the café also served as a shoe store, the place reopened its doors in 2001, once again as a coffee house called the Hadik, but with an additional detached part that has a bohemian, slightly eclectic interior and a yellow Lada on the wall, known as the Szatyor Bar. Another café is located across Bartók Boulevard: the Kelet, which is loaded with bookshelves, offering a multitude of foreign magazines for both locals and tourists and a range of food on offer for special dietary requirements. As the wall plaque reveals: László Almásy, the Africa researcher, explorer and pilot whose story – with some Hollywood embellishments – was made world-famous by Ralph Fiennes more than 20 years ago in The English Patient, once lived in the building. An interesting side note is that the building also contains a functioning mosque. The inventor and mechanical engineer János Csonka started with a three-wheeled motorcycle, after which he played a role in the beginnings of

Photo: © István Práczky – budapestinfo.hu

BÉL A BARTÓK B OUL E VARD

A FAIRY-TALE WORLD INSIDE AND OUT On the other side of the street the à table! bakery, with several locations across Budapest, stands out from among the many restaurants and cafés. The bakery serves pastries made from French ingredients and brings a little bit of Paris to Budapest with its bistro offerings. You will find yourself in a special fairy-tale land by entering the tiny space of the Arnold Gross Gallery and Café, and while you wait for your coffee, you can take a look at the excellent Hungarian artwork and engravings

by its namesake artist who passed away a few years ago. The artist’s picture entitled Eszpresszó provided the inspiration for the interior, which evokes a world weaved through with wonder. The Bookline Bookstore is located on the other side of Béla Bartók Boulevard, where you can also enjoy a coffee. At Móricz Zsigmond Circus next to the famous author’s statue there is a bistro with a terrace. The building here, nicknamed The Mushroom due to its round shape, was erected in 1942 in a Bauhaus style and surrounds an embossed fountain. Neglected for a long time, it was renovated 10 years ago and given a new purpose. The stretch after the circus is also lined with restaurants and cafés all the way to Feneketlen (“Bottomless”) Lake, where you can enjoy a jogging track or outdoor sporting equipment. It is a delightful slice of nature in this urban environment, with ducks and turtles swimming in the water. In the distance stands a statue of the boulevard’s namesake: the composer Béla Bartók. Following this pleasant walk, you can relax on the park’s benches and enjoy a quiet view of the lake or watch the seagulls who’ve flown over from the Danube.

Photo: © István Práczky – budapestinfo.hu

the Hungarian automobile industry. A small museum plays tribute to him here on the boulevard. Next door to it you will find a magic shop where you can not only buy the magic accessories you like, but also learn a trick or two from the magicians who frequent it. The most likely to attract a technical audience is the Zipernowsky House of Sciences and Arts, which as a non-profit gallery organises exhibitions and programmes to support youth education in the natural sciences.

14 Photo: © Bujnovszky Tamás – BGYH.hu

Spa City Budapest Of the world's capital cities, Budapest possesses the most thermal baths and spas. The 120 springs located across the city release 70 million litres of special quality water per day that contains up to 5-6 thousand milligrams of minerals per litre. For comparison, at other popular European baths, this ratio ranges only between 1.5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2 thousand milligrams. Hungary is one of the top five countries in the world in terms of thermal waters. The quality of the water is outstanding, outdoing our western (e.g. Swiss) and northern (e.g. Icelandic) rivals. In Budapest, the medicinal water of the pools is not circulated, as is customary elsewhere, but is constantly replaced instead, so that the composition remains unchanged.

The renovated wing of the Rudas Thermal Bath preserves the domed shape that hearkens back to the Turkish era

TOPPING THE THERMAL WATER LIST Hot springs beneath our feet

Photo: © Bujnovszky Tamás – BGYH.hu

Text: Adrián Szász • Photos: BGYH.hu

This natural treasure was already utilised in ancient times: Aquincum, the Roman city that was located in the territory of Óbuda, was connected to thermal springs. The local bathing culture gained new momentum during the Turkish occupation in the 16th century, as the Turks built bathhouses one after another in Buda. Budapest has been a spa town for 85 years since 1934, with natural spring waters at temperatures between 21 and 78 degrees Celsius. “The fantastic quality of the water is nature’s gift to the city, and it is our duty to value this,” said László Szôke, the director of Budapest Gyógyfürdôi és Hévizei (BGYH) Zrt., which operates the spas. Various developments have been undertaken to make the baths even more attractive, which has transformed them from being one of the beneficiaries of Hungarian tourism to become one of its main drawing cards. Today, BGYH Zrt. operates 10 popular spas, a spring-fed yearround bath and two outdoor pool complexes, but according to their plans they would like to expand this number soon. 16

A desire exists to reopen the Rác Thermal Baths and plans are underway to open an outdoor pool complex and thermal bath in District VIII as well. According to the plans, the complex would become a major leisure and cultural centre on the site of the former Józsefváros railway station. “Bathing is a sensitive subject, for a person takes their clothes off and the condition of the interior spaces and the quality of the pools is quite important”, says Szôke, who since his university days has visited baths found around the world in his spare time. The comprehensive expansion of the Rudas Thermal

SPA CIT Y BUDAPE ST

Bath and Swimming Pool, located in the heart of the city next to the Buda bridgehead of the Elisabeth Bridge, commenced in 2013. The New York-based travel website Thrillist called it the world’s fourth most beautiful bath, and the view from its new rooftop panoramic pool has become a symbolic image of Budapest across the internet. “I've been to many baths so I am qualified to say that this pool provides the most beautiful city panorama in the world,” Szôke said. “You can see the city along the Danube from the Árpád Bridge

to the Rákóczi Bridge. Interestingly, this did not reduce but rather increased the popularity of the nearby Gellért Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool,” he says, adding that the Gellért itself will receive a facelift over the next few years. What is quite a rarity is for a tourist to find thermal baths, swimming pools and outdoor pool complexes in the downtown area of a metropolis. The art nouveau building that brings all of these functions together into one facility stands at

On the opposite page: The renovated Pesterzsébet Iodine-Salt Thermal and Open-Air Bath Above: One of the thermal pools at the Gellért Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool Below: The open-air bathing area of the Gellért Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool

Photo: © István Práczky – budapestinfo.hu

the foot of Gellért Hill, on the Buda side of the Liberty (formerly Francis Joseph) Bridge. The Gellért Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool operates a daytime medicinal spa with a variety of physical therapy and respiratory treatments. A hospital already stood at the location in the 13th century, and this site was later called the Sárosfürdô (“Muddy Bath”) by locals and travellers who enjoyed its silky mud and bathed in its waters. During the construction of the bridge (in 1894) the Sárosfürdô was demolished, and it was replaced by a stylish hotel and bath, according to the “Budapest spa town” concept. The first luxury facility in the capital opened in 1918 and was the most modern spa in Europe at the time.

Above: memorial plaques located in the park of the Lukács Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool, which were erected by patients thankful for their treatments

Below: The Széchenyi Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool’s VIP area was opened recently

Bottom: the Dandár Bath, which was expanded with an outdoor pool

A master miller from Óbuda used the water of the thermal springs at the foot of Szemlô Hill to build the precursor to the present-day Lukács Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool. Construction was completed in 1893 and until the opening of the Gellért, it was Budapest’s most modern and popular spa, as many patients arrived to the institution from abroad. Damage from the Second World War had been largely repaired, but in 2012 restoration and modernisation along with the addition of an adventure pool made the bath up-to-date. The water here is said to relieve pain from degenerative diseases of the joints, chronic and semiacute arthritis, spinal deformations, herniated discs, neuralgia, a deficiency of limestone in the bone system, and to boost recovery after injury. Since the mid-20th century it has also been a scene for social life and has been visited by celebrities and their friends such as Zoltán Kodály. The Széchenyi Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool located in the City Park is one of the largest bathing complexes in Europe. It also provides visitors with warmth during the winter cold with its water, which rises from a depth of more than 200 metres at 77°C, thus making it one of Europe’s hottest thermal springs. This treasure is crowned by the neo-Renaissance and Neoclassical architecture of the bath, which won the best international thermal spa prize in 2016 at the Medical Travel Awards hosted by the International Medical Travel Journal. The medicinal water rich with various minerals is extremely effective for the treatment of joint diseases and inflammations. Night-time spa parties attract young people on weekends, which are accompanied by a light show as DJs mix music. The recently established Private Spa area offers spa facilities in luxurious surroundings. The Dandár Bath in District IX, which has the same water quality as the Gellért, was renovated in 2015 and expanded with two outdoor pools.

SPA CIT Y BUDAPE ST

Turkish baths in Buda

From 1570 the Király Baths were located within the castle wall of the time, and it does not have its own hot spring, so that the thermal water was transported here from the nearby St. Lukács Baths via a pine tree canal. The Turks did not forego daily bathing – for religious reasons – even if there was a bloody struggle going on outside the castle wall. The bath was expanded in the 18th century by the namesake König family, who expanded it with classicist wings, and since renovation works following the World Wars it has four swimming pools, saunas and steam rooms. Today it is coeducational. The Veli Bej Bath was built 445 years ago on marshland, and therefore, like the buildings in Venice, the foundations were built on piles. At the beginning of the 19th century Count István Marczibányi purchased it, after a medical committee showed that the water had healing properties, and gifted it to the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God. They expanded it with new building wings and healing functions. Following their dissolution in 1950 by the communist authorities, it was returned to the order in 2010. The biggest Turkish bath in Budapest was renovated in 2012 under the leadership of the Ybl-winning architect Csaba Virág.

Photo: © István Práczky – budapestinfo.hu

The baths enjoyed their heyday during the Turkish occupation of Buda (1541-1686). The conquerors operated 7-9 baths, which included thermal and steam baths and hammams. It is from this era that the Rudas, Király, Rác and the Veli Bej Baths have survived. Half of the baths built in the 16th century operate according to their original function today, and the buildings are now listed. The Rudas is supplied by several nearby thermal springs, and its pool is octagonal, with eight pillars and a dome that is hemispherical. Since 1896, it has also had a swimming pool and has a sauna, steam rooms and spa services in addition to its thermal pools. Traditionally, Tuesday is ladies only, the other weekdays are for men, and from Friday afternoon through the weekend it is coeducational.

Photo: © giuliocrosara.it

The Széchenyi Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool seen above is one of Europe’s largest bathing complexes

Bottom left: the fairy-tale land that awaits children in the Csillaghegyi Árpád Baths and Swimming Pool

Bottom right: the Rác Bath awaiting further renovations

There was also an initiative to keep the outdoor pool complexes that have hot water open throughout the year. Consequently, the Paskál Thermal and Open-Air Bath in District XIV with spring waters that are 68-69°C was made winter-ready. Furthermore, the Palatinus Open-Air Baths on Margaret Island were recently almost completely reborn. Because of the excellent water from the St. Magda spring, the Palatinus also provides medical services. The renovated Dagály Baths also operate as a spa, and its water is provided by the Béke Well located on site. The original building was designed by

Lajos Darvas and József Körner, a disciple of famed architect and Olympic champion swimmer Alfréd Hajós. The new wing built in place of the old office building features a 290-square-metre wellness and 300-square-metre medical department for relaxation and healing. (For more details, see the Spring 2019 issue of Budapest’s Finest.) In 2018, the Csillaghegyi Árpád Baths and Swimming Pool were renovated and expanded (for more details, see the Summer 2019 issue of Budapest’s Finest). In 2019 the Pesterzsébet IodineSalt Thermal and Open-Air Bath reopened after 16 years following renovation works. According to plans something similar is expected

SPA CIT Y BUDAPE ST depth of 1,300-1,400 metres with a temperature of 70-72°C beneath the location, the composition of which is essentially the same as that found at the Széchenyi and Paskál. A ring-shaped bath and building with a courtyard open to the middle has been imagined for this nearly three-hectare area. They would also build a medical department, a year-round waterpark with outdoor and indoor pools, a children's area, saunas, steam rooms, a summer beach area, and hospitality areas. The planned investment holds promise because there have been no new baths or outdoor pools built in Budapest since the opening of the Paskál in 1989. But the demand for more exists. In 2010, less than 30% of the guests at Budapest's baths were foreign, but by the present this proportion has grown to 50 percent. More than 60 percent of foreign tourists arriving to Budapest visit a spa in the Hungarian capital, and they are now included among the top three tourist attractions in Budapest (the other two tend be the Parliament, the Citadella, Fishermen's Bastion, or the local culinary scene) A visitor, on average, will spend three nights here, and most of them visit the Széchenyi or the Gellért.

to happen with the Rác Thermal Baths, and the Király Baths located between Margaret Bridge and Batthyány Square will also be developed. The previously mentioned complex in District VIII can be justified by the fact that there is water at a

Entry to the St. Lukács Thermal Baths is free with the Budapest Card, and the card also provides a 20 percent discount to the Széchenyi Baths.

Photo: Â© ODPictures.hu

Cultural Quarter This year’s CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival was another rousing success. And although the finishing touches have still to be completed, tickets for the 40th Budapest Spring Festival are already available via the Budapest Spring Festival’s redesigned website. The Budapest Spring Festival is one of the city’s sources of pride, which the capital has supported for decades. Readers will be pleased to note that the South Korean-born virtuoso pianist Ji Yong Kim, who made his Spring Festival debut in 2019, will – within the framework of the festival – return in 2020 to the Liszt Academy of Music to perform works by Beethoven. Budapest has also been enriched with a newly renovated and expanded centre of higher education. The campus of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design has become a communicative and inspirational space not only for its students, but its parks are also open to both locals and tourists looking for a place to relax. The development plan for the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design outlined an open, transparent and collaborative university. What was accomplished is more than a university, however the renewed campus provides an open, communicative and inspiring framework to prepare students entering the profession

FROM A UNIVERSITY INTO A KNOWLEDGE PARK The new campus of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Text: Eszter Götz

Photo: © Tamás Bujnovszky – MOME.hu

Since 1954 the citadel of Hungarian industrial arts and design education has operated in a building which, in its own era, was a prototype of Hungarian socialist realist architecture, but which today is thought of only by those involved with architectural history.

CULTUR AL QUARTER

A NEW STRUCTURAL LAYOUT

Photo: © Tamás Bujnovszky – MOME.hu

The three major units of the development – the Knowledge Centre, which combines DLA education with corporate cooperation, the academy part consisting of undergraduate and graduate education, and the Technology Park, which hosts

Photo: © Tamás Bujnovszky – MOME.hu

Located in the Buda Hills on Zugligeti Road, this school with a majestic staircase, vaulted pillars, and a main entrance crowned by a graciously proportioned tympanum, with three arched openings at the bottom, resembles a classicist country mansion instead of an educational institution. The university outgrew the location decades ago, and although enlargement and the developments required by the needs of artistic education has been constantly on the agenda, it was only in the mid-2010s that it became possible to enact all of the changes that were necessary for the school and which had occurred in the applied arts worldwide. Following the completion of the new campus in 2019 for the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) László Moholy-Nagy's intellect will no longer only be represented by art education and collaboration between the artistic branches. The institution’s development plan outlined an open, transparent and collaborative university: the type of school in which the individual departments, institutes and activities do not operate in a segregated manner, but together, observing and helping each other; where learning is not done in classrooms behind closed doors, but also in open workshops and studios, thereby making creation itself transparent.

Photo: © ODPictures.hu

robust material evokes permanence, while the MOME Base’s glass box, which has illuminated white bands and is located in the rear of the property, appears to almost float, thus presenting the exact opposite. The central aula, which leads directly underground from the entrance, is an exciting cave-like structure, but from the park it appears as a transparent recessed space covered with a gentle slope. The complex’s structure clearly outlines the foundational principles, however. The former main building was clearly the school’s “face”, and the rest on the site complemented it each in their own way. This has now radically changed: new buildings are located along a main axis or are located

Photo: © ODPictures.hu

various workshops – serve different functions. As such, the individual buildings have been shaped by different perspectives. The overarching principles did not force a uniformity onto the architecture. Each building offers a different experience in terms of materials, layout and variations between solid and airy characteristics. The Technology Park’s two blocks, which make up the Workshop Building and the Media and Studio Building, have almost burnt black brick walls that evoke the wildness of volcanic rocks, while the twin-glass façade of the Knowledge Centre has transparent bands that surround the building with an effortless and dynamic rhythm. The converted main building’s

Photo: © ODPictures.hu

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in parallel to this. In other words, the central spatial structure has been replaced by a continuous and branching dual row of spaces, which, instead of centralisation, promotes multi-directional communication through its design.

ACCESSIBLE TO ANYONE

Photo: © Tamás Bujnovszky – MOME.hu

Openness and dialogue are such strong elements that the campus is not even surrounded by a fence, as anyone can wander around it as if they were in a public park. The buildings at the two ends almost float with their transparent and airy glass surfaces, with the rugged, snow-white body of the main building as their link. Behind them

the dark tones of the Workshop Building and the Studio and Media Building contrast starkly with the light-filled buildings on the axis. László Moholy-Nagy’s light-minded concept of art is brought to life in a complex way – in part as a result of conscious planning and in part owing to the development’s guiding principles. The guiding idea behind it is that light is the main factor in the depiction; the light effects present the relationship between the masses, its distance, the time elapsed during contemplation, the ratio of the solid and perforated surfaces, the saturation of the colours — that is, all aspects of the visible world. The asymmetrical layout of the Knowledge Centre outwardly reveals two façade layers: the

Photo: © ODPictures.hu

inner layer of glass would be completely transparent, but the outer shell, composed of thick glass bands in front of it, shields and partially protects the privacy of the interior. Consequently, only movement can be seen from the activities going on in the interconnected, transparent community spaces, co-working offices and semi-enclosed meeting rooms.

Photo: © Tamás Bujnovszky – MOME.hu

The heart of the university is a concealed underground aula beneath the arch of a curved rim, which opens into a funnel-shaped entrance, framed on one side by frosted glass, and on the other by visible concrete sidewalls. Via a gentle

slope we reach the vast, undivided space, which is only articulated by slender pillars: the event hall, which can accommodate up to 450 people, is the largest contiguous space at the university. The main axis of the complex continues further towards the former main building, which became the centre for graduate studies. The interior space that once consisted of dim, small seminar halls accessible from long and narrow corridors, was expanded as widely as possible with improved lighting. Thanks to the exterior excavation on both sides of the building, the lowest levels also receive natural light. On the upper floors flexible workspaces were created in a spacious hall, as modelling workshops and projection rooms with large windows overlook the park, with glass panes that allow observations from one level to another.

SPATIAL EXPERIENCES AND FREEDOM At the northern end of the site, the MOME Base, which is the undergraduate epicentre, can be reached from the main building through a hall recessed into the ground or through the park. The building located here was demolished and replaced by a modern and even innovative structure: the roof holds cantilevered beams, from which the snow-white lesenes hang in front of the glass façade, ending above the ground floor. This way the dark glass façade at the bottom allows light to completely pass through, while the snow-white plastered bands and the glass surface behind them mimics a dense forest, so that the black-and-white contrast increases the apparent depth between the two planes and makes them appear plastic-like. Inside the stepped atrium space, each level is transparent with one another, but only in the direction of the

Photo: © ODPictures.hu

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The dark, burnt brick façades of the two buildings of the Technology Park are a strong contrast from the light exposed concrete canopies and parapets, as well as the bridge linking the two blocks made from the same material. The ground-floor glass bands and the vertical window openings of the Workshop Building communicate less with the outside world, rather supplying the light needs of the work underway indoors. The longitudinal façade of the Studio and Media Building separates the two functions of the building in a clear-cut manner: While the studio wing features window openings, the media section is completely closed. Smoothed concrete reigns in both buildings, everything receives natural light, in the unadorned environment the unvarnished wood of the installed furniture, the slim metal railings of the staircase and the materials of the individual workshops dominate. This is complemented by a huge panoramic terrace at the top of the Workshop Building. In 2012 MOME was listed among the 100 best design and artistic institutions in Europe. With the

development now completed, it has become more than a university: the renewed campus provides an open, communicative and inspiring framework to prepare students entering the profession, with inspiring spatial experiences and an architectural expression of freedom and cooperation.

Photo: © ODPictures.hu

communal spaces; the fields of learning, lectures and work remain private.

THE TREASURES OF THE ARTARIA DONATION

Exciting old and new works of art in Buda Castle Text: Györgyi Orbán • Picture reproductions: MNG.hu

Those who visit the Hungarian National Gallery, especially the International Art after 1800 collection, which was transferred from the Museum of Fine Arts to the Castle, will discover the works of renowned artists such as Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, along with Austrian, German, Belgian and Scandinavian painters such as Franz von Lenbach, Wilhelm Leibl, Constantin Meunier and Akseli Gallen-Kallela. In the space between the 19th and 20th century works, a cabinet for temporary chamber exhibitions has been assembled, which are always somehow tied to the collection.

On this occasion, the chamber exhibition in the international collection is entitled Positions in Painting within the Artaria Donation, which has been open from the first week of October. Artaria was founded in the 1990s by the internationally renowned art historian István Lóránd together with contemporary artists such as Ákos Birkás, László Fehér, István Nádler, András Koncz and Sándor Pinczehelyi. The approximately 60 works of art have been in storage until now, and a small exhibition from this collection is on display in the cabinet, curator Dávid Fehér told Budapest’s Fin30

est. The main wall features the great paper craft by the Italian artist Ernesto Tatafiore, who lives in Naples. This work is linked to Neapolitan, and in a broader sense, European culture and promotes the liveliness of the past and the beauty of life. The work by the prominent Austrian artist Alois Mosbacher can be tied to the New Painting movement from the 1980s. The French artist Noel Dolla’s smoke stain triptych, Czech-Canadian artist Joseph Drapell’s abstract work, and Austrian painter Jakob Gasteiger’s monochrome black tableau can all be seen in the chamber exhibition. When assembling the selection of works from the international collection that spanned nearly two centuries (including contemporary works), it was an important perspective to ensure that the exhibit included, in addition to wellknown masterpieces, a number of novelties, or works that had never or had rarely been exhibited. The rooms that present 19th century art provide an overview from the late romantic period to the era of symbolism. The exhibition begins with a section entitled Vienna-Budapest featuring rare works from circa 1850 and several stronger pieces from the Biedermeier collection, including works by Friedrich von Amerling, Carl Rahl and Hans Gasser, as well as Gasser’s marble bust of the painter Károly Markó Sr.

CULTUR AL QUARTER Dávid Fehér showed that, in the remaining part of the room, the section entitled Lights of the South features Oriental and Italian works, including Eugène Delacroix’s Moroccan Market and Camille Corot’s Italian Landscape. In the room named Realist Tendencies the painting The Wrestlers by Gustave Courbet is the centrepiece. In addition to the French artists Thomas Couture, Charles Jacque and Alexandre Falguière, visitors can also take in the works of German painters, including Wilhelm Leibl and Adolph Menzel, as well as see the work Sewing Woman by the Dutch painter Albert Neuhuys, which has not been included in the permanent exhibition. The third room, which bears the title of Impressionism, presents Impressionism and Postimpressionism. The room introduces the museum's newest acquisition, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Reclining Nude. Additionally, the room features Camille Pissarro’s The Pont Neuf, Paul Cézanne’s still life The Buffet, Claude Monet’s Plum Trees in Blossom, and Paul Gauguin's The Black Pigs, all of which illustrate the style of the era. In the fourth room, the turn of the 20th century can be seen under the title Symbolism / Vision and Evocation. Here guests can become familiar with the era through the works of the Frenchmen Auguste Rodin and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, the German Franz von Stuck, the Italian Giovanni Segantini, the Belgians Fernand Khnoppf and George Minne, the Swiss Arnold Böcklin and the Finn Akseli Gallen-Kallela. This exhibition also provides space for a painting by the Australian Rupert Bunny, which has rarely been part of the permanent exhibition. In this room the focus is on depictions of the human soul and body. Fehér highlighted that some of the important international trends of the previous decades are presented in seven sections. One section focuses on the ZERO group. This group was established in Düsseldorf in 1957 to provide contemporary creators with a fresh start. Poetical Line made by Günther Uecker with nails can be seen, while Heinz Mack and Adolf Luther’s works are like a visual poetry, which are complemented by Josef Albers’s work Light Grey Wall. Special sections deal with conceptual and post-conceptual artistic positions, such as those by the SerbianFrench Braco Dimitrijevic̀, the Austrian Erwin Wurm, the Italian Michelangelo Pistoletto, the American artist Alan Sonfist, and the French artist couple Anne and Patrick Poirier, as well as the Hungarian-émigré László Lakner, whose work Mao Bible will be on display from the book objects he produced in the 1980s. Works by the Hungarian-French Victor Vasarely, Americans Peter Halley and Kenneth Noland,

and the French Bertrand Lavier explore the relationship between abstraction and technology. The texture of the works, and occasionally how the relationship between the text and the image are thematised by the abstract works is explored by the Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies’s burnt

moulded-clay piece Gothic Box, as do the works of the Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida and the German painter Emil Schumacher. The quasi-landscape by the Hungarian-French painter Judit Reigl was inspired by the music of Beethoven and Bach. A special emphasis will be placed on the works of the Hungarian-French artist Simon Hantai, which recently arrived to the collection as a donation by the artist's family. These are his own small-scale experimental pieces, made with pliage, that is a folded technique, and also on display will be E.L.K. by the German artist Georg Baselitz, which is the artist's contribution to the exhibition and represents expressive figurative painting.

significant contemporary works through purchases and donations. The collection’s presentation was made breezy and relaxed, and they strove to present the stylistic and thematic connections between the works of art. Objects can be viewed non-sequentially in any preferred order. This exhibition shows 80 works from the 2,300 available in the international collection. Some pieces will periodically be rotated, and the cabinet exhibition will always be changed in intervals of 3-6 months in connection to one of the pieces in the collection.

In order to attract younger audiences, pop art works will also be showcased. These works have never been exhibited before, including Nifo by one of the major representatives of British pop art, Derek Boshier. The work by Erró references Icelandic comic books, and there is also a screen print by the American artist Frank Stella. Dávid Fehér added that over the previous decades the international collection has been enriched by 32

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Photo: ÂŠ jidreams.com

FROM BUSAN TO BUDAPEST

Piano Phenom Ji Returns to the Budapest Spring Festival in 2020 Text: Judit PetrĂĄnyi

Following his hugely successful Budapest debut in 2019, the world-famous pianist who simply calls himself Ji will be a guest of the 40th Budapest Spring Festival in April 2020. The Boston-based South Korean artist is enthusiastically preparing for his return. 33

Photo: © Dávid Huszár

In 2019 the topic was Bach and the daunting task of performing the Goldberg Variations

“I was very happy to perform Bach’s Goldberg Variations to a particularly appreciative audience in Budapest’s Liszt Academy. It is always a transcendental experience for me to play the Goldberg variations, but in that beautiful Great Hall it was especially so.” What else does he remember? He mentions the Buda Castle, the Danube with its bridges and a delicious gulyás soup. “I had a great time. What I saw of the city last year was so beautiful, but I did not have the time to discover the details. I certainly will on this occasion when I plan to stick around for a little while longer.” Ji has not performed the Goldberg Variations since. This is surprising because he caused quite a stir when Warner Classic signed the young pianist – then 24 – to an exclusive contract to record that particular work. “I haven’t been working on it, but I think about it constantly.The older I get, the more I feel it to be a daunting work to approach. I am sure when I revisit the piece, it will be a whole new experience and I will learn about it a lot more. It will also be a frustrating, telling myself why didn’t I think of this or that before. I’m sure I will work on it a lot before the next time I perform it.” Surprising thoughts about an album that has received unanimous acclaim from audiences and critics alike. The success of the Goldberg Variations was not Ji’s first major achievement. At the age of 10, he was the youngest pianist ever to win the New York Philharmonic’s Young Artists Competition. Part of his award was to perform with the orchestra under the baton of Kurt Masur. After that Ji travelled the world, performing with the most famous orchestras and chalking up one success after another. He was 24 when he rendered an astonishing two-piano performance of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata in a commercial at the Grammy Awards Ceremony that prompted People magazine to write that he was “the real star of the Grammys”. Owing to the television broadcast, his name was 34

instantly learned by millions who had probably never attended a Beethoven concert and maybe never will, or who knows? In retrospect how does he feel about all this? Does he think of his early successes as a blessing or a setback? have they made it easier (because he no longer has to prove himself) or more difficult (because he now faces higher expectations) to go on as an adult artist? Ji says the most important gain was that he learned to navigate the music business at an early age. That proved to be helpful. Also that he would be lying if he said those early successes did not affect him in any way. “But I don’t really think in terms of proving myself. I like to prove to myself that I can constantly grow. So that is not something I worry about. I am just trying to give myself as I am.” As he is today. Because there is no doubt that he has changed. In his earlier photos, we see a youth who wears his hair short and occasionally dyed, has a tattoo on his forearm and wears ripped jeans. He appears more like a cool pop star or famous football player than a classical pianist. In today’s photos there is almost nothing of this. Was that previous image a publicity stunt and has it been perhaps a conscious decision to change his public appearance? No, he says, he simply grew up. And there were no marketing considerations in his earlier image. “That’s how I was, that’s how I felt comfortable at the time, that's all.” To this day he does not like putting on a tux, when he does, he says, it’s not like being himself, but he does not dress like a pop star either. Besides, he does not share the view that classical music should be made more attractive for a wider audience with the help a flashy presentation, show elements, or other tricks. “People should be enticed to appreciate and enjoy the music not the spectacle. And the best publicity is the most honest and true to yourself presentation. To use the music to connect with

CULTUR AL QUARTER 18, I actually rebelled, and began looking for what was missing in things beyond music. In fact, I was actually missing myself, trying to find myself and trying to find what could make sense of life. And even today when I don’t have regrets, looking back, I still say I wish I had done something else, something different there and then. It is all there in the Moonlight Sonata." And than we go to the Tempest. “That sonata reminds me of the past five years of my life. It is a kind of self-reconciliation through the drama. You grow up and realize how you lived your life so far. Because it was a pretty challenging time. Trying to navigate, to decide what to do next. Nobody tells you this. I mean they tell you all the time, but the decision is yours. By the time you are 28, you realize it is too late, something you dont realize until then. So that’s how I felt. Searching and getting angry at myself. But the storm calms down and in these joyful and yet sorrowful and peaceful moments, you let it all go and make peace with yourself.” The Eroica Variations is where he is now. “This is a happy piece. I feel I am really going back to the roots, the fundamental things, the core values. Refamiliarizing myself with the tradition of classical music. I am in a lot more academic mindset now and that piece makes me think quite different from how I normally think. It feels very organized, very steady as I, too, feel much more grounded, much more balanced than in the previous periods.” Ji says he owes this new state of mind to a great extent to his new mentor, Professor Wha Kyung Byun, one of the most successful Photo: © Dávid Huszár

people” He feels the industry is too concerned about “selling the product”, but fortunately, he adds, it’s not his job to share their concern. At the upcoming Budapest Spring Festival, where Ji is to perform sonatas by Beethoven, there will be another, rather different Beethoven sonata concert by the excellent Hungarian jazz trio of Peter Sárik who will play their own version of the famous. works, including the Moonlight Sonata, which will also feature in Ji's programme. I asked the South Korean pianist to listen to the Hungarian trio on YouTube, which he did. “It’s obvious that the three musicians tremendously enjoy and believe in what they are doing. They radiate happiness, joy and a lot of passion. But it is not my thing, not up my alley, so to speak. I will just stick to my own Beethoven.” Well, I suppose that’s exactly how we love our multi coloured world. Speaking of our world, Ji who is now preparing to visit Budapest in April and is now living in Boston, was born many thousands of kilometres away in a town called Busan. South Korea's second largest city is a giant sea port and a prominent tourist destination. Strange as it may be in this globalized and electronically connected world, one has good reason to wonder how many people in this part of the world have ever heard about it. And would you have guessed that in this Asian metropolis so little known to us the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra played a cycle of nine Beethoven concerts in 2019. And as you can read on their website, this was their 555th subscription concert series. But back to Ji. “Busan is culturally vibrant with a lively concert scene. Classical music draws significant audiences; Beethoven is well known and appreciated. That was not always the case. „When I was a, child and was taught his pieces by my mother who was a piano teacher, not much Beethoven could be heard in the city. But eventually the music of the genius from Bonn has found a home in Busan as well. That's why we'd like to give the Budapest concert a kind of subtitle that would refer to this. Something like Bonn in Busan, or Beethoven from Busan, or perhaps Bonn-Busan-Budapest, even if that leaves concert audiences in Europe confused and wondering what these words could possibly mean?” Ji's concert in Budapest will feature some of Beethoven’s most famous and popular solo piano pieces. The Moonlight Sonata, The Tempest Sonata and The Eroica Variations. Why? Ji says, it is just as true for classical music as it is for pop that whenever there is something that you really identify with, you will want to listen to it day in day out. Because it is touching you. It is connecting with you whatever you are going through at that moment in time. “Beethoven to me is like that with anything I play by him. There is something about him that gets you, he understands you. He understands my joys, my sorrows, my experiences. He directly speaks to me, most directly out of all composers. Something just clicks, something just makes sense. And it feels like he had been through everything that I have been through.” And that’s how the concert program began to take shape very naturally, as i fon its own free will. Those pieces offered themselves that were somehow related to the life and fundamental experiences of the performer. What those experiences are though might be surprising. For Ji, the Moonlight Sonata is about a feeling of want, a feverish search. “There was this lack of whatever it is that I could have experienced and didn't when I was touring the world, gave one concert after the other, did not go to school the way others did, had no friends. It was difficult to grow up. But I suppose growing up is always difficult. When I turned

music teachers in America today. He moved to Boston to be able to work with her that he plans to do over the next few years. “With her help, I approach a lot of things from a different perspective. And as I return to my roots, I become more focused, spiritually and emotionally more stable, and calmer. That's what this year is about, and that's exactly what the Eroica Variations tell me.” Now, Ji is also convinced that in a lifetime of successes and failures, joys and sorrows, we all experience those basic emotions and states of mind. Everyone In their own way, in their own life circumstances and experiences. So the young South Korean pianist is all set to share a very personal, and yet general, human experience on 13 April 2020 in the Liszt Academy of Music. “It would be nice to be able to speak to the audience the way Beethoven speaks to me.” btf.hu

36 Photo: ÂŠ Monastery Hotel

City Guide Crafts and innovation in place of mass production. Ideas accomplished through intellectual merit that reveal personality as well. Dresses for everyday life made in small batches and decorated with traditional embroidery, using a centuries-old treasure chest of designs. Watches made over the span of a year in which every small part was handcrafted by its maker. New-wave coffee that is brewed practically scientifically and slowly so that every molecule of its enticing aroma is released. An association of restaurants in Buda, whose members have come together to serve characteristically Hungarian food to locals and tourists, with a guarantee of quality, all in a suitable environment. All of this ingenuity is worth becoming acquainted with.

The Monastery Hotel: the spectacle blends with its historical surroundings. Guests who enter will experience the atmosphere of an old monastery transcribed by contemporary architecture

A SPIRITUAL CONNECTION Monastery Boutique Hotel – Budapest Text: Eszter Götz • Photos: Márk Korecz / Monastery Boutique Hotel

The Monastery Hotel opened its doors a street over from the Danube riverbank, in the immediate vicinity of a Baroque church. From the outside, the site blends with its historical surroundings, and the guests who enter can experience the atmosphere of an old monastery updated with contemporary architecture.

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Fô Street, which runs parallel to the Danube River at the foot of Castle Hill, is one of Buda's most beautiful streets. It served a prominent role already during Roman times, for it was the military road that ran north to the city of Aquincum. In the Middle Ages, the nearby port on the Danube attracted merchants and craftsmen, as churches and residential buildings were constructed here, and following the arrival of the Turkish invaders, so did the baths that used the springs located across Buda. In 1688 the 14th century church standing in the middle of the street came into the ownership of the Capuchins, who are an offshoot of the Franciscans, and a few decades later a monastery was added to it. Both buildings were levelled during the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence, and the reconstruction of both buildings was planned by the architect Frederick Feszl, whose best-known work is the magnificent palace on the Pest-side waterfront, the Vigadó Concert Hall. The world-famous virtuoso pianist and composer Ferenc Liszt came into contact with the Capuchins through the Church Music Association of Buda. On Fridays he ate lunch there, which was usually cod, and then he played billiards to relax or walked with the monks in the monastery garden (source: Ágnes Watzatka, Budapesti séták Liszt Ferenccel). The historicist character of the Capuchin monastery was modified by Feszl to reflect the romantic tastes that were fashionable in the era. After the Second World War the monastery became the property of the state, and from the 1950s it operated as a school, only being returned to the Church following the system change. Capuchin monks once again reside in the building, and the church belongs to them as well, but the former convent building has proven too big for the dozen or so monks living there. Therefore, they looked for a long-term

tenant, who would respect the order’s quiet life detached from the world, while at the same time providing a rental fee to maintain the building complex. The solution that ticked all the boxes was provided by a Hungarian-owned hotel chain, and in 2019 the monastery's southern and eastern wings opened as the Monastery Hotel with 47 rooms. Converting it into a hotel came with significant expenses: in part due to the well-preserved protected details, the need to preserve the spirit of the place, and last but not least to ensure the continued smooth operation of the order in the opposite part of the building, which did not allow for radical reconstruction. Therefore, the owner of the hotel and the architects devised a minimal plan, and thanks to this a special atmosphere and unique place, in which spirituality, the building’s historical character and the comfort of the guests are in perfect harmony with each other. The historical atmosphere permeates the building inside and out. On the outer façade, only the borderless glass-door entrance and golden logo indicate that the building does not perform religious functions. Instead of the former main entrance that dominated the middle of the symmetrical street façade, a gate was opened to the south, which put it in line with the main staircase. Inside, the reception and bar are in a shared space, and this is the hotel’s only larger communal area which acts as the boundary between the traffic outside and the restful existence inside; the place for arriving and departing. The preservation of the original stone wall sections did not allow for more – and larger – contiguous spaces, so the breakfast room was placed in the inner courtyard, in an uncluttered glass box, which with its neutral appearance emphasises the preserved 39

original courtyard stone walls, and in addition to the glass box, preserves the monastery character with its fine garden. A restaurant operates on the ground floor behind the street faĂ§ade with its own entrance to also serve the wider public. The kitchen is located between the inner courtyard and the restaurant, so that neither the entrance nor the hotelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s corridors are disturbed by its operations. On the upper floors, the usual emphasis found in city centre boutique hotels is reversed: the main roles go to the vaulted, spacious corridors, the thick, snow-white plastered walls, the dark-stained wooden room entryways and the two red marble main stairways. The rooms are simple, comfortable and the restrained furnishings are less spectacular. Very few rooms are identical, and in addition to their comfort and extraordinarily refined colour palettes, the high ceilings are what make them special. It is an exceptional experience to go from the cloisters of the monastery and enter into the elegant yet solid and cosy rooms, which are perfectly suited to the quality of fourstar hotels. In the former school's ceremonial hall, a suite was created, but the minimalist style was continued here as well. The corridors and rooms are decorated with archival cityscapes, and on the ground floor we can see a photograph of a Capuchin ordination from 1928. In many places, including the glass wall of the shower, the restaurant and even the im40

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posing chandelier of the foyer, the stylised floral motif of the logo is highlighted, which is the international symbol for the Capuchin order. The main ornaments of the corridors are the Baroque window frames and marble surfaces (on the upper floor there is a small marble-lined nook) and above all the view, which together with the breakfast room looks onto the upper courtyard planted with dense seemingly-Mediterranean vegetation. The monks live in the opposite wing, and they contribute to the harmony with their spirituality. The parking spaces assigned to the room numbers are available in the outside courtyard, so that the cars will not disturb the inward calm of the building. The Monastery Hotel has brought something new to the hospitality spectrum of Budapest: by maintaining the atmosphere of the sacred building complex, it embodies tolerance, a relaxed atmosphere of coexistence, and an intimate serenity that blends the timeless, spiritual world of the rest of the building with an openness to the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experiences. monasterybudapest.accenthotels.com

MEASURING TIME WITH PRECISION AND BEAUTY Wonderful handmade watches by Áron Becsei Text: Adrián Szász • Photos: Bexei Watches, Dániel Gyana

There is a young man in Budapest who builds completely unique watches, seemingly out of nothing. He designs and develops the parts from scratch, frequently fashioning the machines and tools he needs himself. Áron Becsei was born into a family with a history of working with clocks, but his grandfather and father who worked in clock repair and restoration had no idea that the boy would take the family tradition in such a special direction. For each variety of Bexei watches he makes only unique pieces, so that in total not even 20 are ticking around the world. There are even cases where he has spent a year and a half working on a single watch. 42

CIT Y GUIDE Becsei just recently returned from an exhibition in Singapore, where independent watchmakers presented their latest works. He took a Grande Sonnerie wristwatch with himself, equipped with a minute striking mechanism, the manufacturing of which was a year and a half-long project. But he is just as proud of his first desk clock that he made for himself in 2003. Years earlier, Becsei had been looking at clocks in a Viennese museum with his father when he saw a miniature pendulum clock (Zappler in German). He learned that in the past, clockmakers competed to see who could create the smallest clock. Becsei entered himself into this historic competition as a contemporary professional. He came up with every fine detail, even the winding key was engraved with decorations. Since then, no one has produced a structure smaller than a 1-euro coin. Becsei has also made a watch with a perpetual calendar system, and the first milestone in his career was a triple-axis tourbillon watch, the first of its kind made in a Hungarian workshop. In 2008, Becsei became a member of the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI, “Academy of Independent Creators in Watchmaking”) since this watch caught the attention of the international trade. “Others start with simpler watches to then make more complicated ones over time, but I showed nearly all that I was capable of from practically the beginning,” he says. “Upon seeing the clock, the constructors for the world's largest brands expressed their appreciation and accepted me among themselves.”

Áron Becsei already learned a lot as a child in his father and grandfather’s workshops, but as a high schooler he still prepared to be a programmer. Although he learned “official” watchmaking, he became more and more interested with fine mechanics and design. Becsei graduated from university with a degree in mechanical engineering, then worked alongside his father and began to realise his own ideas, with the goal of creating top-quality watches on his own. Becsei immediately considered the upper segment of the profession and founded the Bexei brand based on the foreign pronunciation of his last name. “Taking the whole world into consideration, few people, perhaps 10, can develop their own clock structures. Even large companies tend to buy mass-produced structures from manufacturers,” he explains. “At first, I believed it was a disadvantage to not be able to buy parts from Switzerland,

but in the long run it became an advantage because I was forced to develop technologies myself, including my own machines. I love experimenting and approaching issues in my profession from a new perspective. It's the impossible-looking tasks that make me excited.” Today Becsei also has employees who have taken over certain stages of the work from him, so that he is not limited to producing only one watch per year in his workshop, but can produce at least three or five. The preparation of a watch is preceded by precise planning, during which not only are the customer's needs taken into account by the watchmaker, but they practically dream up the final result together. He also uses three-dimensional modelling, but the final design may change ever so slightly if the customer wishes it. “My specialty is customisation,” Becsei says. “I have yet to make two identical watches. My customers are typically collectors, who are almost experts themselves. I keep them informed of my progress, and they really like to follow the process. Since these are long-term projects, we develop a friendly relationship. I don't have stock, and it’s the owners who take the finished watches to exhibitions, because they are proud that their watch is presented at an international show.” Becsei’s customers are primarily businessmen who know each other, because the collectors of unique watches share their experiences and new acquisitions in small groups. Becsei has basic models with a list price, the prices of which change according to their level of customisation. In this genre, virtually every watch is a prototype: it always has a new element. “The goal is to do as many things as possible in-house so that I can be flexible in customisation,” he says. “I’ve managed to achieve this, for there are only a few parts – such as springs or ruby stones – which due to their nature are not made in-house, but everything else is my work, which gives me the freedom to design. The end result reflects a shared taste. For example, if the clock is designed for the Asian market, it will probably be more ornate, but if the buyer is European, then it will be more minimalist.” Compared to the popularity of larger watches in recent times, smaller ones are starting to become fashionable once again, like they were in the 1960s and 70s. Becsei would also love to make one for himself, too, but whenever he starts, a customer comes into the picture who obviously takes priority over him. He has considered creating a smaller series that reflects his tastes so that he can serve those interested parties who do not wish to wait a year to add a new piece to their collections. Creating a simpler Bexei watch requires about 2,000 actions, with precision of up to a thousandth of a millimetre, and prices start at = C 60,000. They have a complex approach, since their functionality cannot be sacrificed for the sake of design. Becsei is a pioneer in Hungary and is currently the only independent watchmaker in the country. He enjoys a good relationship with his foreign colleagues, and like everyone else, he has workshop secrets, just as the major high-end companies do. The watches are prepared with infinite patience, thoroughness and perseverance in the Becsei workshop. If something does not go perfectly the first 10 times, then he will keep trying, because quality is more important above all else. “My goal is for my latest work to always be one degree better than my previous one,” he reveals. 44

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IN THE WATER, ON THE ICE, IN A HALL, ON A BOAT AND ON HORSEBACK Or if you fancy something else, you can also go for a run!

Even during the coldest months of the year Budapest awaits fans in its spectator stands, sport fields, the Danube’s shore and in the streets. Europe’s best athletes are currently making their way to the Duna Arena. Following this, enthusiasts of one of the most spectacular technical sports will race into Budapest on two wheels. Last but not least, Santas will row down the Danube, and fireworks will explode downtown to mark the start of the new year along with the popping of champagne corks, all to be followed by the firing of the starting pistol a few days later to let runners know the race has begun.

THE PROBLEM WITH FISHERMAN’S SOUP “The boys will certainly not have a second helping of the fisherman’s soup at Christmas,” observed Tamás Märcz, head coach of the Hungarian National Water Polo Team, when journalists asked him whether he was worried that barely two weeks after the winter holidays, his team would be competing at the European Championships from 1226 January 2020. For this they must, of course, arrive in perfect condition, so they will not be allowed to put on any extra kilos during the holidays this year. The European Swimming League (Ligue Européenne de Natation) will in 2020 – for the first in sports history – bring all of the aquatic European Championships to a single country, in this case to Hungary. In May the Duna Arena will host swimmers, divers and synchronised swimmers, in June Balatonfüred will host open water swimming, and on 20 August at Batthyány Square, tower divers will compete

Photo: © Kovács Anikó

Text: Adrián Szász

to become the greatest on the continent. These events are still a way off, naturally, but the series will commence in January with water polo.

THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM Croatia, Montenegro, Slovakia, Germany, Serbia, Russia, Romania, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Malta, Italy, Greece, Georgia and France. In addition to the host team, the teams of these other countries will compete in the men's water polo tournament, and an Olympic qualifying spot will also be allocated among them. Since Serbia, Italy and Spain have already qualified for the upcoming Olympic Games through the World Cup and World Championships, apart from these three national teams, the most successful national team in Budapest will earn a spot in Tokyo. After the European Championships, there will be another Olympic qualification tournament, in which four more countries can win the right to compete in Japan, but who wants to leave that to the last minute? The 12-time European Champion 45

Photo: © Jacky Ley / GoodShoot.com

Photo: © Gergely Zakany / futanet.hu

Hungarians certainly do not. Especially since the last time they celebrated a European Championship was in 1999. Interestingly, the current head coach was a member of that team as a player. Hungary has won the European Championship at home twice before in 1926 and 1958, thus in January they could achieve the same feat for the third time. As they say, the third time’s the charm. The Hungarian Women's National Water Polo Team won their third gold medal in Belgrade at the previous European Championships in 2016, and are now going for their fourth. They will compete against Greece, Russia, the Netherlands and Italy, among others, but the greatest challenge will come from the Spanish. Only one team from the female field of the European Championships will qualify for the Olympic Games, which is whoever is the best team, save for the Spanish who have already qualified. Dorottya Szilágyi will also compete for the home team, who despite the age of 23 has already lived on three continents. As a child she grew up in South Africa, New Zealand, and then in Australia, returning home at 16 with her father. “I was already here at the 2017 World Championships, where we were in ecstasy. I will remember the atmosphere from that day on Margaret Island for a lifetime,” she reminisced of the most recent world aquatics competition held in Budapest, before speaking of her

current expectations. “I’ve never seen as cohesive of a team as we have now. Everybody loves each other, which is not common on women’s teams. This is the time for an outstanding achievement, which would indicate that not only are we a unified team, but also a successful one.”

WHAT FOOTBALL IS FOR BRAZIL... Of course, men also have an opinion regarding the European Championships in Budapest. We spoke with an Olympic Champion father and his World Champion son, whose grandfather was also a two-time Olympic Champion (István Szívos Sr., 1952 in Helsinki and 1956 in Melbourne). The father is István Szívos Jr., who won Olympic gold in Montreal in 1976. According to him, the atmosphere of the Duna Arena will provide an experience for those who have never been at a similar event, and the legendary Hungarian audience will bring the maximum out of the players. The son, Márton Szivós – who still actively plays water polo and became a world champion in Barcelona in 2013, is even more pronounced: what football is for Brazil, water polo is for Hungary. The Hungarian organisers and Budapest fans have already proven themselves, which guarantees that the organisation will again be top notch on this occasion, and that the mood will be uplifting, he predicted.

Photo: © WeloveBudapest

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A ROARING ARENA The Water Polo Championship will end on Sunday, 26 January, and on the following Saturday, on 1 February, the Hungarian capital will host other sporting spectacles in an enclosed space, as the Hungarian round of the SuperEnduro GP will arrive to another popular event venue, the László Papp Budapest Sports Arena. Following the race’s successful debut in 2019, the world's best off-road and indoor motorists, such as Colton Haaker, Cody Webb and Taddy Blazusiak, and even world stars such as Billy Bolt, Jonny Walker or Manuel Lettenbichler will return to Budapest. The SuperEnduro World Championship has been held every winter in Europe from October to March since 2007, as obstacle courses are built in stadiums and huge arenas. The competition is loud and spectacular, and requires enormous concentration from the bikers. “Per person the race length is six minutes plus one lap, and these few minutes are needed for everything to be 100 percent,” says Norbert Zsigovits, one of the Hungarian competitors in the junior category, who as a child learned to ride a motorbike before a bicycle. Technical knowledge, precision and composure, as well as a good physique are all necessary, for the sport requires the use of the whole body.

SANTAS, JOCKEYS AND THE BRAVE Those who prefer a more relaxed, festive atmosphere, will also find something to their liking in Budapest. It is true that you will have to dress warmly because these events are outdoors, but at spectacular locations in the city. On 7 December from 10 in the morning the Santa Claus Cup of

the Külker Rowing Club in Óbuda will take the water from the Roman Shore in Óbuda at the club’s headquarters at 7 Szt. István Street. The female, male, mini, student, youth and veteran racers will row 5 kilometres in the Danube in full costume wearing their compulsory Santa Claus hats. “For the past 20 years the party has started with us,” this is the theme for the 2019 Trotting New Year’s Eve Race, which in this case is not merely an advertising slogan, but also rings true. Many people love starting their last day and party of the year in Kincsem Park with the festive New Year's Eve horse races alongside hot tea, mulled wine, tasty street food, bets and New Year's resolutions. Last year, more than 20,000 people attended, where celebrities can also test their speed in a special race. Among them are Olympic and World Champion athletes, artists, stuntmen and television personalities. It is no exaggeration to say that since 1999, The New Year's Eve Trotting Race has been a lively social event in Budapest. There will also be time to recover from New Year's Eve programmes for those who would like to start 2020 with an amateur outdoor running competition. The traditional – fifth – Zuzmara Half-Marathon and Running Festival will be held on 12 January this winter, which means that it’s not too late to start training even in the first days of the new year for anyone who is not a beginner. Multiple-distances, such as 5, 10 or 21 kilometres-can be competed in, and may be run individually or as part of a relay team. The great question surrounding the event is always the weather, and how the “celestial blessings” will impact the terrain that the beautiful city of Budapest always provides. 47

A LITTLE GLIDE OF JOY

Photo: © budapestinfo.hu

Text: Eszter Götz

Budapest holds many surprises in the wintertime that visitors do not encounter during the main tourist season from spring to autumn. In addition to the downtown Advent and Christmas Fair famous across Europe, there are many other smaller, albeit no less exciting programmes. But perhaps none are as popular as the growing number of open-air ice-skating rinks that have popped up over the recent years.

From the 1830s city dwellers regularly skated on the frozen surface of the City Park lake, but it was only from 1869 onwards that this “icy” form of socialising became truly fashionable. This was when the Skating Association of Pest was founded. Géza Kresz, a keen supporter, was also the man who two decades later would launch the first Hungarian ambulance service. As a practicing doctor, Kresz knew how much good outdoor sports did for those living in an unhealthy urban environment. The association built a warming-up hut at its own expense, and after it burned down, a design contest was launched to build a skating hall. Ödön Lechner – who would go on to become the greatest figure in Hungarian art nouveau architecture and the designer of the Museum of Applied Arts – won the tender (his first of many) to construct the new facility. The building, which was 48

Photo: © Fortepan - Frigyes Schoch

The centuries-old skating rink tradition of the northern European countries only became a popular leisure activity in Budapest in the 19th century. Although there are written accounts of a skate workshop operating next to Esztergom in the Middle Ages, owing to Hungary’s milder climate, skating did not become as popular.

completed in 1870, contained a changing and waiting area, a room for warming and a snack bar, with the rapidly growing number of visitors entertained by an orchestra located in the roof pavilion. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria attended the opening ceremony.

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The hall and the artificial ice rink were completely destroyed during the Second World War. One of the wings of the magnificent neo-Baroque building was struck by a bomb, and this was not reconstructed during the post-war restorations. For decades, smaller technical upgrades took place, but the facility was slowly fading, while tens of thousands of visitors arrived every season. Europe's largest, 16,000 square-metre outdoor ice-skating rink and its buildings were kept alive for a long time through minor repairs. Reconstruction for the entire listed building began at the end of the 2000s and was completed in 2010. The redone façade and layout have returned the building to its original appearance from 1893, which can be enjoyed by the graceful crowds on the lake who can take in this neo-Baroque masterpiece with hints of romanticism. Inside, the restored columnar lobby, the solemnity of the bas-relief caryatids, and the white-gold-brown tone completes the palace's historic beauty. The overall picture is nicely complemented by a glass wall

composed of archive photographs by the entrance. The lower level has a changing room, a dressing room, training area and bars and a restaurant opening up to the track, with up to 10,000 visitors a day. In addition to the rink in the City Park, there are several other outdoor skating rinks located across Budapest. Although they first appeared in the larger shopping malls a few years ago, these days it is now possible to enjoy skating in urban spaces around the Advent markets. Free rinks are set up on the square in front of St. Stephen's Basilica, on the main square of Óbuda, next to the Hunyadi Square market, in Zugló at Bosnyák Square, and on St. Stephen's Square in Újpest. The city's largest free, uncovered course is located in a picturesque setting: the brick buildings of the former public warehouses and the large terrace of the Bálna Budapest events hall with its futuristic glass roof, where you can skate near the Danube in a rink over 450 square meters in size, with the sight of Gellért Hill located in the background.

By 1893 Budapest had outgrown Lechner's hall and it was demolished, with a neo-Baroque palace according to the designs of the architect Imre Francsek constructed in under a year. The Millennium celebrations were witnessed by this charming building featuring an orchestral terrace with octagonal pavilions located at the end of its two wings. The building also saw spectacular on-ice celebrations in the first years of the new century, such as the 1909 ball with living pictures celebrating the coronation of King Matthias in 1458, or the skating competitions which were held from 1893 onwards. All of the sport’s celebrities made an appearance here from Sonja Hennie to Jackson Haines (the latter of whom is credited with inventing modern figure skates). In 1895, it hosted the first European Championship, and Lili Kronberger became the world champion, who had the music for her ice dance arranged by none other than Zoltán Kodaly. The natural ice surface exposed to the weather's whims was replaced in 1926 by an artificial ice rink, which could be skated on a third of the year.

“OUR HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY LIFE”

Matyó embroideries in the 21st century Text: Anikó Magócsi • Photos: matyodesign.hu

Colourful costumes and an embroidery culture with a rich palette characterise the Matyó folk culture, which has a 200-year history and has been featured on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2012. A Hungarian brand has reimagined these traditions according to today's fashions, and is making not only the Matyó style of embroidery known all over the world, but also provides jobs to the inhabitants of Tard, a small village in north-eastern Hungary. 50

CIT Y GUIDE The story of matyodesign is presented to the reader by Rozi Váczi. Regarding her personal motivation, Váczi says, “My parents moved to Tard from Budapest in the 1980s. They were both educators and wanted to raise children in the countryside instead of the capital, and to keep chickens and pigs. After my birth, I spent the first four and a half years of my life in Tard. When my brother turned six, we returned to Budapest so that he could start school here, but we kept our village house. We spent all of our vacations there. Matyó culture was not part of my life at that time, even though Tard is a centre for Matyó embroidery in addition to Mezôkövesd. When I returned to Tard as a mother after the birth of my daughter, and spent a whole summer there, the idea came to me that these motifs seen on a daily basis would be great for embroidering our clothes with. Slowly, step by step, facing setbacks or successes on different occasions, it has led me to realise that this brand is absolutely on the rise.” Váczi learned everything from the women of Tard: “Each day I would learn their methods and how to use these motifs. When they saw that I was determined and very serious about what I was doing, an older lady who had devoted her whole life to embroidery and had thousands of patterns gave me her collection preserved on tracing paper. We leaf through these when we look for newer motifs. The deciding factor is usually based on what sized motif fits best on a given outfit.” No matter how we look at it, the protectors of these treasures are in their 60s, 70s or even 80s and in the twilight of their lives, thus this is how we can preserve their knowledge. The company is based in Tard and it is from here that we serve our customers. That this has been a success and that many tourists coming to Hungary today buy these clothes is the result of hard work. The women we employ consider it important for tourists to know their message, so each garment has a photo of the lady who embroidered it, and the picture is also signed. These messages are very nice. So it is not only a dress, but also a story that they will take home from Hungary. For winter, sweaters, pullovers, hats and scarves are on offer not only for adults, but also for children. The brand is gaining in popularity, with a spring-summer collection being assembled for 2020. “I could also say that our story – in many ways – is written by life,” Rozi Váczi says. Tourists arriving to Hungary can find their products at major tourist spots, from the airport to the Parliament building and in the most famous hotels. “We have also begun to organise matyódesign tours, because our goal is to remove visitors from the world of everyday life. Come to Tard, embroider, make spiral pasta, dress in old Matyó outfits and slow things down a little bit,” Váczi recommends. For more information: matyodesign.hu

FOR THE LOVE OF COFFEE The barista Gábor Hernyák and new-wave coffee culture

Did you know that it’s worth slurping your coffee? In addition to the drink, air also gets in your mouth, which allows the aromas to make it to your nose, so that the unity of taste and smell is more complete, the barista Gábor Hernyák advises, who was the winner of the 2019 Hungarian Brewers Cup Barista Championship, and placed 26th at the World Championship in Boston. Text: Adrián Szász • Photos: hernyak.com This expert on Hungary’s new-wave coffee culture is currently a senior colleague of the Hungarian-founded Cafe Frei network. He fell in love with modern coffee culture in England a few years ago, and now gets others in Budapest to share in his passion. The essence of new-wave coffee is that the highest-quality coffee from a farm is lightly roasted, so that the flavours contained within the coffee variety are more intensively preserved. After all, the longer a coffee is roasted, the more uniform it becomes, while the shorter the time, the more characteristic the aroma of that variant becomes. New-wave coffee culture has also conquered Budapest in recent years. Since Gábor learned about the trend while working in England, he can compare how it differs between the two countries. “For the British, only some people are open to this modern direction,” he says. “In Budapest, however, young people and students are particularly curious about it, which is why its culture is evolving. Coffee is now on a bit of a similar path as wine was earlier: people are becoming more interested, and are informed about what they consume." Gábor may drink four or six coffees during the day, not to wake himself up, but rather because he enjoys it. He swears by filtered coffee – a more diluted, tea-like drink – which is not a jolt of caffeine, but has a drawn-out effect. Filtered coffee can be consumed without risk every two hours. “Its flavour notes are fruity”, he says. “In the coffee, we actually feel the acids, and this is what our tongues associate with an earlier experience. For example, when you bite into a strawberry, you can feel the acidity, which the brain notes. Then, if the acidity of a sampled coffee is similar to strawberries, the brain refers back to this memory, and you are able to smell and taste strawberries again.” How do we get used to new-wave coffee, or rather get used to it in place of traditional coffee? In steps. If someone consumes coffee at home with 52

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a lot of sugar and milk, it is worth gradually decreasing the flavourings, but in no case should we suddenly drink the coffee without anything added. This way you can become better acquainted with the basic coffee that you drink one step at a time. According to the new trend it is worth tasting it first without any sweeteners, and if it tastes bitter, you can still add some sugar to it. Because new-wave coffee is not bitter, but is more acidic, the sugar increases the acidity instead of sweetening it, and thus makes it bitter. Therefore, it is better to dilute it with milk. “A good barista's role is more complex than brewing coffee,” Gábor asserts. “They play a big role in whether the person they serve will love or hate coffee. It's important to know what they’re telling you, whether they’re developing coffee culture, and if they inform the customer well. And just as I learned the basics from online videos such as those by Chris Baka, I now also have my own YouTube channel together with my friend Norbert Katona. I would also like to host workshops. Gábor Mordy Jakab, who trained me at the Fekete Café and later opened his own business called WarmCup, taught me a lot. And I worked alongside the cream of the Budapest coffee brewing crop at the Espresso Embassy Café. Openness is important to change a person’s attitude towards coffee. I’ve heard of a banker who left their profession to open a new wave café.” Gábor Hernyák may too one day, but first he would like to prove himself in his current position and in other international competitions. He believes that by filtering out his minor mistakes at the Brewers Cup that arose from his inexperience, he could eventually be one of the top 10 in the world (he only missed out on making the podium by seven points out of a total of 200). At these competitions, the aroma, taste, acidity

and body of the coffee cooked by the baristas - typically three cups each per competition stage – are scored by the jury. The same barista with the same device can make several different types of drinks from the same coffee. A lot of mistakes can be made from the barista's decision on how to grind the coffee and what ratio he uses between the coffee and water. And what type of water, because tap water is not suitable at all, and only a certain type of mineral water is good. “The more minerals in it, the more flavour it dissolves, so we need to be careful about this” he explained. “For iced filter coffee the water ratio should be particularly observed to ensure that the final result does not become watered down, and for decaf coffee care must be taken to not use low-quality coffee in the process. Casino Mocca’s roasters, for example, make high quality coffee in this category as well.” What coffee should we choose in which season? Always the freshest! Each coffee has its harvest period. The shelf life of green coffee is approximately one year, but it can last longer if frozen. After roasting it can last for up to two months, while after grinding the coffee will retain its intensity and aroma for only a couple of hours. In a good café we will always receive a fresh product, but even if we take it home in a bag, it's worth asking when it was roasted. Gábor often selects the coffees himself for Cafe Frei, with the help of a roasting master. “Good coffee can be obtained from good roasters”, he says, revealing the golden rule. The more classic flavours, by the way, come from Brazil and Colombia, the bright and more acidic, for example, come from Kenya and Ethiopia. But there are also great Indonesian coffees. As to who prefers what types – more hazelnut, more walnut, etc .– that may only become clear after several tastings,” he concludes.

Two tips for coffee tasting and preparation Before tasting coffee, do not eat very flavourful or spicy foods, so that your taste buds – and nose – are ready to receive the taste notes. For filtered coffee at home, acquiring a V60 type of funnel-shaped device is recommended. You place the filter paper into it, grind the coffee into the filter, and then pour the water on the top in a circular motion, which then drips through the filter and the ground coffee. For only €100, you can assemble a good set for home brewing.

KÉS-VILLA-BUDA

Nostalgia in the morning, at noon and night Text: Dóra Budavári • Photos: @kesvillabuda

Where do they serve a good broth soup? Where can you find good Hungarian cuisine that is nonetheless modern? Where can we get good curd cheese noodles that have not been reinvented? And where is the schnitzel perfect? A person will frequently desire something classic, something that hearkens back to the pre-war era, but the answers to the questions above are not always clear. This compilation, called Kés-VillaBuda (“Knife-Fork-Buda”) endeavours to show you where to find authentic culinary experiences paired with tourist attractions on the right bank of the Danube. The Kés-Villa-Buda project brings together 12 restaurants: they think similarly and share the same values. Among them you can find multi-generational, traditional, innovative and even boundary-pushing establishments. The main thing that brings them together, however, is that they all follow the principles of classical Buda hospitality with a preference for Hungarian cuisine. The concept is to bring the good old times – in terms of culinary culture and its nostalgic atmosphere – back into fashion. They show its validity in everyday life to all of the people living in the capital (not just those living in Buda), and to the Hungarian communities who spend their weekends in Budapest (with families particularly in mind). And last but not least to foreign tourists, who are looking for authentic Hungarian restaurants where they can become acquainted with traditional tastes accompanied by a high level of service.

SLOW LIFE AND A STEAMING BROTH SOUP What is the type of restaurant located in Buda that can be proudly recommended around the country or the world? According to these twelve establishments, above all, it has to have a welcoming atmosphere, be family friendly, and it also celebrates the weekdays. (In other words: not exactly good for the waistline…) Comfortable breakfasts, leisurely lunches, dinners 54

that evolve into wine-tastings, a chequered or white tablecloth, and smiling waiters. Slow living, slow life – a concept that has recently become popular as a contrast to fast food. Make no mistake: the founders are not against quality fast food and meals. Nonetheless, they would like to show you (in common parlance) that even in our “hectic world” we need to make room for sophisticated flavours and meaningful coexistence. And what would express this feeling better than a glimmering, steaming bowl of broth soup? Sunday lunch is an important part of life, not only in Hungary. Inserting it into the weekdays is a sort of “me-time” gift.

COME TOGETHER The core value of Kés-Villa-Buda is a preference for domestic ingredients and a respect for tradition. It is also important for members that the association’s format allows them to meet and hold workshops on issues such as labour shortages, the training of professionals, procurement of ingredients, sustainability, and so on. The idea for the project originated with the owner of the Jardinette restaurant, Zoltán Kálmán, who has long desired to bring the restaurants of Buda together into an association with the above in mind. Your compass for finding your way in Buda:

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Jardinette Kertvendéglô 1112 Budapest, Németvölgyi út 136.

Go here if you would like to break away from the noise of the city and relax under chestnut trees alongside a glass of Mád furmint and deep-fried calf’s leg, or if you would like to try a wonderful sirloin steak with fried onions. We recommend: the deep-fried calf’s leg with parsley potatoes and tartar sauce.

Budai Gesztenyés Nagyvendéglô 2092 Budakeszi, Szanatórium u. 2.

Go here if you want to relive the Sunday experience of your grandmother's broth soup, and the time the rooster’s comb landed in your bowl. We recommend: the rooster soup with goose neck pasta.

Mezzo Music Restaurant 1122 Budapest, Maros u. 28.

If it’s live lounge music you’re after, and you’d also like to eat the finest vadas (“hunter’s stew”) in your life, so that you can forget about all of your previous bad experiences. Also note: the Chicken Kiev can’t be missed! We recommend: the beef cheek vadas.

Spíler Buda 1123 Budapest, Alkotás u. 53.

If you would like to discover how they make a BBQ in Buda, look out for Spíler Buda, where the stuffed peppers are also prepared as they would be in a countryside home. Spíler Buda is on top of this as well. We recommend: the free-range Iberico pork shoulder, the famous secreto (boneless) cut from Spain.

Náncsi néni vendéglôje 1029 Budapest, Ördögárok u. 80.

If after a hearty walk in the woods you would like to enjoy a roast rooster served in a small enamelled pan with your friends, accompanied by live accordion music, not to mention a giant curd cheese dumpling served with cinnamon powder served for dessert, visit Náncsi néni’s restaurant. We recommend: the curd cheese dumpling à la maison.

Földes Józsi Vendéglôje 1023 Budapest Bécsi u. 31.

It’s quite easy to enhance the experience gained at the St. Lukács Thermal Baths if you enjoy green chequered tablecloths and veal paprikás served with sour cream in a frying pan. The restaurant’s other speciality was invented by the Hungarian star chef himself, who rose to fame in the 1980s: Józsi Földes’s Bugac Tower with pickled vegetables, which is a sort-of-Hungarian version of a multi-level hamburger. We recommend: the veal paprikás with homemade buttered dumplings in sour cream.

Hadik, since 1906

1111 Budapest Bartók Béla u. 36.

Formerly the most significant haunt for Hungarian writers in the 1900s, you can read about what Buda and social life was like at the turn of the 20th century next to a veal goulash soup served with crunchy brown bread. We recommend: the Hungarian layered potato with quail egg, sausage and pork rillettes.

Schieszl Vendéglô és Borház, 1896 2011 Budakalász, Budai út 83.

One of the oldest restaurants belonging to Kés-Villa-Buda that provides classic hospitality, this restaurant awaits its guests in Budakalász, where you can taste dishes created from the meeting of traditional Hungarian peasant cuisine and Swabian traditions. We recommend: the homemade cured and smoked boiled pork knuckle with pickles, horseradish, mustard and boiled eggs.

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Émile

1026 Budapest, Orló u. 1.

Breakfast is served by one of the best bakeries in the country in elegant, nearly elite surroundings. They serve sweet cottage cheese buns, apricot jam triangles and cabbage puff pastry sticks. After drinking a coffee in the guest area designed to look like a comfortable living room, you can enjoy lunch, such as the mangalica pork cheek that cannot be missed. We recommend: the mangalica pork cheek with French strudel and mushroom velouté.

Kéhli Vendéglô

1036 Budapest, Mókus utca 22.

At one of the haunts of the great Hungarian gourmet writer Gyula Krúdy, you can ask the waiter for help because it really is hard work to get the marrow out of the beef bone and onto the garlic toast. Krúdy himself was reported to break out in a sweat when he ate this. We recommend: the hot-pot with marrow bone.

Pasarét Bisztró

1026 Budapest, Pasaréti tér

One of the emblematic architectural examples of the Bauhaus style located in Budapest can be found at Pasaréti Square. The location has always operated as a hospitality establishment, which the older among us always recall with fondness. In the winter the wild mushroom paprikash with spätzle is a favourite. Those who do not accompany it with a glass of Konyári Loliense Red will miss out on one of life’s highlights. We recommend: the wild mushroom paprikás.

Promontor Kertvendéglô 1221 Budapest, Kossuth Lajos utca 28.

It is a fact that an essential element of authentic Hungarian cuisine is fisherman’s soup cooked over a fire or catfish paprikás. While the former Promontor was famous for its vineyards, wines and later its champagne production, the restaurant that bears its name today also has a wide selection of beers! We recommend: the duck leg, smashed potatoes with onions, and chili steamed cabbage.

INVIGORATING DROPS OF ELIXIR

The best for making a Negroni – Hungarian gin seeks to conquer the world Text: Szonja Somogyi • Photos: #operaginbudapest

We can say with certainty that when it comes to drinks Hungary (for the time being at least) is strong in two categories: the delightfully potent pálinka that foreign visitors may find a bit daunting, and the wines that continue to make a name for themselves and fill Hungarians with pride. A new character has appeared on the stage, however, and this is the gin that represents the world of clubs and cocktails. The country is still quite a way off from becoming a great power in gin, but distillers have already produced a couple of outstanding products that have received international recognition. 58

CIT Y GUIDE But first let’s discuss what a gin actually is. Bálint Dámosy, founder of Elsô Magyar Gin Manufaktúra (“First Hungarian Gin Manufactory”), told Budapest's Finest that gin is defined within a very broad framework. According to the relevant EU Regulation from 2008, the fundamental criteria for something to qualify as a gin is a minimum alcohol strength of 37.5 percent, juniper berry flavouring, and the use of natural flavouring substances. How exactly the taste of juniper berries makes it into the gin is not set out in the regulation, which is why there are so many types of gin available on the market. These “easy” requirements also reveal that this is not a drink that was invented in the industrialised 21st century. The history of gin stretches back a long time, for even in antiquity, the uses of juniper berries and its distillates were already known to aid digestion, arthritis and hypertension. It would be some time, however, before the spirit’s tart taste was softened with grain spirits by the physician Franciscus De La Boë Sylvius, who in 1650 created a medicinal drink called genever, later to be known as gin. Not only did the drink relieve various ailments in the body, but since it also increased a person’s courage, gin became very popular in the 16th and 17th centuries during the various wars across Europe. In fact, gin also concealed the bitterness of quinine, the treatment for malaria. The powdered drug was dissolved in carbonated water, after which gin was added to it, and thus in the 1600s the gin & tonic was born in the tropical colonies of Great Britain. What brought true popularity to gin in England was mainly due to the fact that it was allowed to be distilled at home, and a large duty was imposed on drinks imported from overseas. Sometimes, however, the spirit’s quality sank to incredible depths and danger, as the juniper berries were often replaced with toxic turpentine – as the black market flourished. In 1736, the Gin Act came into force and imposed a heavy tax on gin commerce. Like most alcohol-related prohibitions throughout world history, this led to discontent and unrest. The law was then abolished and replaced by another one that only imposed limits on gin. It was no longer forbidden, but the English language has preserved the old phrases from these “sinful times”: the places that served depraved drinkers were called gin-mills and gin-joints, and drunks were said to be gin-soaked. Another name for gin was mother's ruin. Technological advances also helped gin's “career”: a cleaner drink with a fuller taste and aroma could be created as distilling techniques developed further. Gin rose in status, becoming a drink of the higher classes, but its popularity was shattered in the middle of the 20th century as other spirits became more widely consumed. The past two decades have seen an increase in gin’s fortunes, as it once again became

popular, elegant, and available around the world. “Almost everyone drinks gin these days! At the moment drinking a gin & tonic (G&T) is the chicest thing to do at any time of the day, anywhere in the world. Here in Hungary almost 95 percent of gin is consumed in this drink due to its refreshing taste, which the last five years has seen it accompanied by artful service, wine glasses, geometrically-precise ice cubes, and colourful and exciting garnishes, which local consumers welcome. I also think that a Hendrick's G&T with cucumber – and preferably with pink peppercorns – is a status symbol, or rather 59

wants to be, but it’s certainly fancy!” said restaurant manager and bartender Ben Marta. According to Marta, the secret behind and popularity of gin is due to its purity and well-done harmonious infusions. As he says, gin-based cocktails are not so much about putting its flavour to the fore, and gin is often used in classic cocktails because of its neutral taste. “A G&T is a more interesting topic, and we emphasise the distinctive spices of an infused gin in the form of a garnish, which provides our guests with a truly extra tasty experience,” he added. While it is “proper” for sophisticated drinkers to know the different types of whisky, the specific 60

traits of each variety of wine, the different types of gin are less well known, according to Marta. “The G&T is without a doubt one of the most well-known drinks these days, but beyond that, people don't know much about it. London Dry, for example, is often thought to be a gin brand, and Plymouth or Old Tom gins are almost unheard of,” he continued. A gin maker, however, must know every detail. Together with the Elsô Magyar Gin Manufaktúra, Bálint Dámosy created Hungary's first craft gin, Opera Gin, which belongs to the London Dry category of gin. “Ours is the strictest kind. It can only be made using natural ingredients, using a base of at least 96 percent alcohol and spices, herbs, fruit peels, roots, (collectively known as botanicals), which is then redistilled. Nothing but water can be added after re-distillation, so only the degree of alcohol can be adjusted; it is not possible to flavour it afterwards,” Dámosy explained. Opera Gin is made from pure corn spirits, natural plants and 11 kinds of spices. As Balint said, the product debuted in England at the 2019 Junipalooza festival in London as a gin that was characterised by the English tasters as being on the boundary between classical and new wave. It is classic because traditional gin spices (coriander, juniper, various roots) dominate it, but it is also new wave, for it also contains spices that are not typical or even found elsewhere – such as poppyseed, lavender and lemon grass. Yes, poppyseed. For foreigners, there is now also a Hungarian poppyseed gin to go along with poppyseed noodles and poppyseed rolls! “In gin, the flavours don’t come across as strongly as they do in pálinka; they can just barely be sensed. The poppyseed gives it a kind of earthiness in the background, perhaps comparable to walnuts. It does not dominate, but only gives it an added level of complexity,” Dámosy said, who with his team wanted to sneak a flavour into Opera Gin that “modestly and elegantly refers to us Hungarians.” But it also includes angelica root, orris root, liquorice, aniseed and cubeb. Despite the richness of spices, it is a universal gin, which is a great choice for a G&T or in a cocktail. “In fact, we're getting more and more feedback that it's a big favourite when it's served neat or with a little ice.” Although Opera Gin only debuted this year to consumers locally and abroad, Dámosy said the feedback was positive, and it seems he has been able to hold his own alongside other serious gins in the craft world. “Abroad, the average consumer is much more educated and selective, they have been drinking craft gin for a little longer, so they can place what type it is. In Hungary, this is a very new thing,” Dámosy said. Regarding the change to Hungary’s drinking cul-

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ture, Dámosy said more and more people were choosing premium spirits and are discovering that a cocktail can start a dinner. In Hungary, bar culture has also begun to evolve, and in addition to wine bars, there are a growing number of sophisticated cocktail bars with classic drinks and spirits from small distilleries. By the way, the countertops of the bars downtown are not the only places where you can see a bottle of Opera Gin. The gin is made in the industrial outskirts of Újpest, where the distillery also has a cosy bar and provides spirit tastings. Public tastings for 40-50 people are held here monthly, where they talk about the spices, methods of preparation and the history of the company. After the distillery tour participants can smell the spices and the uninfused gin in smaller groups to determine the effect it has on the drink. Finally,

of course, you can also taste the gin in a cocktail – and you can even make it yourself behind the bar. “We have signature cocktails in which Opera Gin truly shines. In London, it was praised as the best Negroni-gin in the exhibition. That’s a drink with a history of over a hundred years. It's quite strong, being made with Campari and red, sweet vermouth, mixed equally with gin,” Dámosy said. Marta also considers the Negroni one of the most prominent gin cocktails. As he said, the Negroni “is also a nice choice because of the way it is prepared and is one of the most mixed drinks. The preparation of a Negroni is fast but spectacular: pure ice cubes, a Japanese jigger, crystal mixing cups, bar spoons, some elegant movements, and the guest forgets the day’s problems before the drink is even finished!”

VÖRÖSMARTY SQUARE REBORN Budapest’s vibrant cultural main square Photos: Budapestinfo.hu

Kossuth Square is considered to be Budapest’s main square for state functions: dignitaries are hosted there and official celebrations are held in front of the beautiful Parliament building. Vörösmarty Square, conversely, is “the civilian square” and is frequently abuzz with markets, acts as a social hub for the city, and has received a new and truly enticing appearance just in time for the 2019 holiday season. “For months we've had to avoid the mounds of gravel and the closed construction site at Vörösmarty Square. Our patience was rewarded, however, because what we gained from all of this will serve the residents of Budapest from spring to autumn, and summer to winter,” says Teodóra Bán, Director of the Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre (BFTK), who oversees the organisation of the traditional Budapest Advent and Christmas Fair located on the square. “This was not simply a facelift, but a renewal”, she says. “The buildings surrounding the square come from a wide variety of periods in the history of Hungarian architecture. 62

CIT Y GUIDE Neo-Renaissance, Bauhaus and a 20th-century glass palace: they represent different values, and their reception is a matter of taste, but each is an integral part of the location’s traditions. Vörösmarty Square played a central role in the lives of Budapest’s citizens, even back when hansom cabs used it for turning around, or when the continent’s first underground railway, today's Millennium Underground, rolled in for the first time. The square’s function has remained unchanged over the years: young people go on dates here and tourists go sightseeing before entering the world famous Gerbeaud confectionery, which proudly survived the regime changes, or perhaps they will visit Budapest’s fashionable flagship of fine-dining: the twice Michelin-starred Onyx restaurant.” “We could say those are all everyday occurrences,” she adds. “The square is at once one of the main centres for festivities and culture. The Budapest Festival Orchestra has performed a concert here, films have been screened, and the Budapest Advent and Christmas Fair returns annually, as does the Spring Fair each year around the time of Easter. With these renovations our fairs will become more comfortable and elegant. The goal is to show in a concentrated way that our culinary, handicraft and cultural values have not changed.” The market at Vörösmarty Square has been ranked among the Top 10 for a long time, with many tourists planning their stays months in advance to allow for a day or two to visit the fair, which hotels have noted as well. “The square is tidier and richer. Previously, the centrally-located group of statues depicting the great poet after whom the square is named was covered with a protective plastic sheet each winter, which, to be honest, was neither beautiful nor environmentally friendly. Budapest’s public statues must, of course, be protected from weather conditions that could damage them. How that is accomplished, however, is also important. To lead by example, we have erected a contemporary structure

that fits with its surroundings, which is the work of our longstanding partner Hello Wood. The monument by Ede Kallós and Ede Telcs is thus protected, but remains visible, and this is the BFTK’s Christmas gift to Budapest. “We organise many outdoor activities for the Budapest Spring Festival, the Summer Festival and the CAFe Contemporary Arts Festival during the spring, summer and autumn respectively, and the festival atmosphere does not take a break during the winter either,” Bán emphasises. “It’s true, however, that the atmosphere is a little different, for it is adapted to Advent and Christmas festivities and customs. It's much cosier and features lots of events for children.” budapestinfo.hu

Images of the body

PROGRAMME

CORNER

Budapest Photo Festival The exhibition runs from 4 April – 31 May.

Kiscelli Museum

The Budapest Photo Festival is gearing up to host its annual contemporary photography exhibition once again in 2020. After previously focusing on portraits, still lifes and landscapes, this year an open competition was announced that will focus on nudes, entitled Body Scapes. The nude as a theme is both easy to interpret and also very vague. Historical eras, public taste, public morality and much more have shaped and continue to mould our relationship with the human body. The competition awaited works that not only redefine and expand the boundaries of the genre, but also seek to provide valid answers to many contemporary aspects of sensuality. In fine art, the history of works on the subject of the body and sensuality spans ages and continues to this day. A healthy and young body has become the symbol of human and universal beauty and harmony. It is no wonder that the naked body became a subject in photography seemingly immediately in works that analysed, interpreted and presented its various movements and connections. The competition’s hosts awaited innovative works bringing fresh perspectives. The interest is elementary – the two curators, art historian Rita Somosi, and photo historian Klára Szarka, will choose the material for the 2020 Body Image exhibition from among the nearly 200 submitted works. The exhibition is part of both the Budapest Photo Festival and the Budapest Spring Festival.

Klára Rotschild Fashion queen behind the Iron Curtain Runs until 30 April 2020

Hungarian National Museum, Geraldine House and Rotunda

For decades her name has been synonymous with elegance, quality and luxury. She brought Paris to Budapest and made Budapest known across the wider world. By the time it opened between the two world wars, Klára Rotschild's salon had already become a household name. She dressed the aristocratic ladies of the Horthy era, and the wife of the internationally renowned French jeweller Cartier, Countess Jacqueline Almássy, shopped in her salon. It’s a true “wonder” however, that the light of the Rotschild salon could continue to shine following the appearance of the Iron Curtain. Even if she could not work under her own name, the Specialty Women's Clothing Salon was nonetheless her sparkling empire. The dictator János Kádár’s wife, known for her humbleness, also visited, while the wife of the Soviet Foreign Minister Andrej Gromiko had dresses made there, as did Farah Pahlavi, the wife of the Iranian Shah. The salon’s best customer, however, was Jovanka Broz, the wife of Yugoslavian dictator Marshal Tito. Colleagues, clients, family members, personal objects, archive photos and film, as well as clothes prepared in the salon all speak to the lives of their owners, wearers and designers, and capture for posterity an important episode in Hungarian fashion history from the 20th century: a true woman’s success story.

“Music-Wine” A holiday concert by the Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra 30 December 2019 (Monday) Doors open: 6 pm, concert starts: 7 pm

Budapest Congress Center

The Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra will perform a gala concert with wine tasting and a folk-dance presentation on 30 December 2019 at the Budapest Congress Center. During this grand concert 100 musicians will play popular compositions by Liszt, Brahms, Strauss, Sarasate and Ferraris, while the audience can taste excellent wines from the finest Hungarian winemakers. In addition to the concert experience, guests can enjoy a four-course gala dinner prepared by master chefs consisting of famous Hungarian dishes or can enjoy the stunning, unparalleled performance of virtuoso Gypsy musicians alongside savoury bites and wine. For more information: argosart.hu

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ANDRÁS TÖRÖK: THE 500 HIDDEN SECRETS OF BUDAPEST Luster, Antwerpen, 2018

Text: Eszter Götz patchwork-like Budapest guidebook was published in English, consisting of 100 categories with each category highlighting five noteworthy items, although not in a traditional guidebook format, but through presenting what are considered to be the most attractive destinations according to the latest trends. Gastronomy, monuments, cultural experiences, places to stay, this guide features those small places that may have been left out of older tourist guides, but which authentically present the city’s atmosphere. This book is not simply a list of places worth seeing, but presents locations that are a vibrant and rich medium through which the marks of Central European history continue to thrive. The selection provides an authentic local vibe, and the first glimpse into each chapter includes groups of fives such as the best “low-budget” restaurants, the tackiest buildings, florists, ruin pubs, ice cream parlours, vintage stores, Jewish memorial sites, child-friendly institutions, glamorous gardens and tiny pubs. But if those of us already familiar with these locations flip through its pages, we realise that we can get to know Budapest even more through this pocket-sized book with its practical maps, sparse text and many fine and unusual photos and humorous categories. If not in the usual way, but effectively and uniquely.

Previously, Prague was the only Central European city to feature in the “500 Hidden Secrets” guidebook series by the Dutch publisher Luster. In late 2018, however, Budapest also received its due in this series that reveals exciting tourism destinations. With the guidance of the cultural historian András Török, a

Responsible Publisher Publishing Director Editor Art Director Photo Management Cover photo Translation

Teodóra Bán Director Diána Monostori Mária Albert István Práczky MitteComm Kft. István Práczky Zoltán Csipke

The city’s past and present, gastronomy and musical, literary and theatrical life, buildings and tastes, customs and obsessions, tackiness and beauty are all explored through short informative passages. The author, who is a fountain of information on the history of the city, and is a colleague of the Fortepan online photo archive, employs charm and humour condensed into a few sentences to describe the places and phenomena he enjoys, allowing visitors to discover the city for themselves following the first helpful nudge.

BTFK Non-Profit Ltd. 1052 Budapest, Városház utca 9–11. Phone +36 1 486 3300 e-mail marketing@budapestinfo.hu Advertising Mária Sali Contact hirdetes@budapestinfo.hu Phone +361 486 3309 ISSN 2064-9894

Published quarterly. All images, texts, graphics and design elements are subject to copyright. Reproduction, use or imitation is not authorised without permission by law and is subject to criminal liability. The publication can be ordered via the publisher’s address.

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