Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hungarian breeds
such as the long-horned grey cattle and woolly Mangalica pigs were fa-
voured. By the nineteenth century the
Great Plains
were one of Europe's most valuable
grain-producing regions and by the time the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture was estab-
lished in 1889, only the USA produced more maize.
Theremainderoftheexhibition,comprisingdisplaysonforestry,huntingandfishing,isem-
inently missable, though the craftsmanship in antique crossbows and rifles exquisitely inlaid
with leaping hares and other prey is undeniably impressive, as is a 270-year-old dugout boat
carved from a single piece of oak, which was found at Lake Balaton, southwest of the capital.
Petőfi Csarnok and Aviation and Space Flight Exhibition
Petőfi Csarnok
XIV, Zichy Mihály utca 14 • 1 848 0206,
petofirendezvenykozpont.hu
•
Aviation and
Space Flight Exhibition
Repüléstörténeti és Űrhajózási kiállátás • May-Sept Fri 10am-4pm, Sat & Sun
10am-5pm • 500Ft • Trolleybuses #70, #72 and #74 from the centre of town all go near the hall
Leaving Vajdahunyad island by the causeway at the rear, you're ten minutes' walk from the
Petőfi Csarnok
or “Pecsa” as it is often called, a 1970s “Metropolitan Youth Centre” that
regularly hosts concerts (outdoors in summer), exhibitions, fairs, films and parties, as well
as a fine
flea market
at weekends. At the back of the building is a stairway leading to the
extensive
Aviation and Space Flight Exhibition
which, among other items, contains the
spacesuitusedbyHungary'sfirstastronautBertalanFarkasontheSoyuz-35missionof1980;
an L-2 monoplane sporting an Italian Fascist symbol, which broke world speed records in the
Budapest-Rome races of 1927 and 1930; and cockpits of a Tu-154 and MiG 25. One familiar
name is that of
Ernő Rubik
: the father of the inventor of the cube was a big name in plane
design. Strangely, though, there's nothing about Count
LászlóAlmássy
, Hungary's foremost
aviator of that time, better known abroad as the hero of the topic and film
The English Pa-
tient
.
Transport Museum
Közlekedési Múzeum • XIV, Városligeti körút 11 • Tues-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm; Nov-March
closes 1hr earlier • 1600Ft • 1 273 3840
On the edge of the City Park is the
Transport Museum
, of which the aviation exhibition is
an outgrowth. Captions in English explain that the Hungarian transport network of the 1890s
was among the most sophisticated in Europe; despite the country starting from a low tech-
nological base, railways, canals, trams and a metro had all been created within fifty years.
Displays include vintage locomotives and carriages that you can climb into, scale models of
steamboats and a wonderful collection of Hungarian Railways posters from 1900 to 1980. A
model train set on the floor above the foyer attracts a crowd when it's switched on - for fif-
teen minutes every hour, on the hour; there's also a small one on the ground floor that runs on
the half-hour. Collectors, meanwhile, can buy Hungarian model trains in the museum shop.
Outside the building are remnants of two of the Danube bridges that were wrecked in 1945:
