Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
COUNT SZÉCHENYI
Count István Széchenyi
(1791-1860) was the outstanding figure of Hungary's Reform
era. Asayoungaide-de-camp hecut adashat the Congress ofVienna anddidthe roundsof
stately homes across Europe. While in England, he steeplechased hell-for-leather, but still
foundtime toexamine factories andsteam trains, providingBernard Shawwiththeinspira-
tion for the “odious Zoltán Karpathy” of
Pygmalion
(and the musical
My Fair Lady
). Back
in Hungary, he pondered solutions to his homeland's backwardness and offered a year's
income from his estates towards the establishment of a Hungarian Academy. In 1830 he
published
Hitel
(Credit), a hard-headed critique of the nation's feudal society.
Though politically conservative, Széchenyi was obsessed with
modernization
. A pas-
sionate convert to steam power after riding on the Manchester-Liverpool railway, he in-
vited Britons to Hungary to build rail lines and the Lánchíd. He also imported steamships
and dredgers, promoted horsebreeding and silk-making, and initiated the dredging of the
River Tisza and the blasting of a road through the Iron Gates of the Danube. Alas, his
achievements were rewarded by a melancholy end. The 1848 Revolution and the short-
lived triumph of the radical party led by his
bête noire
, Kossuth, triggered a nervous break-
down, and Széchenyi eventually shot himself. Today he is often referred to as “the greatest
Hungarian” - though curiously it was Kossuth who originally called him this.
Budapest History Museum
Budapest Történeti Múzeum • Royal Palace Wing E • Tues-Sun: March-Oct 10am-6pm; Nov-Feb 10am-4pm
• 2000Ft, audio-guide1200Ft • 1 487 8871,
btm.hu
On the far side of the Lion Courtyard, the
Budapest History Museum
covers two millennia
of history on three floors, and descends into original vaulted, flagstoned halls from the
Renaissance andmedieval palaces unearthed duringexcavations. It'sworthstarting with
pre-
history
, to the left on the top floor, to find out about Paleolithic inhabitants of the area. The
Avars, the nomadic precursors of the Magyars who overran the Pannonian Plain after the Ro-
mans left, are represented by some impressive items retrieved from their burial mounds, such
as a gold bridle and stirrup fastenings in a zoomorphic style. Owing to the ravages inflicted
by the Mongols and the Turks, there's little to show from the time of the Conquest on the
first floor, and only a few artefacts from Hungary's medieval civilization (there is more in the
medieval palace below). From the Turkish period there are some fine pots and metalwork, as
well as Jewish gravestones, but most of this floor is occupied by the new display on
Bud-
apestinModernTimes
,anexhibition givinginsight intourbanplanning, fashions,trade and
vices, from 1686 onwards. At the far end of the ground floor there is a fine display of
statues
from the late fourteenth century that were discovered in 1974.
