Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Varga Museum
Varga Imre Múzeum • III, Laktanya utca 7 • Tues-Sun 10am-6pm • 800Ft • 1 250 0274
Whatever the weather, you'll see several figures sheltering beneath umbrellas just off Fő tér,
life-sized sculptures by Imre Varga, Hungary's best-known living artist (now in his nineties),
whose oeuvre is the subject of the nearby
Varga Museum
. Pathos and humour pervades
his sheet-metal, iron and bronze effigies of famous personages, including Pope John Paul II,
Liszt and Bartók. Varga's career has spanned the eras of “goulash Socialism” and democracy
- evinced by state-commissioned monuments to Béla Kun (in the
Memento Park
)
and
Imre
Nagy
(near Parliament). Today, Varga is more likely to paint, and there are several recent
works on display here too.
Museum of Trade and Tourism
Magyar Kereskedelmi és Vendéglátóipari Múzeum • III, Korona tér 1 • Tues-Sun 10am-6pm • Free • 1 375
6249,
mkvm.hu
South of the bridgehead of the Árpád híd is another remnant of the old town that is even more
isolated than Fő tér among the modern blocks. The
Museum of Trade and Tourism
was
the world's first such museum when it opened in 1966, and today keeps a wealth of trade-
and tourism-related relics, including shopfronts, merchandise and a series of nostalgia-indu-
cing advertising boards promoting drink, food and tobacco products. A reconstructed sweet
shop, stationer's and ironmonger's feature, as does a reconstructed prewar bedroom from the
Gellért Hotel
and specialized items of cutlery from the same period, such as asparagus clip-
pers and a 25-bladed pocket knife, both made by a Hungarian firm.
Ruins of Aquincum
Aquincumi Múzeum • III, Szentendrei út 139 • Tues-Sun: ruins April-Oct 9am-6pm; museum opens at 10am;
museum also open Nov-March 10am-4pm • 1600Ft • 1 250 1650,
aquincum.hu
North of Óbuda, the riverside factory belt merges into the
Rómaifürdő
(Roman Bath) dis-
trict, harbouring a campsite, a lido and the ruins of
Aquincum
. Originally a settlement of
camp followers spawned by the legionary garrison, Aquincum eventually became a
muni-
cipium
and then a
colonia
, the provincial capital of Pannonia Inferior. The
ruins
are visible
from the Aquincum HÉV stop, from where a brief walk south under the main-line rail bridge
brings you to the site itself. Enough of the foundation walls and underground piping survives
to give a fair idea of the town's layout, with its forum and law courts, its sanctuaries of the
goddesses Epona and Fortuna Augusta, and the
collegia
and bathhouses where fraternal soci-
eties met. Its bare bones are given substance by an excellent
museum
and smaller exhibitions
around the site. Its star exhibit is the superb
mosaic
from the third century AD of Nessus ab-
ducting Deianeira, whom Hercules had to rescue as one of his twelve labours. This originally
consisted of sixty thousand stones, selected and arranged in Alexandria before shipment to
Europe. Other highlights include a mummy preserved in natron, a cult-relief of the god Mith-
ras and a reconstructed water-organ. The
Floralia Festival
towards the end of May sees the-
