I always promise myself that once the nice weather sets in I’ll go out more in the weekends to have fresh air and pretend that I socialize when in truth I never take my earphones off or look at people if I don’t have to. But in the end I’m always too lazy to get out of bed, dress up, wash my hair, etc. So, to motivate myself I decided to make it about blogging – if I feel like I have to write I might be able to lift my ass. And honestly, more people should know about this city! And my culture. I invite you to join me while I discover Budapest!
National Theatre
I live and work in the IX. district (out of XXIII) in an office building, right next to a small park which leads to the Hungarian National Theatre and the Palace of Arts. They are both fairly new buildings.
A bit of history
The first permanent theatre was opened in 1837 in Budapest. The theatre had a few buildings over the years, one was destroyed in 1965 because of the building of one of the metro lines used today. The building giving home to the theatre today was built between 2000 and 2002.
Architecture
The building is surrounded by several statues of famous Hungarian actors and actresses. The 9 statues on the facade are the depicting of muses. The facade of the old building which was destroyed in 1965 can be seen in the water before the theatre, right next to the ship like building.
There is a “zikkurat” behind the theatre building, from which you can see the Danube, inside there are seven rooms and some kind of exhibition, but at the time I was there it wasn’t open. Anyway, the landscape is not bad:
Palace of Arts
We just call it Müpa for short of Művészetek Palotája (Palace of Arts). It’s situated right behind the National Theatre. It gives home to several things: classical concerts, ballet, jazz concerts, new circus shows, etc. Here is also the Ludwig Museum which is a contemporary art museum. Honestly from the outside this building is not that remarkable, but at night it’s lit up with colored lights and looks pretty. The inside is really modern and fancy. I’ve been there once for a play I think. It was back yeeeears ago when it was still new.
Hey I like this idea for posts of your city. I’d love to visit Budapest one day and see the Danube.
Budapest is quite awesome, but I might be biased… Oops. I’m hoping to have several more (and probably more interesting) posts up during spring/summer. We’ll see how it goes. It’s definitely worth visiting!