14th March–30th March • BUDAPEST [E2]

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL
For 27 years now the Budapest Spring Festival has been Hungary’s biggest cultural festival. The series of events is of international significance, too. It is noted in all countries; travel agencies receive the planned programme months in advance.In the last two weeks of March around 200 events await Hungarian and foreign tourists in 50-60 venues in Budapest. Besides classical and pop music concerts, there are theatre performances, film screenings, open-air programmes and other festival-type events.

SPRINGFESTIVALS IN THE COUNTRY
The kaleidoscope of programmes encompasses choral music, orchestral concerts, chamber recitals, theatrical productions, a puppet-theatre meeting, jazz festival and exhibitions of fine and applied arts.

INFORMATION:
Budapesti Fesztivál Központ • H-1052 Budapest, Szervita tér 5.
Tel.: +36-1/486-3300 • Fax: +36-1/486-3310 • E-mail: info@fesztivalvaros.hu • www.btf.hu/english

KERTÉSZ–MOHOLY–NAGY–BRASSAI–CAPA
THE GREATEST HUNGARIAN MASTERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY
The universal history of photography records four Hungarian artists without whom no exhibition on photographic history could be regarded as complete. Their photos portray the work of the masters from the years that preceded World War I to the years after World War II, more precisely up to the time when photographic trends characteristic of the interwar years came to an end.

INFORMATION:
Museum of Fine Arts Budapest
H-1146 Budapest, Dózsa György út 41.
Tel.: +36-1/469-7137 • Fax: +36-1/469-7171
E-mail: info@szepmuveszeti.hu
www.szepmuveszeti.hu/web/guest/aktualitasok

1st–3rd August • HUNGARORING – MOGYORÓD [E2]

FORMULA-1 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX
World-class drivers pitch their skills against each other at the Hungaroring circuit.

INFORMATION:
Hungaroring Sport Rt. • H-2146 Mogyoród, Pf. 10.
Tel.: +36-28/444-444 • Fax: +36-28/441-860
E-mail: ildiko.csukas@hungaroring.hu • www.hungaroring.hu/en/

6th–13th August • BUDAPEST [E2]

SZIGET FESTIVAL
Shipyard Island on the Danube becomes a town within the city during this multicultural festival. Around 400,000 come to Sziget each year for concerts featuring global names, the cream of Hungarian bands and rising stars, as well as for theatre performances, films, exhibitions, classical music and sports programmes.

INFORMATION:
Sziget Cultural Organization Office
H-1114 Budapest, Orlay u. 5–7.
Tel.: +36-1/372-0650 • Fax: +36-1/372-0651
E-mail: info@sziget.hu • www.sziget.hu

20th–24th August • BUDAPEST [E2]

31st August–7th September • BUDAPEST [E2]

JEWISH SUMMER FESTIVAL
A wide-ranging festival that focuses on Jewish culture. It features a week of books and films, exhibitions and gastronomy events, as well as those international “languages” of culture – music and dance.

INFORMATION:
Jewish Tourism and Cultural Centre
H-1075 Budapest, Síp u. 12.
Tel.: +36-1/343-0420 • Fax: +36-1/462-0478
E-mail: zsikk@t-online.hu
www.jewishfestival.hu

10th–14th September • BUDAPEST [E2]

BUDAPEST INTERNATIONAL WINE FESTIVAL
The best wine makers introduce themselves at exhibitions and a fair organized in the grounds of Buda Castle, and once again there is the essential wine auction and grape-harvest procession. The festival also includes cultural programmes, and classical and jazz concerts.

INFORMATION:
Hungarian Grape and Wine Culture Kht.
H-1113 Budapest, Bartók Béla út 152.
Tel.: +36-1/203-8507
Fax: +36-1/204-0053
E-mail: winecult@t-online.hu
www.winefestival.hu

30th September–4th January • BUDAPEST [E2]

KLIMT AND THE BEGINNING OF THE VIENNESE SECESSION
The exhibition arriving at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest from the Albertina in Vienna wishes to portray the art of these few years. It was not only modern art and the roots of the Viennese Secession that were born in this period as European artists also started to develop ties and thus mutually influence one another at this time.

23rd November–29th December • BUDAPEST [E2]

BUDAPEST CHRISTMAS
Folk and applied artists sell their wares, made exclusively from natural materials, in Vörösmarty Square. Browse the stalls and enjoy a cup of two of steaming mulled wine.

INFORMATION:
BTH Budapesti Turisztikai Szolgáltató Kht.
H-1056 Budapest, Március 15. tér 7.
Tel.: +36-1/266-0479 • Fax: +36-1/266-7477
E-mail: info@budapestinfo.hu
www.budapestinfo.hu/en

31st December • BUDAPEST [E2]

“NEW YEAR’S EVE” GALA AND BALL IN THE OPERA HOUSE
Prominent artists of the Hungarian State Opera House and foreign star guests perform in this gala concert staged in one of Europe’s most attractive buildings. The festive supper is prepared by chefs from the internationally renowned Gundel Restaurant, and is followed by a New Year ball that lasts until dawn.

INFORMATION:
V.I.P. Arts Management Kft.
H-1065 Budapest, Hajós u. 13–15.
Tel./Fax: +36-1/302-4290,
+36-1/332-4816
E-mail: viparts@viparts.hu
www.viparts.hu/english/index.html

TRIP AROUND THE ROMAN REMAINS

Did you know that…

• for nearly 400 years today’s Budapest was the centre of the Roman Empire’s
  province of Eastern Pannonia, Aquincum?
• the word Aquincum means “abundance of water,” and that the Romans were thinking not only of the Danube but of the plentiful
  source of medicinal waters?
• in the 3rd century more than 40,000 people lived in Aquincum?

Not to be missed:

• Aquincum Museum (new exhibition building)
  (District III, 135 Szentendrei Rd.), where visitors can get to know the nearly 2000 year old province seat, Aquincum, the world-famous water organ and the luxury of the governor, leader of the province.
• The Military Town Amphitheater (Disctrict III, Nagyszombat St.), which had a capacity of 12,000 and the arena of which was larger than the Colosseum in Rome.
• Remains of the Legionary Fortress
  (District III, Flórián Square and surroundings), where the ruins of the
  most important buildings are visible
  serving nearly 6000 soldiers. Gates of the defensive works of the fortress, quarters for the soldiers and the Great Baths of the legion are on the area.

TRIP AROUND THE TURKISH REMAINS:

Did you know that…

• for nearly 150 years (between 1541 and 1686) Buda and Pest were under Turkish rule?
• it was at this time that the first bridge was constructed between Pest and Buda, which consisted of seventy elements, the central four of which were removable?
• the Turkish baths were used not only for hygienic purposes but were also a religious and social institute?

Not to be missed:

• Rudas Medicinal Baths (District I, 9, Döbrentei Square) Its original name was “Zöldoszlopos (Green-Columned) Baths”, and in the middle of the 16th century a small township formed itself around the baths, with restaurants, taverns and a dervish cloister
• Gül Baba’s Mausoleum (District II, 14, Mecset St.): an octagonal building constructed out of carved stone in honour of the dervish Gül Baba (“Father of Flowers”), who died in 1541 during the religious service following the occupation of Buda held in Matthias Church which was converted into a mosque within three days.

TRIP AMONG THE RELICS OF THE SOVIET ERA:

Did you know that…

• the Statue of Liberty found on Budapest’s highest point was originally the central figure of the Liberation Memorial unveiled
  in 1947, becoming the symbol of liberty after the removal of the soldier figure?
• Budapest’s Underground still runs on Soviet rails?
• Hungary played the most significant role in the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Soviet Union by allowing East German refugees to cross the Iron Curtain?

Not to be missed:

• the Terror House (District VI., 60, Andrássy Rd.), housed in the headquarters of the Arrow-Cross Party and the ÁVO and created to present two bloody eras in Hungarian history, the rule of the Arrow-Cross and the Communist Dictatorship of the 1950s.
• Statue Park (District XXII, junction of Balatoni Rd. and Szabadkai Rd), a particularly Eastern European collection
  yet unique worldwide: an exhibition of the statues representing communist cultural policy and removed from the streets of Budapest after the change in regime in 1989-1990.