The history of Hungary is a tormented tale: thestory of Attila the Hun and his conquests, the French empire and the emperorCharles Magne, the dreaded Magyars and the foundation of the Hungarian State,of Christianity, the Turkish domination of the Hapsburg Empire, the dualmonarchy, Russians and the fall of communism. Everywhere you look in Hungary,you see traces of the past. Through the centuries, Hungary has been influencedby the main cultural streams born in Europe. It is therefore not surprisingthat almost all aspects of those cultural influences are mostly represented inmany museums in Hungary. The oldest civilizations with the Celts and Romans,not to mention the Central European Gothic, Renaissance and inspired theItalian Baroque, or the rapid developments of classicism and history, followingthe revolution of 1848. The ArtNouveau with a touch of folk art and the Bauhaus of the two wars brings evenmore specificity to Hungarian culture.
Architecture
From the second half of the 19th century, two styles became important inHungary: Neoclassicism and Romanticism. It is mainly in architecture andsculpture that artists have found great inspiration. The construction of theUniversity of Debrecen by Mihály Péchy is a good example. Among the mainarchitects of this period are also Mihály Pollack, the prime contractor for theHungarian National Museum, and János Páckh with the monumental Basilica ofEsztergom, the largest church in Hungary. Renaissance made in the person of YblMiklós, the man who in the second half of the 19th century gave their presentform of large parts of Pest. His most brilliant creation is the National Operaof Hungary, one of the most beautiful historic buildings in Budapest. Towardsthe 1900s, Hungary has also experienced a period of cultural revival, in whichthe emphasis was, in architecture, the forms from the folk art and architecturethat was non-Western. A daring form was not a priority: an example is theMuseum of Decorative Arts in Budapest, designed by Ödön Lechner, the architectwho brought most of the ideas Art Nouveau in Hungary. Hungarian contemporaryarchitects have also brought dramatically this past grandiose as they have, atthe same time, developed their own style: Béla Pintér, for example, who builtthe famous Hilton Hotel in the castle district in Budapest, or "glass andmarble architecture" of the new building the most prestigious in thecapital in years 80 and 90.
Painting
Regarding the Hungarian painting, Mihály Munkácsy, active during thesecond half of the 19th century, is certainly among the greatest artists. Itwas mainly a landscape painter and one of the representatives of the famousBarbizon School. His most famous work stand in the parliament in Budapest. Atthe end of that century, the school of Nagybánya was born, a sort of colony ofartists who had a decisive influence on the Hungarian painting of the 20thcentury. His most famous representative was Károly Ferenczy. One of the majorpioneers of the "Op-art" and one of the most famous painters of thiscentury is the Hungarian Victor Vasarely. The silkscreen prints, paintings andthree-dimensional works of Vasarely are totaly non-figurative and draw theirstrength mainly in the optical effects. A museum is dedicated to him in Pécs,his birthplace, and in Budapest.
Music
When the famous composer Franz Liszt returned toBudapest in the last quarter of the 19th century, the Hungarian musical culturetook a new momentum. With Ferenc Erkel, he founded the first Academy of Musicin Budapest. The traditional Hungarian folk music, with the major influence ofgypsy music, was a high point in the exceptionally creative person Béla Bartók,the composer who managed to bring the Hungarian music at European level withoutlosing its authentic popular dimension. This tradition was continued by two ofthe most prominent composers of the 20th century: György Ligeti found its ownanswer to the impasse in the general style in which was the vanguard ofpost-war period. This response was based on texture and musical intensity, andmade him one of the main sources of inspiration for contemporary music. GyörgyKurtag, however, is mainly known for his voice work: he considers the voice asan instrument of potential unsuspected, which allows it to go beyond its usual strictlynarrative role.
