A Pretty Little Village

This town of arts and museums, a cultural paradise for tourists lies at the „gate" of the Danube Bend, at the junction of the plains and hills. A small town with a remarkable Mediterranean athmosphere, it was repopulated (following the expulsion of the Ottoman Turks) by Hungarian, Serb, Dalmatian, Slovak, German and Greek settlers in the 18th century.

Memories of this resurgence are preserved to recent days in the town's southern mood, Baroque-style houses, its seven churches, cobbled streets a narrow alleyways. Szentendre is the home of Open Air Ethnographical Museum called Skanzen, which presents the folk architecture of Hungary's most characteristic regions as well as the lifestyles and homes of inhabitans of villages and market towns.

The Szentendre Picture Gallery and the numerous other galleries record the rich past of the town and its artistic present. The recently opened ArtMill Cultural Centre offers the entire palette of Szentendre fine art in this exibition halls.

After visiting the churches and learning their different masterpiece, guests are recomended to sample „masterpieces" of fine dining: around 50 restaurants in the town serve not only the finest Hungarian dishes but a wide variety of international cuisine too.

Read more: Szentendre - The Village of Arts

Monarchs, ecclesiastical leaders, international politicians, prominent statesmen, well-known scholars and world-renowned artists were often guests at this year's 100th Birthday Hotel in Gellért. Built in the elegant Art Nouveau style of early 20th century palace hotels, this hotel is still one of the most spectacular buildings of the capital and one of the most visited hotels in Budapest. His enthusiasm, among other things, is the breathtaking air of the twentieth century, livening the historical storms and spiritual flutter of the era, drawing a huge arch from the last Habsburg ruler to Oscar-winning Zsigmond Vilmos.

On September 24, 1918, on the day of Saint Gellert, Hotel Gellért Budapest was opened, which was only a month old in history, as it was used for military purposes during the "Revolutionary Revolution" and in October 1918, after Horthy became a headquarters. After the First World War, however, it found its "original role" and its lavish interior spaces, with its beautiful panoramic terraces, became the center of capital's business life. In the same time the hostel entered the gastronomy book. Since its inception, the hotel's restaurants have been rented out to the outstanding professionals of the capital. From 1927 on, none other than Károly Gundel was granted the rental rights. Its activity, which has been practiced for twenty years, was largely due to the fact that the Gellért Hotel became a part of the world's grand hotels and its prestigious events have been the subject of newspaper articles throughout Europe. As the hotel's history describes, Gellért has three famous dishes of Charles Gundel: the Rothermere, the bacon mushroom and the potters' calves of Pittsburgh.

Read more: Danubius Hotel Gellért is 100 years old

Traditions, folk art in Hungary

To this very day the Southern Great Plain abounds in the traditions of a living folk culture. While all round the globe, folk crafts and customs are gathered together in village muse­ums, open-air ethnographical museums and reservations, in this part of the world they continue to live in their original environ­ment and, indeed, take on new life. Master craftsmen and women of a host of different skills will only be too delighted to welcome you into their workshops: saddling, leatherworking, wood carving, mat and basket weaving, pottery making, motif wall painting, plaiting, embroidery, lace-making, egg painting, honey-cake baking, and carpet weaving. Among the very best Southern Great Plain handicrafts it is essential to highlight Halas lace, created using a technique unique in the world. It is possi­ble to see lace-makers at work in the Kiskunhalas House of Lace. Similarly famed are the Kalocsa embroidered folk cos­tumes, motifs of which can be seen repeated on the local pot­tery and on walls, plus there are further studies in the Kalocsa Folk Art House. Visitors to the Hódmezővásárhely embroidery workshop and local potters, the cottage workshops in Tápé, village markets, folk fairs in the towns and Ópusztaszer will see with their own eyes that in the Southern Great Plain traditions are not only preserved in museums.

The greatest variation in folk costumes is to be seen in the region between the Danube and Tisza: practically every settlement has its own costume. One of the most famous embroideries are made in Matyoföld (Mezökövesd). And for those who seek an in-depth understanding of the varied traditions, then the best move is to spend some time in the Hungarian and nationality regional houses which can be found in almost every village.

Our Embroidery Shop  

Read more: Hungarian Folk Arts