Museum of Applied Arts

The Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest, located on Üllői út, is one of the most emblematic and representative buildings of Art Nouveau in Hungary. Founded in 1872 by the Hungarian Parliament, the museum was the third in the world dedicated to applied arts, following the examples of London and Vienna. The current building, inaugurated in 1896 as part of the celebrations of the Hungarian millennium, was designed by the renowned architects Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos. The museum stands out for its extraordinary architecture, which blends elements of the Renaissance and Baroque with influences from Hungarian folk art and oriental architecture, including Indian and Islamic. The structure is topped by a huge dome decorated with green-yellow ceramic tiles from the famous Zsolnay factory in Pécs, making the building easily recognizable from afar. Inside, the museum surprises with its grandeur: a large hall illuminated by a glass roof, surrounded by two-story arcades decorated with intricate ornamental motifs, creates an enchanted atmosphere. Visitors are welcomed into an environment that evokes oriental opulence, with decorations that immediately capture attention. The mission of the Museum of Applied Arts is to collect, document, and study works of applied art, preserving and exhibiting them as part of the Hungarian and international cultural heritage. With a collection of approximately 100,000 works, the museum offers a comprehensive overview of the history of applied arts, from medieval ceramics to contemporary pieces. Among its collections are works of ceramics, furniture, glass, metal objects, and textiles, many of which come from world fairs and donations from prestigious companies such as the Herend porcelain factory and Zsolnay itself. The museum saw a significant expansion of its collections between the late 1940s and early 1960s, a period during which many objects were saved from large mansions and palaces and transferred to the museum. After the communist takeover in 1948, many independent private collections were absorbed by the museum, including pieces from the Zichy and Vigyázó aristocratic collections. Despite the temporary closure for major renovation works that began in 2017, the Museum of Applied Arts continues to fulfill its mission through temporary exhibitions and educational programs hosted at the Villa György Ráth, which displays a selection of Art Nouveau style works from the museum. The museum’s reopening is planned for the future, with the goal of welcoming visitors back in its full magnificence.