National Gallery in Budapest exhibits art of epic Hungarian history

by Sean McLachlan on


The Hungarian capital of Budapest is a popular destination for those who love high art and culture. Its sumptuous National Gallery is famed across Europe, and now it’s putting on a new exhibition highlighting the nation’s history.

Heroes, Kings, Saints – Pictures and Memories of Hungarian History brings together some of the masterpieces of 19th century Hungarian painting. This was a high point in Hungarian art and a time when artists looked to the past for inspiration. Several rarely seen works of art will be on display, including Conquest (The entry of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin) painted by Mihály Munkácsy in in 1893 for the Hungarian parliament.

Part of this epic painting is shown above, courtesy Marta Pataki. The original is 15 meters (49 feet) long.

The exhibition was opened this week by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The exhibition marks Hungary’s new constitution, which came into effect at the beginning of the year. An article in the Guardian notes that while Orbán was opening the exhibit, thousands demonstrated outside the gallery against what they say are his increasingly authoritarian tendencies and the new Constitution’s granting of more power to the executive.

With the nation so deep in crisis, Orbán’s every move, even appearing at a gallery opening, are subject to public comment.

Heroes, Kings, Saints – Pictures and Memories of Hungarian History runs until August 26.

Hungary’s clown-shaped electrical towers

by Elizabeth Seward on

I never really imagined that I’d see clown-shaped electrical towers anywhere, but Hungary’s clown-shaped electrical towers have proven that what I imagine, or don’t imagine, has no bearing on reality. Laughing Squid recently published some photos of electrical towers throughout Hungary that are so creative that I hardly believe they actually exist. Constructed in the shape of clowns (yes, clowns, like the ones that wear makeup and perform at children’s birthday parties), these high voltage electrical towers are, if nothing else, unique. Installed by MAVIR (the Hungarian transmission system operator), the goal seems to be to “humanize” gigantic scale landmarks. Wish these were in your country? Happy that they aren’t? Take a look and share your opinion with us.

Photo of the day: Budapest mist

by Elizabeth Seward on

I have never visited Hungary or Budapest, but this photo by Christoph Sahle of a misty day in Budapest makes me want to. Touring musicians, travel writers, and wandering friends have warned me of the city’s immense beauty, telling me I’ll never want to leave should I ever go. Well, those kinds of places are precisely the kinds of places I want to visit. I suspect they are the kinds of places you want to visit, too. I have traveled many a time to places that I enjoyed visiting, but, while there, also looked forward to leaving. Normally those places don’t fall into any decent spot on my personal top travel spot list, though. The places I love most and look the most fondly back on tend to be the places I don’t ever want to leave. Furthermore, I have been living in Austin, Texas for nearly a year now. Having grown up in Ohio and proceeding the live in New York City for 8 years, I am not used to the weather down here–particularly not in this horrible drought. I miss the mist like this so much; I miss the thick fog and the good excuse to curl up with a cup of tea and a book. Maybe that makes me sound like an old lady, and if that is the case, label be so. But these kinds of photos remind me of the beauty in the rain.

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Mummies of the World exhibition opens in Philadelphia

by Sean McLachlan on


Mummies are endlessly fascinating. To see a centuries-old body so well preserved brings the past vividly to life. While Egyptian mummies get most of the press, bodies in many regions were mummified by natural processes after being deposited in peat bogs or very dry caves.

Mummies of the World is a state-of-the-art exhibition bringing together 150 mummies and related artifacts. It opened last weekend at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia after successful runs in L.A. and Milwaukee. Visitors will see mummified people and animals from all over the world and learn how they came to be so well preserved.

Besides the required collection of ancient Egyptians, there are numerous mummies from other regions, such as this prehistoric man from the Atacama Desert in Chile.

%Gallery-126801%From South America there’s the famous Detmold child from Peru, dated to 4504-4457 B.C., more than 3,000 years before the birth of King Tutankhamen. This ten-month-old kid was naturally preserved by the incredibly dry climate of the Peruvian desert. There’s also a tattooed woman from Chile dating to sometime before 1400 AD who also dried out in a desert.

From Germany there’s Baron von Holz, who died in the 17th century and was preserved in the family crypt. Then there’s the Orlovits family: Michael, Veronica, and their baby Johannes. They were discovered in a forgotten crypt in Vac, Hungary, in 1994, where they had been buried in the early nineteenth century. The cool, dry conditions of the crypt and the pine wood used in their caskets helped preserve them.

There are animal mummies too. There’s a mummified cat from the Ptolemaic Period (305-30 BC), the same time in Egypt that the mummy portraits started coming into fashion. There are several naturally preserved mummies such as frogs, a lizard, a hyena, and even a howler monkey that dried out in desert conditions and are on display.

Several interactive exhibits give visitors a chance to see where mummies come from, how they were preserved naturally or artificially, and what they feel like. Visitors can even match DNA samples to see which mummies are related.

Mummies of the World runs until 23 October 2011.

[All photos courtesy American Exhibitions, Inc.]

Five great European thermal baths

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Before the spa revolution saw most upscale hotels offering spa services to guests, there was the venerable European spa town tradition, centered on thermal baths built around natural hot springs. The water on offer for bathing at these sites has historically been thought to possess therapeutic qualities. The tradition of taking a “cure” remains an enthusiastic habit across Europe today, in particular in Central Europe.

Here are five noteworthy thermal baths, in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, and France.

1. Bad Gleichenberg, Austria. This small Styrian town is home to a thermal bath with a grand history that stretches back to Roman times. There are seven springs here, all producing mineral-rich waters known for their beneficial effects against respiratory and skin problems.

2. Bad Nauheim, Germany. North of Frankfurt, this town’s waters are meant to be particularly good for the treatment of heart and nerve disorders. These waters have a salt content of three percent, as high as most seawater. At Therme am Park, day tickets for bathing begin at €15.

3. Széchenyi, Hungary. Europe’s largest thermal baths are the most urban of the handful profiles here, located as they are in Budapest’s City Park. These waters are supposed to have great therapeutic value for those suffering from joint ailments.

4. Therme Vals, Switzerland. This spa, designed by the in-demand Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, benefits both from architectural significance and an impossibly picturesque location in the mountains of Graubünden. Vals is also the source of Valser mineral water.

5. Alet les Bains, France. This southwestern French village, not far from Carcassonne, is but a speck on the map. Since 1886, water sourced here has been bottled for consumption. During the warmer months (May through September) the town’s thermal baths are opened to the public. The waters here are supposedly very good for the treatment of digestive and metabolic problems.

[Image: Flickr | karaian]