Vajdahunyad Castle ( Hungarian: ''Vajdahunyad vára'') is a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

in the City Park of

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. It is an eclectic collage of multiple landmark buildings from different parts of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

, especially the Hunyad Castle in

Hunedoara Hunedoara (; ; ) is a municipiu, city in Hunedoara County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in southwestern Transylvania near the Poiana Ruscă Mountains, and administers five villages: Boș (''Bós''), Groș (''Grós''), Hășdat (''Hosdát ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. As the castle contains parts of buildings from various time periods, it displays different

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque. The statue by Miklós Ligeti of the chronicler Anonymus is displayed in the castle court. lived in the 12th century. His true identity is unknown, but he was a notary of

Béla III of Hungary Béla III (, , ; 114823 April 1196) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia between 1172 and 1196. He was the second son of King Géza II of Hungary, Géza II and Géza's wife, Euphrosyne of Kiev. Around 1161, Géza granted Béla a du ...

, and he wrote the chronicle

Gesta Hungarorum ''Gesta Hungarorum'', or ''The Deeds of the Hungarians'', is the earliest book about Kingdom of Hungary, Hungarian history which has survived for posterity. Its genre is not chronicle, but ''gesta'', meaning "deeds" or "acts", which is a medie ...

(Deeds of the Hungarians). The external wall of the castle contains a bust of Béla Lugosi, a Hungarian-American actor famous for portraying

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. He is considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been i ...

in the original 1931 film. The castle was designed by Ignác Alpár and built in 1896 as part of the Millennial Exhibition, which celebrated the 1,000 years of Hungary since the

Hungarian Conquest of the Carpathian Basin The Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin, also known as the Hungarian conquest or the Hungarian land-taking (), was a series of historical events ending with the settlement of the Hungarians in Central Europe in the late 9th and early 10t ...

in 895. Originally, it was made from cardboard and wood, but it became so popular that it was rebuilt from stone and brick between 1904 and 1908. Today, the castle houses the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, the biggest agricultural museum in Europe.

Gallery

File:Vajdahunyad Castle, 2011 Budapešť 0140.jpg File:Vajdahunyad vára (16291. számú műemlék) 14.jpg File:Vajdahunyad vára (16291. számú műemlék) 27.jpg File:Anonymus.JPG File:Vajdahunyad vara 21.jpg File:Vajdahunyad Castle, Chapel, Budapest.jpg File:Vajdahunyad vára6.JPG File:Vajdahunyad vára7.JPG

References

Castles in Budapest Agriculture museums in Hungary Museums in Budapest Houses completed in 1908 1908 establishments in Austria-Hungary City Park (Budapest) Replica buildings Military history of Budapest {{Hungary-castle-stub