Located in Budapest's City Park, Vajdahunyad Castle was built by IgnacAlpar, who designed the castle after an existing castle located in Transylvania, Romania. Today the castle sits on the edge of City park, housing the Agricultural Museum of Budapest and is a top attraction in the city. The castle was originally built for the millennium celebrations in Budapest in 1896 out of wood and cardboard to put on display the different types of architectural stylings in the region. The Castle was quite popular and thus was reconstructed as a permanent attraction.
With its ideal location right on the edge of City Park, nearby many other top attractions of the city, this is a very popular attraction for visitors coming to view the castle and proceed on to viewing the agricultural Museum inside. With an ornate gated entry and a moat, the castle while not medieval, is a fantastically designed replica. There may be no better location to spend a summer day in Budapest than at the City Park and setting up a picnic while relaxing and overlooking the water feature that lies in front of the castle provides the ideal setting for a bit of downtime to break up your day's sightseeing efforts.
This attraction stands out like a sore thumb within the modern cityscape in Budapest; however this is something that seems to add to its allure as a top attraction within the city. Nearby one can enjoy the Szechenyi Baths, Museum of Fine Arts, Palace of the Arts as well as Heroes square, all of which are great sights to see when in this area of the city. One may feel as if they have been swept into a Dracula novel upon approaching the Castle, as the daunting and intimidating architectural styles are resemblent of what we might hear described in a Bram Stoker novel. The interior of the castle is also appealing and though it houses the Museum of Agriculture, this is still quite a site to take in all on its own. Guided tours are available here in multiple languages and this makes for a great group activity when in this part of the city.
The Museum of Agriculture within the Castle holds eight permanent exhibitions as well as a slew of rotation exhibits. The history of Hungarian Agriculture before 1945 is one of these exhibits which feature a wealth of knowledge on agriculture in the region dating back thousands of years. Other popular exhibits include the forestry, history of domesticated animals and the history of fishing exhibits, each of which explain in detail these important topics and their contribution to the culture and food supply in the region throughout history. The museum is open Tuesday- Sunday from 10-5 with the exception of the slower season from November 1 st through March 31 st where it is open from 10-4 on these days. Set aside some time to come explore the castle and surrounding attractions on your next trip to Budapest, a few hours should do the trick.
