Budapest Art Nouveau Tour: Decadence & Design

Budapest abounds in exquisite Art Nouveau structures and interiors, the radical design style that swept across turn-of-century Europe within architecture, applied arts, and fine art. Hungary developed its own cutting-edge take on the movement, known as Hungarian Secession, exemplified in its founding father, Ödön Lechner, featuring the use of porcelain along with Asian motifs and elements. This 3-hour Art Nouveau walking tour of Budapest scratches the surface of a city filled with beautiful examples of this cutting-edge aesthetic, highlighted by an expert art/architecture historian as your guide.

Admire the 2 most important buildings, the Palace of the Royal Post and Gresham Palace. Fortunately, both buildings allow visitors into the entrance hall, so you can take in the wonderful details on the outside, and also enjoy a peek at the interior as your guide tells you about Art Nouveau design elements.

Other stops on this walk include a flower shop with its original interior, a department store, several bank offices, and a small but exquisite Art Nouveau museum and coffee house. Examine a series of ceramics from the renowned Zsolnay factory in Pécs, a town in the south of Hungary. The extensive use of such ceramics on buildings is a characteristic feature of Hungarian Art Nouveau.

Another typical Hungarian Art Nouveau feature is the use of Asian motifs and elements. This is in reference to the supposed eastern origins of the Hungarian nation, although you will also hear about the European-wide Orientalism that influenced Art Nouveau.

You will finish the tour with a new appreciation for the glamor, energy and radical design sensibilities of Budapest's Belle Époque.

Know before you go:

• Some aspects of the tour are dependent on the day of the week. On weekends you cannot enter the Hungarian National Bank, which has some very fine examples of Zsolnay porcelain. The Orthodox Synagogue with its exquisite Art Nouveau interior is closed on Saturdays
• In these cases, the tour can be adapted to your particular interests or extended to include some of the other Art Nouveau jewels of Budapest, such as the Gellért • Bath Hotel, the Museum of Applied Arts, and the Geology Museum
• Additional costs may be incurred if one or both of these sites are open on the day of your tour:
• House of Hungarian Art Nouveau: 1000 HUF per person (approximately $3.50)
• Orthodox Synagogue on Kazinczy street: 2000 HUF per person (approximately $7.00)