Hungary is a cultural superpower in a small country — the Liszt Academy, the Kodály Method, Bartók's folk music, Imre Kertész's Nobel Prize in Literature, three Oscars for film (István Szabó, László Nemes, Ildikó Enyedi), the Sziget Festival, and UNESCO-listed Halas lace together form Hungary's cultural identity. Let us explore the most important elements of Hungarian culture.
The Liszt Academy and world-famous Hungarian composers
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) founded the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in 1875 — today one of the world's most prestigious music higher education institutions. Its graduates include Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernő Dohnányi, György Ligeti, György Kurtág. The Art Nouveau building on Andrássy Avenue is itself a sight.
The Kodály Method — Hungary's contribution to world music education
The Kodály Method, developed by Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) — musical education based on Hungarian folk songs — is one of the world's most effective ways of teaching music to children. UNESCO inscribed it on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2016. Used in thousands of schools in Japan, the USA, Canada, and Europe. In the early 20th century, Kodály and Bartók collected 10,000 Hungarian folk songs using a phonograph on their village journeys.
Nobel Prize in Literature — Imre Kertész 2002
Imre Kertész (1929-2016) — Auschwitz survivor — won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature „for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". His main work, Fatelessness (1975), is one of the most important novels of 20th-century Hungarian literature — the account of a 15-year-old boy in the death camps.
Petőfi, Ady, Attila József — saints of Hungarian poetry
Sándor Petőfi (1823-1849) — the national poet. His National Song („Rise, Hungarian, the fatherland calls!") sparked the 1848 revolution. He disappeared aged 26 at the Battle of Segesvár. Endre Ady (1877-1919) — the most important figure of modern Hungarian poetry, leader of the „Nyugat" journal circle. Attila József (1905-1937) — the voice of proletarian Budapest, took his own life at 32 under a train at Balatonszárszó station.
Sándor Márai and Hungarian prose
Sándor Márai (1900-1989) — bourgeois writer who chronicled the life and decline of the Hungarian middle class. His main work, Embers (1942), became a global bestseller after its 1998 Italian retranslation — translated into over 30 languages. Márai emigrated in 1948, lived in San Diego, where he took his own life at 89. Only after his death did he become popular again in Hungary.
Hungarian cinema — three Oscars
István Szabó won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1982 for Mephisto (starring Klaus Maria Brandauer). László Nemes won it in 2016 for Son of Saul — a film about the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz. Ildikó Enyedi won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2018 with On Body and Soul.
Béla Tarr — one of the most radical directors in film history — earned international fame with his seven-hour film Sátántangó (1994). Susan Sontag called him „one of the creators of cinema's current golden age".
Museums and galleries
Hungarian National Gallery in Buda Castle — the largest collection of Hungarian art with works by Mihály Munkácsy, József Rippl-Rónai, Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka. Museum of Fine Arts — one of Europe's most important museums of Old Master paintings (Raphael, Titian, Velázquez, El Greco, Goya). Museum of Applied Arts in Ödön Lechner's Art Nouveau building. House of Terror — museum for the victims of the Arrow Cross and communist terror.
The Táncház movement
Launched in 1972, the Táncház (Dance House) movement — revitalisation of Hungarian folk music and dance — is on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Young urban intellectuals gathered the traditions of Transylvanian villages and transformed them into a living community culture. The csárdás, verbunkos, and Kalotaszeg dances are still alive. Budapest has dozens of táncház sessions each week.
Halas lace, matyó embroidery, Herend porcelain
Halas lace — hand-sewn since 1902 in Kiskunhalas — UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Even a small piece requires weeks of work. Matyó embroidery — from the Mezőkövesd area — colourful, flower-filled embroidery, UNESCO since 2012. Herend porcelain — luxury porcelain produced since 1826, supplier to many royal and state courts of the world. Zsolnay porcelain from Pécs — unique Art Nouveau pieces with eosin glazes.
UNESCO World Heritage — 8 Hungarian sites
- Budapest — the Danube Banks and Buda Castle (1987)
- Old village of Hollókő (1987) — living Palóc folk culture
- Aggtelek Karst (1995) — Europe's longest stalactite cave
- Pannonhalma Benedictine Abbey (1996) — 1000-year-old monastery
- Hortobágy National Park (1999) — puszta
- Early Christian necropolis of Pécs (2000) — 4th-century burial chambers
- Lake Fertő / Neusiedler See (2001) — shared with Austria
- Tokaj Wine Region (2002) — one of the world's oldest demarcated wine regions
Festivals — Sziget and Hungarian music culture
The Sziget Festival — one of Europe's largest music festivals, since 1993 every August on Budapest's Óbudai Island. Over 500,000 visitors over 7 days from more than 60 countries. Performers have included Prince, David Bowie, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters. „The Island of Freedom" — a complete cultural festival with over 60 venues and 1,000 performers.
Other important festivals: Valley of Arts (Kapolcs, July), Budapest Wine Festival, Balaton Sound, Ozora Psychedelic Festival (one of the world's largest psy-trance festivals).
Folk traditions and holidays
Easter Monday — locsolkodás: men sprinkle women with water (in cities today, more often with cologne) reciting a rhyme, in exchange receiving painted eggs. An ancient fertility ritual. Christmas — szaloncukor: sweets wrapped in shiny paper hung on the Christmas tree, a 200-year-old Hungarian tradition. New Year's Eve — bean goulash and sausages. Shrove-tide — busójárás at Mohács: a masked carnival procession — UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Hungarian cuisine as cultural identity
Hungarian cuisine — a potential candidate for World Heritage status — is one of the most important expressions of Hungarian national identity. Goulash, pörkölt, halászlé, stuffed cabbage, Dobos torte, Gundel pancakes, kürtőskalács, langos. Michelin-starred modern innovation in Hungarian cuisine has revived traditional flavours over the past 20 years. Budapest has more than 7 Michelin-starred restaurants.