Hungarian Conservative

The world-famous Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, and creator of the Kodály method was born 140 years ago on this day.

In a referendum on 14 December 1921, the town of Sopron voted to remain part of Hungary, for which it has been celebrated as the town of loyalty and freedom ever since.

Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka is now recognized as one of the greatest Hungarian painters who ever lived. The artist’s work, however, was discovered only a decade after he died in poverty.

Budapest was unified on 17 November 1873, and in the decades that followed the capital went through remarkable development, becoming the beautiful city that we know today.

178 years ago, Hungarian became the official language of the country.

John C. Swanson’s book Tangible Belonging provides not only a rare insight into the life of German-speaking villagers in Hungary, but also into the complexity of ethnic identity and interwar minority formation.

505 years after Martin Luther published his Ninety-five Theses the Reformation remains one of the pillars of European cultures and societies.

The Herm of St Ladislaus is the most valuable piece of medieval Hungarian metalsmithing and an important symbol of nationhood.

Benedictine monks first settled at the place we now know as Pannonhalma in 996. Today, after well over a thousand years, the monastery is still a vibrant religious community as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

With its magnificent views of Lake Balaton, the fragrance of lavender oil and the physical presence of ancient history, breathtakingly beautiful Tihany still captures the imagination of its visitors.

One of the world’s most famous and popular magicians and illusionists is Hungarian-born American Harry Houdini, whose death-defying acts are watched with great amazement even today.

In just two decades, Mihály Munkácsy emerged from starvation into being one of the most renowned artists of his time, enriching Hungarian art with a multitude of exceptional paintings.

One of the foundational paintings of Hungarian national imagination is the Arrival of the Hungarians by Árpád Feszty.

How do laws change as culture changes, and what effect do they have on our lives? This is the question we strive to answer.

This is Budapest: a big city that dreamed and then built for itself a colourful past during the last decades of the old world, in those final moments before the dawn of modernism.

The revival and reinstatement of tradition, its restoration if you like, is by no means self-contradictory, and constancy is a more important element of tradition than change.