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Photo: Gothika, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The library was founded in 1802 by the highly patriotic Hungarian aristocrat Count Ferenc Széchényi. Széchényi traveled the world buying Hungarian books, which he assembled and donated to the nation. In the following year the public library was opened in Pest. Széchényi's example resulted in a nationwide movement of book donations to the library. In 1808, the Hungarian National Assembly ("Diet") created the Hungarian National Museum to collect the historical, archaeological and natural relics of Hungary. The Museum was merged into the Library and for the last 200 years this is how it has existed, a national depository for written, printed and objective relics of the Hungarian past. In 1846, the Hungarian National Museum moved into its new building but it was not until 1949 that the Library became a separate entity again, with its current name. In 1985, the library moved to its new home at the Royal Palace. There is a permanent exhibition entitled “Library of the nation – a workshop of service” on Floor 5. The museum presents the intellectual environment and the actual objects used by librarians and readers between 1802 and 1985.
The National Széchényi Library (OSZK) is a library in Budapest, Hungary, located in Buda Castle. It is one of the two Hungarian national libraries, the other being University of Debrecen Library.
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Szent István-terem
A richly decorated hall was built in 1902. It was destroyed in World War II, and rebuilt in 2021.
Oroszlános kapu
Two pairs of lions guard the monumental gate leading into Lion's Court. The four statues are the works of János Fadrusz from 1901. The animals standing on the outer side of the gate are menacing, while the inner ones are calm and dignified. One lion was broken in two pieces during the war, but it was recreated in the 1950s.
Vármúzeum
It's the Medieval Department of the Budapest History Museum. Permanent exhibitions, over four floors: ancient people, antique cultures and temporary exhibitions. The restored part of the medieval castle, including the Royal Chapel and the rib-vaulted Gothic Hall, belongs to the exhibition. The highlights of the exhibition are the Gothic statues of Buda Castle and a 14th-century silk tapestry decorated with the Angevin coats of arms. Small gardens were recreated in the medieval zwingers around the oldest parts of the building.
Várkápolna, Alamizsnás Szent János-kápolna
The chapel was built by Sigismund of Luxembourg in the 15th century as the lower chapel of the former castle church. The Gothic chapel, which survived the destruction of the siege of 1686, was buried under a Baroque terrace for centuries. After its reconstruction in 1963, it became part of the exhibition of the Castle Museum.
Mátyás kútja
This spectacular fountain shows a group of hunters led by King Matthias Corvinus together with hounds, a killed deer, Galeotto Marzio with a hawk, and Ilonka Szép with a doe. This group of people stands between fallen rocks with water running down into a basin. The fountain was made by sculptor Alajos Stróbl. The dead deer was modelled upon a majestic stag killed in 1896 by poachers in the forest owned by Stróbl.
Csikós-szobor
The statue of the Hortobágy horseherd taming a wild horse used to stand in front of the Royal Riding Hall. It is the work of György Vastagh from 1901. The statue was displayed in the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900). The damaged statue was removed during the 1960s, but it was later restored and erected in the western forecourt of the palace in 1983.