Budapest’s Hungarian National Gallery, the country’s largest public collection documenting the birth and evolution of Hungarian fine art, is going big for late 2025. Expect a full calendar: permanent and temporary exhibitions, guided tours in multiple languages, themed programs, family days, festivals, and concerts. Kids get plenty too, from creative workshops to art education sessions and summer camps. Here’s what to circle on your calendar from November through December—plus a few longer-run highlights to carry you into 2026.
Kids Take the Stage
November turns into theater month for children with Color It Anew!—a museum studio series for kids on November 12, 19, and 26. The gallery becomes a stage as young visitors step into the world of artworks and try on different roles. They’ll write and perform stories while crafting the essentials of theater across sessions: masks, puppets, headpieces, and even stage sets. Kings and queens, farmhands and gooseherds—everything is play, and that’s the point. Location: Budapest.
Sunlight and Quiet Moments
On November 13 and 27, the family-friendly tour Mom, Look!—Sunny Weekdays explores the tender world of Adolf Fényes (1867–1945). Not a household name for everyone, but his canvases illuminate even the humblest interiors, bring market scenes to shimmering life, and treat everyday moments with the weight of history. As you roam through serene landscapes and intimate interiors, you’ll hear how a peasant courtyard coexists in the shadow of French Impressionism, why a veranda in Szolnok might whisper of Paris, and what these century-old genre scenes reveal about simple joys and sorrows long ago. Budapest.
Márton Day Adventures
On November 15, Adventure at the Gallery—Márton Day festivities offer two age-tuned guided tours: 10:30–11:15 for ages 6–9, and 11:30–12:15 for ages 10–13. Also on the 15th: a guided visit to Adolf Fényes and the Szolnok Artists’ Colony, diving into The Pictures of Silence: Memorial Exhibition of Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) and related works in the permanent displays. Budapest.
Music Under the Dome
Sunday, November 16, brings a choral concert under the first-floor dome: the Diósdi Gellért Choir performs as part of varied Sunday music offerings. Budapest.
Toddler Time
Tots get their own November program on the 18th with Toddlers—Young Ladies and Gentlemen, a peek into elegant homes and salons of the past: how people lived, dressed, and spent their days. Budapest.
English-Language Highlights
On November 20, Look at that, Mom!—Sunny Days is an English guided tour through Pictures of Tranquillity, pairing Fényes’s works with the permanent collection. Budapest.
The Nyolcak Jolt
November 22 features a scheduled guided tour tied to Lajos Tihanyi’s career retrospective, introducing the artists’ group the Nyolcak (The Eight). Initially appearing as the Seekers, they collaborated for only three years, from 1909 to 1912, with three joint exhibitions. The impact? As disruptive as a scientific and technological revolution, shaking up Hungarian cultural and visual life. Budapest.
From Crypt to Sky
On November 23, Explore the Gallery—From the Crypt to the Dome reveals the secrets of the former Royal Palace of Buda and the collection within. You’ll visit the Habsburg Palatine Crypt and take in the beautiful view from the dome. The same tour returns, in Hungarian, as Building Walk—From the Crypt to the Dome on November 30, and again as an Advent Building Walk on December 14. Budapest.
Tihanyi at 140
November 27 launches Rebel Forms, Bold Colors—The Art of Lajos Tihanyi, celebrating the 140th anniversary of Tihanyi’s birth with an exceptional retrospective: major paintings, graphics, and personal objects. Tihanyi, who lost his hearing in childhood, forged color and form from silence, finding a singular voice without academic training. His distinctive visual language made him a defining figure of the Nyolcak (The Eight) and one of the most original artists in 20th-century Hungarian painting. Budapest.
Lectures and Deep Dives
On November 29, The Last Painter of Beauty: Adolf Fényes is a lecture by art historian Gábor Bellák. The series expands on what exhibitions can’t easily show, offering stories, connections, and curiosities—everything you spot only under a magnifying glass. Budapest.
Holiday Season, Turned Up
December gets festive. December 4: Mom, Look!—Maternal Parallels searches for the most depicted mother-and-child pair in art—Mary and Jesus—across panel paintings and sculptures, tracing how the timeless theme returns in the Middle Ages, then in modern and contemporary art. December 6: Create!—Golden Holiday invites you into St. Nicholas’s legend and the glow of Gothic altars, ending with gilded table runner decorating inspired by altar motifs. December 10: Mind Fitness—Christmas Miracle is an Advent program drifting through paintings and altars to tap into the season’s quiet depths, then creating in the workshop. Budapest.
Guided Tours in Italian—and Tea from Japan
December 12 offers Visita guidata in italiano, a tour of classic Hungarian masterpieces from the Middle Ages to today, with a special focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. Dante might even make a cameo among the canvases. And on December 18: Christmas Chakai, an authentic Japanese tea ceremony, holiday edition. Budapest.
Long-Run Exhibitions and Extras
Breathing Light | Spiritism, Theosophy, and Buddhism at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries in Hungary runs April 30, 2025 to March 1, 2026. The Pictures of Silence: Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) Memorial Exhibition spans October 10, 2025 to January 11, 2026. Endre Tót: Night Visit to the Museum runs November 6, 2025 to March 1, 2026. On November 21, Occult Sciences Then and Now features Anton Rozman on the Spiritism and Theosophy of Adelma von Vay, while Tihanyi 140: Lajos Tihanyi (1885–1938) career retrospective runs November 21, 2025 to February 15, 2026. Want to branch out? November 22 brings Year-End Gardening at the Hopp Villa: how to prepare your gardens for winter. And all year, from January 1 to December 31, 2025, the Buda Castle District has programs to keep your calendar full.
