The Hungarian National Gallery is Hungary’s largest public collection dedicated to charting how the country’s visual arts took shape and evolved. Inside the former Royal Palace of Buda, visitors find permanent and temporary exhibitions, guided tours in multiple languages, themed programs, family days, festivals, and concerts. Kids can dive into creative workshops, art education sessions, and summer camps—all crafted by a major institution that treats play as seriously as craft.
Kids Take the Stage
The recurring November workshop Color It Anew! turns the galleries into a theater lab for children. On November 12, 19, and 26 in Budapest, kids step straight into the worlds painted on the walls, writing stories, acting out scenes, and making the essentials of stagecraft across the sessions: masks, puppets, headdresses, and even a stage set. One day you’re a king or a queen, the next a farmhand or a goose girl—remember, it’s all play.
Sunny Days with Adolf Fényes
November 13 and 27 bring Mama, Look! – Sunny Weekdays, guided tours that spotlight Adolf Fényes, one of the most sensitive Hungarian painters at the turn of the 20th century. His canvases let sunlight wash through modest interiors, turn market scenes lively enough for a fable, and elevate the ordinary to the level of any grand historical tableau. As the tour wanders through quiet landscapes and intimate rooms, it asks how a peasant courtyard stands alongside French Impressionism, what links a veranda in Szolnok to Paris, and what these century-old genre paintings still say about simple joys and sorrows. An English-language version, Look at that, Mom! – Sunny Days, runs November 20, covering Pictures of Tranquillity and Fényes’s work alongside pieces from the permanent collection.
St. Martin’s Day Adventures
November 15 is a family anchor: Adventure at the Gallery – St. Martin’s Day festivities offer two guided tours tailored to different ages. From 10:30 to 11:15, the 6–9 crowd gets a lively walkthrough; 11:30 to 12:15 is for 10–13-year-olds. Also on November 15, a tour dedicated to Adolf Fényes and the Szolnok artists’ colony folds the memorial exhibition The Pictures of Silence. Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) into the story, linking it with relevant works in the permanent show.
Sunday Voices under the Dome
On November 16, the first-floor cupola room fills with harmony as the Diósdi Gellért Choir performs. It’s part of the museum’s Sunday program series, which rotates musical experiences in a uniquely resonant setting.
Toddlers, Salons, and Sparkle
Tipegők – Little Ladies and Gentlemen on November 18 invites the tiniest visitors into the world of elegant homes and salons: how people lived, dressed, and passed the time in days gone by. Later in the season, December 16’s Tipegők – Shooting Stars drifts through winter calm, following a brilliant heavenly sign to medieval altarpieces, listening for angels, and exploring the power of white paint before crafting for the holidays.
The Eight and a Jolt to Modernity
November 22’s pre-announced guided tour The Eight expands on the Lajos Tihanyi retrospective by spotlighting The Eight, the short-lived but seismic group that debuted as the Searchers. They worked together for only three years, from 1909 to 1912, staging three joint exhibitions—yet their impact rattled Hungary’s cultural and visual art scenes like a scientific and technological revolution.
Crypt to Dome: Secrets of a Palace
Two architecture tours bookend the month and Advent. Explore the Gallery – From the Crypt to the Dome on November 23 opens the building’s hidden marvels: the Habsburg Palatine Crypt and the sweeping panorama from the cupola. The Hungarian version, Building Walk – From the Crypt to the Dome, repeats November 30, and returns for the Advent Building Walk on December 14. Each tour folds in the story of the museum and its rich collection as you traverse the palace’s special corners.
Tihanyi 140: A Vision Forged in Silence
On November 27, Rebel Forms, Bold Colors – The Art of Lajos Tihanyi marks the artist’s 140th birthday with a major retrospective of paintings, graphics, and personal objects. Tihanyi, who lost his hearing in childhood, conjured color and form from silence, building a striking visual language outside academic training. He became a singular voice of The Eight and one of 20th-century Hungarian painting’s most original figures. A broader Tihanyi 140 exhibition runs November 21 to February 15, anchoring the season.
Lectures, Tea, and Occult Currents
The program stretches further with a constellation of talks and rituals. November 29 features The Last Painter of Beauty: Adolf Fényes, an art history lecture by Gábor Bellák that deepens the exhibitions with stories and details best glimpsed under the magnifying glass. Spiritual currents ripple through The Breathing Light: Spiritism, Theosophy, and Buddhism in turn-of-the-century Hungary, on view April 30 to March 1, and a November 21 talk, OCCULT SCIENCES YESTERDAY AND TODAY | Anton Rozman on Adelma von Vay’s spiritism and theosophy. Authentic Japanese tea ceremonies steep November 13 and 15 in quiet ritual, while Endre Tót’s Night Visit to the Museum carries visitors November 6 to March 1 through conceptual nocturnes.
Advent Warm-Up: Gold and Grace
December switches to a festive hum. Mama, Look! – Maternal Parallels on December 4 traces the most depicted mother and child—Jesus and the Virgin Mary—across panel paintings and sculptures, from the Middle Ages to modern and contemporary art. Create! – Golden Holiday on December 6 tells Saint Nicholas’s legend, glows with Gothic altars, and gets hands gilded: after the tour, participants decorate small tablecloths in gold paint with altar-inspired motifs. December 10’s Mental Fitness – The Christmas Miracle invites visitors to absorb the season’s quiet beauty through paintings and altars, then create in the workshop.
Ongoing Exhibitions and Year-Round Buzz
The Pictures of Silence. Adolf Fényes (1867–1945) runs October 10 to January 11. The Breathing Light spans late spring to early March. Tihanyi 140 takes the stage November 21 to mid-February. The Eight returns November 22 for a focused tour. And across 2025, the Buda Castle District’s program calendar hums from January 1 to December 31.
