Things to do in Budapest today
Monday 12 October
Concerts, free sessions and one-offs happening in Budapest today.
Photo: Várkert Bazár 1. Fények, színek, illatok, Italy in Hungarian art
17 August to 15 October, outdoors in the Neo-Renaissance garden, open 06:00 to 24:00
Várkert Bazár, the ramp up to the Gloriett, District I
A free open-air show of Hungarian artists' Italy, in reproductions framed along the ramp that climbs to the Gloriett. The work labels are in English as well as Hungarian.
Photo: Hungarian National Museum 2. Treasure of the month: a thaler hoard from Somló Hill
31 August to 18 October, 10:00 to 18:00 every day except Monday
Hungarian National Museum, District VIII
Twenty-seven silver thalers, turned up by a plough at the foot of Somló Hill in June and in a case in Budapest by the end of the summer. They went into the ground during the Fifteen Years' War and nobody ever came back for them.
3. Országos Étterem Hét, Hungary's restaurant week
1 to 18 October, lunch and dinner sittings, booked ahead
Restaurants across Budapest and beyond
More than 160 Budapest restaurants put on a three-course set menu for eighteen days, booked ahead through one website. It is the run of the year to try a kitchen you would otherwise walk past.
4. Liszt Fest across Budapest
8 to 22 October, times vary by event, most concerts in the evening
Müpa Budapest and venues across the city
Müpa Budapest's autumn festival takes over concert halls, museums and clubs for a fortnight. Orchestral and chamber music, dance, jazz, electronic sets, literature and exhibitions all sit on the same programme.
Photo: Mai Manó Ház 5. Zola the photographer at the Mai Manó House
3 September to 25 October, Tuesday to Sunday 12:00 to 19:00, last entry 18:30
Mai Manó Ház, District VI
Émile Zola picked up a camera at forty-eight and never put it down. This is what came of it, a hundred or so prints of the novelist's private world.
6. Idő-Állomás, Bálint Szajki's railway photographs
30 September to 29 October, opening 30 September at 19:00, then on show to 29 October, with a curator's tour on 20 October at 17:00
B32 Galéria és Kultúrtér, District XI
A press photographer spent months on the Hungarian railways, and these are the pictures. Free to see, in the gallery on Bartók Béla út.
7. Kék Pelikán exhibition at the KULT7 Labor
2 to 29 October, opens at 18:00 on 2 October, with a guided tour and a screening at 18:00 on 13 October
KULT7 Labor, District VII
The small upstairs gallery on Király utca gives October to Kék Pelikán, the Hungarian animated documentary, and shows the material the film was built out of. Nothing to pay to walk in.
Photo: Mária Óvári / Fővárosi Szabó Ervin Könyvtár 8. Fényrétegek, photographs by Mária Óvári
2 to 30 October, Monday, Wednesday and Friday 13:00 to 19:00, Tuesday and Thursday 10:00 to 16:00, closed at weekends and on 14 and 23 October
Karinthy Frigyes Könyvtár, District XI
A set of photographs hung among the shelves of the Karinthy Frigyes library in Újbuda. Free, and you see it whenever the library is open.
9. Öveket becsatolni! at the Északi Járműjavító
20 June to 31 October, Wednesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:00, closed on 1 October
Északi Járműjavító, District X
The transport museum's show on how getting about was made safer, laid out in the old railway works that will become its new home. The title means fasten your seatbelts.
Photo: Hungarian National Museum 10. The American Dream, Hungarians in the United States 1776 to 2026
30 July to 1 November, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00
Hungarian National Museum, District VIII
Two and a half centuries of Hungarian lives in America, told through the objects and personal mementoes that survived overseas. It fills the grandest rooms the National Museum has.
Photo: KMO Művelődési Központ és Könyvtár 11. Edit Szalma: Képjegyzetek
22 September to 8 November, Monday to Thursday 08:00 to 16:00, Friday usually the same, weekends depending on what else is on
Előtér Galéria, KMO Művelődési Központ, District XIX
Edit Szalma draws for books and poems, and this free show in the KMO’s foyer gallery hangs the results as art in their own right rather than as illustrations.
Photo: Fővárosi Állat- és Növénykert 12. World Press Photo 2026 at Budapest Zoo
25 September to 8 November, Monday to Thursday and Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Friday, Saturday and 23 October 10:00 to 20:00
Biodóm lobby, Budapest Zoo, District XIV
The year's winning press photographs, shown in the Biodóm lobby at the zoo. It is sold on its own ticket, separate from zoo admission, and keeps its own hours.
13. The 44th Hungarian Press Photo exhibition
16 September to 8 November, Tuesday to Friday 13:00 to 18:00, weekends 10:00 to 18:00
Capa Center, Nagymező utca, District VI
The year in Hungarian press photography, picked by an international jury from several thousand entries and hung at the Capa Center.
Photo: Eötvös10 14. Aranymetszés: painters on the golden section
8 October to 8 November, opens 8 October at 17:00, then daily 10:00 to 18:00
Eötvös10 Pincegaléria, District VI
The painting section of the Hungarian Association of Fine and Applied Artists fills the cellar gallery at Eötvös10 with work shaped by the golden section, as part of the Day of Hungarian Painting.
Photo: MáraiKult 15. Napfivér: three painters in the Mária Magdolna tower
8 October to 9 November, opening 8 October at 18:00, then open to visitors from 9 October to 9 November
Mária Magdolna Tower, Kapisztrán tér, District I
Three painters hang new work inside the medieval bell tower that is all that survives of the church of St Mary Magdalene, high in the Castle District. Entry costs nothing.
16. Múzeumok Őszi Fesztiválja, the autumn museum festival
28 September to 15 November, times vary by museum
Museums across Hungary, Budapest included
Close to 150 museums across Hungary open up for seven weeks of tours, workshops and talks. The Budapest and central Hungary listing is the longest of any region, but this is a national festival, so check where a programme actually is before you set off.
Photo: Angyalföldi József Attila Művelődési Központ 17. Alkotás Öröme, a handicraft exhibition
7 October to 15 November, opens at 15:00 on 7 October, then weekdays 08:00 to 20:00 and at weekends when the centre has something on
Angyalföldi József Attila Művelődési Központ, District XIII
Members of the District XIII club of the Budapest association for people with motor disabilities show what they have been making, under a title that means the joy of making. Tablecloths, sewing boxes, jewellery, dolls and pieces for the home, and nothing to pay.
Photo: Műcsarnok 18. László György Sáros: From Details, Space Itself
18 September to 15 November, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Thursday 12:00 to 20:00, closed Mondays, last entry at 17:30 and at 19:30 on Thursdays. The exhibitions close at 17:00 on 20 and 29 October
Műcsarnok, District XIV
The buildings and the photographs of one of the leading figures in Hungarian organic architecture, shown together in the Műcsarnok's Box space.
Photo: Budapest Gallery 19. My heart is crying inside: grief works
4 September to 22 November, 10:00 to 18:00 every day except Monday
Budapest Gallery, Lajos utca, District III
A group show about mourning, and about how completely late capitalist society has pushed death out of ordinary life. Flóra Gadó has gathered a dozen artists on private loss, on care for the dying, and on the rituals communities have lost or rebuilt.
Photo: Műcsarnok 20. József Árendás's posters and drawings at the Műcsarnok
25 September to 22 November, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Thursday 12:00 to 20:00, closed Mondays, last entry half an hour before closing
Műcsarnok, District XIV
A condensed retrospective of one of the big names in Hungarian cultural poster design, mounted for his eightieth birthday. Film posters from the 1970s, the theatre posters he began in the eighties, and the ones he has since made purely as art.
21. The Treasures of King Louis I (the Great) of Hungary
5 March to 31 December, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00
Hungarian National Museum, Medieval Lapidary, District VIII
A cabinet display of goldsmiths' work, gold coin and finds from the king's seat at Visegrád, from a reign that made medieval Hungary one of the richest kingdoms in Europe. It sits in the museum's Medieval Lapidary.
Photo: Deák17 Galéria 22. LAK|HATÁS, housing seen by young artists
25 September to 8 January
Városháza Park, District V
An open-air show in the park behind City Hall, on what home means to people starting out. The Deák17 gallery picked the work from an open call and hung it outdoors, so you can take it in on the way past.
Photo: Capa Központ 23. Metamorphosis at the Capa Center
7 October to 17 January, Tuesday to Friday 13:00 to 18:00, weekends 10:00 to 18:00, closed Monday
Capa Center, Nagymező utca, District VI
Nine European photographers on the idea that nothing holds its shape for long, from cells and family ties to landscape and the cosmos. The travelling show has already been to Prague, Rouen and Turin, and Budapest is its last stop.
24. Walk This Way: the art of walking
9 October to 31 January, Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00, closed Monday; English guided tours at 17:00 on 13 and 27 December
Ludwig Museum, in the Müpa building, District IX
An international group show that takes walking seriously as an art form, tracing it from the Dada excursion of 1921 to land art, performance and activism. Two of the December guided tours are in English.
Photo: Maksymilian Paczkowski / Csokonai15 25. Birdo, the year's best bird photographs
2 October to 22 March, in the open air, visiting hours not published
Polgármesteri Hivatal visitor car park, District XV
Winning pictures from Birdo's Az év madárfotósa award, hung along a fence in Rákospalota. Free, outdoors and up all winter.