The Capital Circus of Budapest ( hu, Fővárosi Nagycirkusz) is a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...

building located in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. It originally opened in 1889, although it has changed locations since then. Its current building opened in 1971 and is the only stone circus in Central Europe. It seats 1450 people, and features animal, clown, and artistic performing acts. The building is in Városliget city park, near by are the

Budapest Zoo Zoo & Botanical Garden of the Capital ( hu, Fővárosi Állat- és Növénykert) is the oldest zoo park in Hungary and one of the oldest in the world. It has 1,072 animal species and is located within Városliget Park, unusually for a zoo, it i ...

, the Budapest Amusement park,

Vajdahunyad Castle Vajdahunyad Castle ( Hungarian: ''Vajdahunyad vára'') is a castle in the City Park of Budapest, Hungary. It is a copy of Hunyad Castle, known as Corvin Castle (Romanian: ''Castelul Corvinilor''), in Hunedoara, Romania. It was built in 1896 as ...

and the

Széchenyi thermal bath The Széchenyi Medicinal Bath in Budapest (, hu, Széchenyi gyógyfürdő) is the largest medicinal bath in Budapest. Its water is supplied by two thermal springs, their temperature is and . Components of the thermal water include sulfate, c ...

.International Circus Festival in Budapest from January 9 to 13, by Daily News, Jan 8, 2014
/ref> Since it is a stone circus, its operation is independent from weather, and therefore it is opened both in summer and winter. Recently Capital Circus also holds other events besides circus productions, like

fashion show A fashion show (French ''défilé de mode'') is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase their upcoming line of clothing and/or accessories during a fashion week. Fashion shows debut every season, particularly the Spring/Summer and Fal ...

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

events, classical and pop concerts, folk dance performances as well as

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

and

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

plays.

History

The original building of the Circus was opened on 27 June 1889 in Városliget by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

circus director Ede Wulff. This building had the same parameters as the current Capital Circus, but it had 2290 seats. in 1895, Wulff Ede gave the lease rights of the Capital Circus to the management of the

Zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

. The Ősbudavára club was opened in 1896 also in the area of the Zoo. It employed many world-class artist, and therefore it was a competition of the Capital Circus. On 30 April 1904, the Capital Circus was reopened with a spectacular show by Matvey Beketov, the newest renter of the circus, which he renovated at his own cost. From this time until 1934, it was renamed as Beketow Circus. In 1935 the capital city of

held another competition for the rent of the circus, which was won by the entrepreneur György Fényes. He organized the premiere of the new show at July 1936, which astonished the audience just as much as the splendour of the renovated building. Many prominent and world-class artist was part of the team of Fényes Capital Circus, like the clown Gábor Eötvös, who was approved by Charlie Chaplin himself. 1943 was the last year of the Fényes Capital Circus, since the circus was closed in 1944 because of the intensifying bombing. The Circus was reopened in July 1945, and deprivatised in the 1950s. The Circus was reopened on 14 January 1971 with a

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

gala performance. The circus director was Mrs. Gábor Eötvös, the first and so far only female director of the Capital Circus. As of 1996, International Circus Festival of Budapest is held here every two years.

Directors

* Ede Wulff (1889–1895) * Matvey Beketov (1904–1919) * Sándor Könyöt (1904–1923) * Matvey Beketov (1923–1928) * Sándor Beketov, Rezső Árvai (1929–1935) * György Fényes (1936–1943) * Miklós Göndör, Ferenc Göndör, Rezső Árvai, Nándor Barton, Lajos Fekete (1945–1966) * Mrs. Gábor Eötvös (1971–1986) * Tamás Radnóti (1986–1988) * István Kristóf (1 April 1988 – 10 February 2012) * József Richter (1 November 2012 – 30 November 2015) * Péter Fekete (1 December 2015 –)

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Budapest Circuses