Nagytétény Palace or Száraz-Rudnyánszky Palace is today the furniture museum of the Museum of Applied Arts in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

established in 1949. It is located at 9-11 Kastélypark Street in the 22nd District of Budapest.

History of the building

One of the finest monuments of

Baroque architecture Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the late 16th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means to ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 south, Croatia and ...

, the former Száraz-Rudnyánszky Palace was designed by András Mayerhoffer and built by Baron József Rudnyánszky (spouse: Julianna Száraz) between 1743 and 1751 on the place of a Roman villa rustica and using an earlier palace that stood here. The Száraz-Rudnyánszky Palace was built in the so-called '' Grassalkovich'' Style. The original Gothic palace was built in the 13th century for the Tétény family that was related to the

Árpád Dynasty The Árpád dynasty consisted of the members of the royal House of Árpád (), also known as Árpáds (, ). They were the ruling dynasty of the Principality of Hungary in the 9th and 10th centuries and of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 to 130 ...

During the one hundred fifty years of Ottoman Occupation (1541-1686), the Nagytétény Palace was the home of high-ranking Ottoman officers. In 1686 captain Ferenc Buchingen received the palace in honour of his merits in the war against the Turks. Later the mortgaged property was redeemed by György Száraz. Baron György Száraz moved in the palace in 1716 and started to reconstruct and expand the building. After the death of Julianna Száraz-Rudnyánszky (1798), the palace was divided into three parts for the heirs. In 1904, the palace burnt down, nothing remained from its interior furniture. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the building was badly damaged. The Ministry of Agriculture transferred the palace for museum purposes in 1948. Its reconstruction started in 1951, and the first furniture exhibition opened in the same year. In 1989 - due to the deterioration of the building - the palace had to be closed down. After the restoration works started in 1997, the Palace Museum opened again for the public in 2000. The terrace of the palace originally reached to the Danube bank but later it was divided by the railway line and a main road.

The exhibition

The

applied arts The applied arts are all the arts that apply design and decoration to everyday and essentially practical objects in order to make them aesthetically pleasing."Applied art" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. Online edition. Oxford Univ ...

exhibition presents artifacts of Hungarian and foreign furniture-making in a historical context with contemporary carpets, stoves and ceramics. About 300 items are presented in more than two dozen rooms.

References

Official website (English version)

Lonely Planet

Aerial photos of the palace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagyteteny Palace Palaces in Budapest Mansions in Hungary Museums in Budapest Historic house museums in Hungary