Heroes’ square and City Park is already a center for museums, but huge changes are expected in the area, thanks to Liget Project, that aims to create a whole new museum district there, by rearranging the themes of museums already standing there, renovating them, and building new ones. Read on for the details.
photo: szepmuveszeti.tumblr.com
If you’d like to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, now is the time, because in February 2015, it closes its doors for a few years, as the implementation of Liget Project begins. As we’ve earlier wrote, Rembrandt arrives in Budapest, bringing the art of the dutch golden age with him, from 31 October. Another great exhibition opens in the museum, on 9 November, titled Immendorff. Long Live Painting!, focusing on German artists, from the post-war period. After these exhibitions - as part of the large-scale transformation of the City Park -, Museum of Fine Arts closes its doors and the renovation of the building begins. In addition to the modernization of air conditioning and heating, the building will undergo a whole technical reconstrution, and its Romanian Hall – which stands ruinous since World War II and functions now as a depot – will be rebuilt at last.
photo: MTI/H. Szabó Sándor
Liget Budapest Project is an open, international, two-stage design competition for the design of museum buildings on the territory of the City Park Budapest. 5 new buildings will give home to 6 museums, some of which already exist at other locations, and there will be new ones as well. Museum of Fine Arts is one of those, that stay, but after the renovation – which will start next year, and according to the project’s timing, will be finished by late 2017/early 2018 -, its theme will be rethought: after emerging with the Hungarian National Gallery, it will exhibit the artworks of the combined collection, from before 1800. The Hungarian National Gallery will get a new building in the museum district, and it will recieve the works from 1800-1950. Artworks from after 1950 will be exhibited in Ludwig Museum, which will move from the Palace of Arts to the City Park as well. Several other museums will move to the area, too: the Museum of Ethnography, the FotoMuzeum Budapest, the Hungarian Museum of Architecture, and the newly established House of Hungarian Music will move in the rest of the new buildings.
The Project is now in the second decision phase – the first plans for the new buildings will be adopted by December, and the fate of the rest of the new buildings will be decided by March. Hopefully, the blueprints that win will respect the City Park’s original function, and the result will be a nice and well functioning new museum district, that attracts millions of tourists, while remains a park of culture, and a place for citizens to relax.
photo: epiteszforum.hu
We’re still far from presenting of the final plans, but one thing is for sure: if you’d like to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, do it before 15 February, otherwise you’ll have to wait for years.
