Hungarian National Museum

The Hungarian National Museum was founded in 1802 after Count Ferenc Széchényi (father of the bridge-builder István Széchenyi) donated his private library and collections to the nation, and it has functioned ever since as Hungary's central repository of its own history. The Neoclassical building that houses it, completed in 1847, has its own claim to historical fame: its front steps are where poet Sándor Petőfi supposedly first recited his poem "Nemzeti dal" (National Song) on 15 March 1848, the spark point of the Hungarian Revolution against Habsburg rule — a date still marked every year as a national holiday, with ceremonies held on the same steps.

The permanent collection moves chronologically through Hungarian history from prehistoric archaeology and Roman-era Pannonia, through the Magyar conquest, medieval kingdom, Ottoman occupation and Habsburg rule, up through the 1848 revolution, both World Wars, and the communist era to 1989. Highlights include the Coronation Mantle (a Byzantine-influenced textile from 1031, among the oldest surviving objects of its kind in Europe) and an extensive Roman lapidarium of inscribed stones and sarcophagi in the basement.