About this walk
In 1896 Hungary built a whole park out of plaster and canvas for its thousandth birthday, and part of it is still standing.
The stops
Walk them in order; each story plays when you reach its pin.
- 1Stop 1
Hősök tere and the Millennium Monument
The square Hungary built for its thousandth birthday, with a year chosen because nobody knew the real one.
- 2Stop 2
The Műcsarnok and the opening of May 1896
This is where Franz Joseph opened the exhibition in May 1896 that would draw almost six million people.
Read the story - 3Stop 3
The Földalatti
The oldest underground railway on the European mainland, built in twenty months because Andrássy út was too grand for trams.
Read the story - 4Stop 4
The pond and the ice rink
People have skated here since the 1830s, there's a skating hall built for the millennium celebrations, and since 1926 it's been the largest open-air ice rink in Europe.
Read the story - 5Stop 5
Vajdahunyad Castle
A castle of plaster and canvas that was supposed to be torn down after the exhibition, but the city had it rebuilt in stone instead.
Read the story - 6Stop 6
Anonymus, the writer without a face
A bronze monk with his face lost in shadow, a chronicler known only by a single initial, and a second version that had to be destroyed.
Read the story - 7Stop 7
The Ják Chapel, one church made from three
A doorway from Ják, a tower from Kassa and a floor plan from Lébény, meant to be a library and only consecrated as a chapel in 1915.
Read the story - 8Stop 8
The Agricultural Museum, founded in the middle of the exhibition
A museum that came to life while the exhibition was still running outside, and that gave the plaster scenery a resident and a future.
Read the story - 9Stop 9
The Széchenyi Baths and the well beneath them
Europe's hottest spring water was found right where Árpád now sits on his horse, and the bathing palace only arrived seventeen years after the big anniversary year.
Read the story - 10Stop 10
Ős-Budavára, the city that stood for one summer
A rebuilt Turkish Buda complete with beer halls and an orpheum, so popular that the zoo next door went bankrupt.
Read the story - 11Stop 11
Gundel, which in 1896 was still called Wampetics
During the jubilee year this was Wampetics, and all of Pest gathered at its tables; the name on the facade only arrived fourteen years later.
Read the story - 12Stop 12
Back at Hősök tere
Back at the column, on the square where a papal envoy was stopped by a storm and where a quarter of a million people once gathered in 1989.
Read the story
Ready when you are
Walk The Millennium of 1896 with ROODS.
12 stops through Budapest. Open ROODS in your browser, walk to the first pin and the story plays.
- Stories on a map, with narrated audio
- Walk at your own pace, stop where you like
- Runs in your browser. An app is optional.
