Uncovered!

Our museum’s new temporary exhibition revives the theme of an old exhibition series – with a few new twists.

From time to time, we used to organise exhibitions to report on the new results and exceptional finds from the excavations we carried out in Budapest. The area of the Hungarian capital has been inhabited to varying degrees but continuously over the past millennia, and every building project provides our staff with a new opportunity to look back into these bygone eras. Visitors now have the chance to step into the shoes of archaeologists (perhaps just for a photo) and immerse themselves in the urban excavations. Helping them in this will be – in addition to the construction hats and a video presenting how excavations actually work – the objects themselves, which have been unearthed in major excavations in recent years.

Of these three excavations, which took place on Bem Square, Bécsi Road and the former distillery on Folyamőr Street, stand out. Their finds, which cover almost all periods from prehistory to the Middle Ages, form the backbone of the exhibition. The artefacts tell curious stories in themselves, such as a Roman court case gone badly wrong, the preparations for a prehistoric ritual, or the less-than-legal coinage of Turkish-period Buda. Together, they reveal the complex history of particular areas of the capital, which visitors can feel part of as they wander among the exhibits. They can observe how, over the centuries, cemeteries turned into villages and then into cemeteries once more, and how these areas into the cityscape of today.

We wish you all a pleasant time and a journey through the ages!

Curator: Zsófia Kelemen