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Labyrinth of Buda Castle


From 1983 to 2011, Labyrinth of Buda Castle was the biggest exhibition of the cave- and cellar system of Buda Castle. Since this exhibition collective had been operating for decades, many identified it with the entirety of the Várhegy cavern, wrongly. It got worldwide attention first in 2000, when it was named one of the world's 50 most interesting places - thanks to the Oil Lamp Labyrinth. It was one of Budapest's 10 most liked and most visited cultural targets and a tourism writer named it one of the 7 underground wonders in the world.

Cave system: the unique calcareous tuff caves of the Castle Hill were created as an effect of the hot water springs at the dawn of the history of the Earth. These caves then served as refuge as well as hunting ground for the prehistoric man (the “Hunter of Buda”) appearing half a million years ago. For economic and military purposes these originally smaller caves were interconnected and eventually connected to the cellarage of the Castle District's houses. It was used for wine-cellars, torture chambers, jails or treasury during the Middle Ages. The cellars were turned into a shelter and military hospital in the 1930s. At that time the whole cave system could accommodate about ten thousand people at a time. Reinforced – and also disfigured – with concrete, it served as a military installation during the Cold War. In the short interceptions of military utilization and especially since the end of the Cold War, there have been initiatives to turn the labyrinth to cultural uses. A cave museum opened then reopened, and in the early 1980s, the first exhibition of wax figures in Hungary was set up here. However, none of these fulfilled the expectations: the time of wax works and of history closed in vitrines was up. The widely known exhibitions and programs of the Labyrinth of Buda Castle of 1984–2011 are no longer available but the cave system is currently open and can be visited.

A significant reconstruction work took place in the Labyrinth in 1996–97. During this the Labyrinth was extended to over 4000 square meters and it regained its pre-war look as far as it was possible. From then on the word “labyrinth” determines the cultural and spiritual profile of the Labyrinth of Buda Castle. In the present context “labyrinth” is a web of paths leading to our world, our history, or ourselves, which, given sufficient resolve, can be charted here. Looking back from the middle or from the end, the area visitors cover will appear as an ordered, meaningful fabric of individual lives and historical destinies rather than a bewildering maze.

In 2011, the Labyrinth introduced a night-time program: the Wanderings with The Great Ones of Europe, one-person wanderings in which the visitors only receive a Labyrinth lantern, while the labyrinth thread was represented by the visions and impulses of influential authors from Europe.


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