Vigadó Concert Hall
Encyclopedia
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. Although the acoustics of Budapest's second largest concert hall are lacking, the building itself, designed by Frigyes Feszl
Frigyes Feszl
Frigyes Feszl was an architect and a significant figure in the Hungarian romantic movement.-Life:Born into a family of German origin, Feszl's father was a master wood carver...
in 1859 makes a bold impression along the Pest embankment. Built to replace another concert hall on the same site (which was destroyed by fire in the 1848 War of Independence
Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas
From March 1848 through July 1849, the Habsburg Austrian Empire was threatened by revolutionary movements. Much of the revolutionary activity was of a nationalist character: the empire, ruled from Vienna, included Austrian Germans, Hungarians, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians,...
) Feszl's Vigadó was also badly damaged, this time during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The post-war reconstruction, which took some thirty-six years to complete, remains faithful to his original design and continues to attract leading conductors and performers from around the world. The facade of the Vigadó was cleaned and restored in 2006.
See also
The Budai Vigadó is the home stage of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble (The House of Traditions) The group having started in 1951 with Hungarian traditional dance and music.
The group consists of 30 dancers, a Gypsy band of 14, and a 5-member folk band