Béla Bartók Memorial House

The renowned house on Csalán Road was built in the skirts of the forests-hills of Buda in 1924. From 1932, the house and garden was Béla Bartók's last residence in Hungary. Now it is a museum, more precisely, it is a memorial site that attentively guards Bartók's personal belongings and regularly evokes his spirit through his music. On the ground floor, an entrance that widens into a hall was made from the former caretaker's compartment. A new and spacious staircase, which changes the façade of the house, was erected, and an intimate chamber hall for concerts was formed by opening the adjacent rooms on the first floor into one hall room. In the three rooms on the second floor, where Bartók mostly lived and worked, is the museum presenting photographs of the composer's life and his personal belongings, all carefully protected by his successors. The exhibition calls to mind the creator, the ethnomusicologist and the performer, but in particular it recaptures the outstanding personality. Throughout the past twenty-five years, the Memorial House has become the worthy home of Bartók's art: his works for piano, chamber music pieces and classic compositions, that may once have been played between these walls during his life, are now regularly interpreted by the most prominent Hungarian artists in the concert hall. Moreover, his spirit is worthily represented by the music events presenting the latest contemporary compositions and the introduction of the most eminent young musical entrants.