Budapest’s House of Horror & Time Machine

October 15^th, 2026 

Researching online about things to do in Budapest, some of the main attractions were the Parliament building (which is the largest building in Hungary with 691 rooms!), the Buda Castle and the Fisherman’s Bastion.  The latter two provide a beautiful viewpoint of the Pest side of the city across the Danube River, but I awoke to a cloudy day and the forecast for tomorrow was sunny, so I decided to have a museum day.

 

An interesting mural...not sure who they are.

It says that "all things are possible with coffee and dogs".  Not sure about that, but a cool place where you can hang out with friends and their dogs as you enjoy a drink and a pastry.

One of many fancy buildings in Budapest...not sure what it was though.

In my Googling of places to visit, the “House of Terror” came up.  Now initially I thought that it sounded like a tourist attraction depicting ways that people used to be tortured or killed, like the London Dungeon.  Well, that wasn’t the case here.  The House of Terror contains exhibits about the victims during the Nazi and Communist regimes that occupied the country in the 20^th century.  

The House of Terror.

Now the Nazi part is a bit complicated, so let’s do a quick synopsis of the history of this area.  The city of Budapest was formed from a unification of three cities in 1873: Buda, Pest and Obuda.  It was a co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with Vienna being the main capital.  That empire collapsed after World War I and Hungary’s modern borders were established in 1920, but it lost a large amount of its historical territory and the majority of its economy and population.

 

Hungary joined the Axis powers in WWII and suffered significant damage and casualties.  Germany wanted to keep Hungary in its sphere of influence as its neighbour, Romania, was rich in oil and the most efficient way for Romanian oil to reach Germany was via Hungary.  Near the end of the war, from late 1944 to March of 1945, the Arrow Cross Party, a far-right ultra-nationalist party took power and 10-15,000 civilians were murdered.

Then in 1949, the Hungarian People’s Republic was established under Communist rule.  Political repression and economic decline led to a nationwide popular uprising in October–November 1956 known as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which was the largest single act of dissent in the history of the Eastern Bloc. After initially allowing the Revolution to run its course, the Soviet Union sent thousands of troops and tanks to crush the opposition and install a new Soviet-controlled government, killing thousands of Hungarians and driving hundreds of thousands into exile.

Interestingly, just last month the Hungarian government announced a temporary closure of the museum in order to conduct a review of its contents.  This decision was subsequently reversed, but the review is set to proceed, nevertheless.

I saw this plaque after I had visited the museum.  I hadn't clued in that it was in this building where atrocities against local civilians occurred, for some reason I just thought it was a structure that they bought to house the museum...but no, this is where some nasty things happened. 

I was unfamiliar with the symbol on the left, but it is for the Arrow Cross Party, a hard far-right party that took power in 1944 and were aligned with the Nazis (hence a similar looking symbol like the swastika).  The star on the right represents the Communist Party.

A typical communist style statue.

A T-54 Soviet tank, introduced after WWII, it is the most produced tank in history with between 96,500-100,000 of them built.

There are over 3000 pictures of victims on the wall behind the tank.

The exhibition started with the Nazi Occupation in 1944.

Then it got a bit Commie-like.

Look at the happy working couple.

There was this little maze-like area with TV screens showing interviews from people who had been affected by the occupation.  I couldn't figure out what the little white bricks were stamped with 1 kg and something in Hungarian.  I used the camera function of Google Translate and it said "pork fat".  It was all about being more and more efficient with farming and food production.

There was nothing in English to explain what this room was about, but it seemed to be a courtroom where perpetrators during the Arrow Cross occupation were put to trial.

Some happy advertising showing why the Communist way is going to be great...not.

This was a tiny cell in the basement, were many civilian victims were tortured and many put to death.  You would only have been able to stand upright in there.

There were numerous phones in little cubby holes around the museum.  None of them worked (well, I only tried a few of them), but I guess they were the old style audio guides.

It would have been dreadful to be detained here. 

The gallows.  One interview playing on a TV was a man describing how he had to clean up after a hanging...terrible.

This photo didn't turn out, but this was near the end of the exhibit and it listed the names of victims that were killed in the building along the wall.

And then the final room was unexpected.  These are the perpetrators.

Whether these people actually went to trial and were proven guilty wasn't obvious...but they've been made to look culpable here.

Some photos of the dismantling of Communist related statues in Budapest.

After that “happy place”, it was time, literally, to see something a bit more uplifting… “Time Machine Budapest”.  It was advertised as a “One-of-a-kind, 80-minute guided exhibition and immersive experience in Budapest, where the city's past comes to life all around you — from the idea of unification to World War I, World War II, and the Soviet era.”

Interesting name for a dog supplies store that I saw on my walk to the Time Machine.

I accidentally stumbled across this entrance for an area called "Gozsdu Udvar" that Naomi had mentioned I should check out one evening.  It's lined with bars and restaurants from one end of the block to the other, with only pedestrian traffic allowed.

Yup!

Just outside of the House of Terror, I booked my ticket online, but it turned out that I really didn’t need to.  For the 2:30 showing, there was only me and a young Hungarian couple.  Unfortunately, photos were not allowed during the “show” as the three of us were led by a guide from room to room as we learned about the history of the city.

This is a hotel and restaurant called "26".  It just happened to be where the Time Machine was located (in the basement).

This was the time traveller who led us through the history of the city.

The lobby area.

In the first room there was a fireplace with paintings of various characters from the past who came to life and spoke to each other, talking about the early history of the city.  The next stop required some virtual reality goggles to watch the discussion between a couple of men back in the 1800s talk about the need to construct a bridge across the Danube to connect the cities of Buda and Pest as well as building up an embankment along the sides of the river to prevent the occasional, damaging floods of the past.

Ensuing rooms continued the story through the big Budapest Millennial Exhibition of 1896, all the way to 1981 (I didn’t quite understand the significance of that year which was while Hungary was still under Communist rule…but I loved the furniture and bright orange, funky wallpaper in that room!).  All in all, it was an interesting way to learn some of the history of this city.

One of the city's notable people is Ernő Rubik, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube.  I got a friend of mine at the flight park, Michel, hooked on the cube and now he can solve any type of them, even the very complex, non-cube shaped ones.

I had to go in and take a look.

Look at that colossal cube!

Afterwards, I ventured back towards my place but stopped by the Dohány Street Synagogue as Naomi suggested that I should check out the largest synagogue in Europe.  Now, I’m not religious but she did accuse me of going to see some large Christian cathedrals, basilicas and churches, but not synagogues.  Now some of them you must be Jewish to enter, but for this one you did not.  However, when I learned that the cost was around $60 to enter, I decided that I’d just check out the exterior of the structure.  I wouldn’t pay that to see the inside any religious structure.

The side of the synagogue.

The front entrance.

I returned to my room, and I think I did have a bit of jet lag as I was a bit tired.  Thankfully, right next door was a Thai restaurant.  Perfect.  I had dinner, watched a movie and went to bed.