Dent, Bob: Budapest for Children - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1992)
8. Intor the Past - Museums
67 INTO THE PAST day. Reduced entrance price for children. Further information, arrangements for videos, etc. on 175-9282. Throughout the year on Mondays there are concerts in the museum. In the summer months these take place in the courtyard outside. Postal Museum [Postamúzeum] Situated right at the beginning of Andrássy út at no. 3. (The “Bajcsy-Zsilinszky” stop on the little underground is right there, but it’s also within walking distance of the Deák tér metro station.) A small museum, but of interest to children of all ages given the lifesize models, and displays of coaches and equipment from the history of Hungary’s postal service. Some opportunity to “play" with the machines —e.g. sending messages through a dispatch-tube or operating an early telegraph tape machine. Of added interest is that the museum is situated in the former flat of the wealthy Saxlehner family, who commissioned the building in the 1880s. From the furnishings and style you get a good idea of how such people lived at the turn of the century. Károly Lotz, a famous fresco painter at the time, worked on the staircase of the building. This has recently been restored and is an exceptional sight. The museum is on the first floor. For wheelchair access there is a lift but someone has to go up first for the key. Open 10-18 except Monday. Free entrance for children ; free for all on Sunday. A booklet in English about the displays is available. There is no buffet but there are toilets. Underground Museum [Földalatti Vasúti Múzeum] Actually inside the Deák tér metro station (upper level), a very small museum containing one of the old carriages which ran on the “little underground” under Andrássy út, the first underground to be built on continental Europe. You can walk along the reconstructed platform and look inside, and there are displays of old equipment, etc. Children can press buttons to light up a map showing future plans for metro construction. Worth taking a look when passing through Deák tér, Budapest’s only metro interchange station.
