158 Lajos Street | From Slaughterhouse to Gallery

Permanent Exhibition at the Budapest Gallery

The Budapest Gallery is also reopening its underground exhibition space, the CELLAR, which has been closed to the public for many years. From now on, it will host our permanent exhibition on the history of the building as well as pop-up shows from the Artist Exchange program.

Óbuda’s oldest medieval house now serves as a home for contemporary art, acting as a messenger of the present — but what stories does it tell of the past? On the occasion of the Night of Museums, the gates to the mysterious cellar of this unique building will open, revealing its rich and layered history. And it’s not only the house that speaks — so does Óbuda itself: from its Celtic heritage to the present day, visitors are taken on a journey through time.

Guests will be transported back to the 14th and 15th centuries, when the market square in front of the house was a bustling center of medieval Óbuda. Here, men and women, townspeople and peasants, the wealthy and the poor would gather, while next door stood the vast architectural complex of the Poor Clares, to which one of the house’s former owners was connected. Visitors will also discover the various names that winding Lajos Street bore through the centuries.

The exhibition presents documentation of archaeological excavations conducted in several phases from 1969 onwards, featuring photographs and floor plans. Where did the excavations and wall studies take place? What do the Gothic doorways and window frames reveal? When and how was the building remodeled, and what parts fell victim to the demolitions of the 1970s?

Beyond the building’s history, the exhibition also explores the various roles it has played over the centuries: from a medieval slaughterhouse to the Zichy family’s manorial “Brew House” after the Ottoman era. Visitors can even learn about a dispute between the noble family and a tenant. Finally, the exhibition sheds light on the 19th- and 20th-century ownership of the property — revealing a surprisingly diverse mix of shops and residences.