Room 14 / Endurance, compromise and recovery (second half of the 19th century)

Visitors may have a glimpse about the repression that followed the War of Independence, about the emigration of Kossuth, and the absolutism of the Bach era but also the Compromise of 1867, the accompanying economic, scientific and technological advancement of the period and the social tensions as well. A contemporary street scene evokes the end-of-the-century fashion, swept up in the excitement of the grandiose celebrations of the Millennium, while a café interior recalls a moment of the social life of the era.

Fun facts:
  • The telephone news service, predecessor of radio, was first heard in Budapest in 1893, and electric lights were switched on in the busiest streets of Pest the same year.
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  • Ferenc Deák, after selling his Kehida estate, took his favourite pieces of furniture, also displayed in the exhibition, to the Queen of England Hotel and then to his last residence, his ward's house.
Count Lajos Batthyány's bullet pierced vest

White piqué vest with bullet holes worn by Count Lajos Batthyány at his execution. The Prime Minister of the first accountable Hungarian government was orderd to be executed in the courtyard of the New Building in Pest on 6 October 1849 by Haynau, the Austrian military commander who had been given full military authority after the defeat of the 1848-49 War of Independence. On her last visit to the death row, Countess Antonia Zichy, Batthyány's faithful wife, smuggled in a small sharp dagger for her husband, with which Batthyány attempted suicide the night before his execution to avoid the humiliation of hanging. The life-threatening wound on his neck eventually changed his sentence to execution by a firing squad. The vest he was wearing at the time of his execution was donated to the Hungarian National Museum by his widow.

Count Lajos Batthyány's bullet pierced vest
Female ceremonial dress for the coronation of 1867

Made of blue velvet with embroidered silver threads, this gown with train was made for the coronation of Franz Joseph I and Queen Elizabeth. Later, after minor alterations, it was worn by Gabriella Széchényi at the coronation of Charles IV in 1916.

Female ceremonial dress for the coronation of 1867
Female dress from the turn of the century

The elegant dress in muted colours was a fashionable daytime attire at the turn of the century. Its cuffs and neckline are decorated with beads. It was made by one of Budapest's most distinguished tailors, József Girardi.

Female dress from the turn of the century
Furnishings of Ferenc Deák's room, mid-19th century

Interior of Ferenc Deák's room in the historical exhibition.  
 

Furnishings of Ferenc Deák's room, mid-19th century