Press


08 Aug. 2011

Press release about the disturbing events and their background


On 29 July 2011 the police and members of the Inspectorate for the Environment stormed the Labyrinth of Buda Castle. Large numbers of Hungarian and foreign tourists were simply forced to leave the system of cellars. Foreign tourists were at a loss to understand the reasons of the raid and many believed there had been an attempted or actual terror attack.

The staff of the Labyrinth were equally shocked. They were ordered to gather their belongings immediately, during which time they prohibited from going anywhere without surveillance, and our female staff were not even allowed to lock the toilet door.

The headquarters and the offices of the Labyrinth of Buda Castle were force-evacuated with immediate effect, preventing in a premeditated way the Company from doing its business, building its defence in various court proceedings and even from being available. Why?

What could possibly have led to the type of police action reminiscent of the bleakest periods of Hungarian history? The Labyrinth of Buda Castle is not a terrorist hub or a drug den, but a cultural attraction, classified as one of the Seven Underground Wonders of the World.

Various individuals and organisations have since 2002 sought to snatch the rights to the area and, in actions including the recent raid, to nationalise or usurp it in a way that the Company operating the system of cellars should not have to be compensated for the thirty years of technical, intellectual, tourism and marketing investments it has put into the Labyrinth, and worse, to discredit the Company in every possible way.

After many illegal acquisition attempts were foiled in court, yet another unwarranted, forceful police action took place in 2008 on the premises of the Labyrinth. All accusations were denied and the brutal and illegal actions condemned in all proceedings and on every level of court, and the Company won the case.

The recent attack differs from the 2008 raid in that this time the interested circles are seeking to establish an irreversible situation (through judicial vacations, depriving the Company of its own offices, etc.). The director of the Middle-Danube-Valley Inspectorate for
Environmental Protection lied without batting an eyelid to the cameras, as he did in press releases published in several electronic or printed media. Cited as conclusive evidence, the fact that the Supreme Court rejected the submissions of the Company is simply not true. Most of the director’s statements were false or unjustified, merely serving to legitimise the atrocities that provoked a public outcry. Moreover, the Inspectorate never submitted to the appellate body the petition for the suspension of execution.

In 2008 it was the lack of a tourism permission, this time it is the lack of a land use permit and damage to the environment that is being referred to. The fact that we are looking at pretexts for nationalisation is confirmed by the fact that the exhibitions of the Labyrinth of Buda Castle – built over the past 30 years and unchanged since – have been known to the Inspectorate for decades and it has never raised any objection. They have had the chance to do so for long, but never did. Until now.

Further information will be available here and on our English and Hungarian Facebook page.

 

 

22. June 2011.

This year the Labyrinth of Buda Castle does not participate int he Museums of Night, but keep your armband!
 
Almost 14000 person visited us the previous year this night. It was a great success because we were one of the five most frequented sites. However, the festival crowd overwhelms the tunnels and the true meaning of labirynth-walking can’t be found this way. Therefore the Labyrinth of Buda Castle would like to convey the values of this special event personalized in the silence of the Labyrinth not just for one night but for a whole year. Culture, adventure, contemplation. Labyrinth of Love, Personal Labyrinth, Dante, József Attila or Mozart. More Info
 
With the armband of the Night of Museums you can visit one of our Nighttime Programs for free until 24th June 2012. Registration is required.
Special opening hours on 24. June 2011.: 9:30 – 17:00
From 20:30 the prebooked night programmes can be visited the usual way.
 

 

1. March 2011.

If you are losing track above ground, come and find Yourself underneath.

Cultural ramblings and personal wanderings in the Labyrinth of Buda Castle

From March: unique 24/7 opening
 
After non-stop shops, petrol stations and other commercial and public service providers, the Labyrinth of Buda Castle is the first cultural site to introduce round-the-clock opening. As of 7 March 2011, our visitors are welcome night and day.

The night-time one-person wanderings open up a new approach to European culture: the labyrinth thread leading to ourselves is represented by the visions and impulses from the works of great European authors such as Dante, Hölderlin, Pilinszky, Saint Augustine, Heracleitos, Mozart and Bach.
Pantheon to be found in the Labyrinth of Buda Castle, demonstrates in Budapest, after Paris and Rome, in an astonishing way the connection/linking and loss of connection between humans and the Gods.
During the first half of 2011, the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union is held by Hungary. Through the non-stop opening, the European wanderings and the European Pantheon of modern age, the Labyrinth of Buda Castle would like to point quietly to that the Union, and in fact the whole Europe itself is not merely a geographical formation or a huge market, but also a continental historic destiny and culture, the expressive silence of which is less and less noticed and heard in the federal hustle.
Besides the night-time one-person wanderings, the Labyrinth of Buda Castle, which has been ranked among the 7 Underground Wonders of the World, welcomes its visitors for day-time Labyrinth walk and the world-famous night-time wandering with hand-held oil lamps, in an unchanged form and with the same content. In the year of the Hungarian EU presidency, the Labyrinth of Buda Castle considers the revealing of Europe’s deeper values as its cultural mission. Night-time one-person wanderings are provided free.
The maze system, unique even on a world scale, was created almost half a million years ago by hot water springs through the process of washing-out. Later the small caves were connected to each other and also to the cellarage of the houses of the Castle District for economic and military reasons, and the complex thus developed into a veritable labyrinth under the Castle Hill. The passages between the caves and cellars were constructed in the 1930s, then, as part of the war-time defence program, a shelter large enough to accommodate as many as ten thousand people was formed. Reinforced - and also disfigured - with concrete, it served as a secret military installation during the Cold War.
Further information: www.labirintus.com