Immerse yourself in Hungary’s rich culture

One of the most popular desserts in Hungary is a flaky confection called rétes, which comes from the word réteges, meaning “layered.” This dessert, which is similar to Austria’s famed strudel, is a staple at weddings and festive occasions.

While Austrians may claim the popular pastry as their own, Hungarians may have a more valid gastronomic claim. It is likely that the pastry has Turkish origins as a type of baklava. When the Ottomans brought it to Europe in the 16th century, they would have stopped first in present-day Hungary. Over the years, the dessert was modified and eventually made its way into Viennese kitchens and bakeries. Rétes continued spreading westward until it was the toast of the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire—but its popularity was not limited to the Hapsburg borders. In the 19th century, Paris’s Ritz Hotel offered rétes hongrois (Hungarian rétes) on its menu. Its chefs were sent to Pest to learn how to prepare the beloved treat, and the Ritz ordered its flour from Hungary to achieve a more authentic taste.

Connoisseurs will tell you that Hungarian rétes is lighter and less sweet than its Austrian counterpart. The dough must be rolled paper-thin—so transparent, according to a Hapsburg Emperor’s chef, that “one could read a love letter through it.” To achieve this, the dough must be very elastic, which is why Hungarian cooks use a special pastry flour with a high gluten content.

Another distinctive feature of Hungarian rétes is that it is very generously stuffed. The most popular filling is apple, which is called almás rétes. Other favorites include cherries, poppy seeds, pumpkin with cinnamon, walnuts and raisins, cottage cheese sweetened with sugar and vanilla, apricots and plums. There are also savory versions filled with spinach, mushrooms, pumpkin and meat. One version, called káposztás rétes, features cabbage seasoned with caraway seed.

These flaky delights have become popular across the globe, but they are especially so in Eastern Europe. The dessert is called zavitek in Slovenia, závin in the Czech Republic, savijača or štrudla in Croatia and gibanica in Serbia. But in Hungary, you will probably just call your authentic rétes “a little slice of heaven.”

Hungary has a long and rich musical history. Though two of its most popular genres, folk and classical, seem very different, each has had a profound influence on the other.

The Magyar people were the first Hungarians descended from the intermingling of the eastern Turkic and more northern Finno-Ugric people. This cultural blend had a significant impact on music, creating a unique synthesis of styles. One of Hungary’s most famous composers and musicologists, Zoltán Kodály, identified Hungarian folk songs that may have been 2,500 years old and were also extant in Russia. Other ethnomusicologists have linked Hungarian music to Anatolian Turkish, Chinese, Mongol, Chuvash and other ancient Asian musical forms.

The study and categorization of these old folk forms gained major momentum during the late 19th-century romantic nationalism movement. Kodály, along with renowned Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, employed many of these folk themes in his music. This was quite a departure in the classical music world, which until then had been dominated by Germanic influences.

During the 19th century, Hungarian Roma orchestras became very popular throughout Europe. Their folk styles, such as the csárdás and verbunkos dances, were conflated with Hungarian folk styles, despite the insistence of musical experts that the two were very different. Nonetheless, it was hugely popular, and even the premier Hungarian classical composer and performer of the day, Franz (Ferenc) Liszt, echoed Roma musical tropes in performances of works such as the Hungarian Dances and Rhapsodies. Today, Romany music has grown in popularity and has fused with jazz, pop, rock and other modern styles.

Similarly, the klezmer music of Hungary’s Ashkenazi Jews—traditionally played at weddings—still echoes on the Budapest stages. With its dizzying scales and expressive emotions, designed to mimic human sighs, cries and shouts of joy, it is one of the most exuberant folk performance forms you can see.

Today, the classical music of Bartók can be heard at the Hungarian State Opera House. Meanwhile, several times a week at the Danube Palace, folk ensembles preserve the rhythm and dance of Hungarian and Roma music. Klezmer musicians perform at Spinoza Étterem or the Fonó Music Hall.

Since emerging as a distinct political entity during the late 9th century, Hungary has nurtured many remarkable individuals. The country’s riveting history abounds with legendary rulers, brilliant scholars and innovative artists. Read on to learn about two of its most esteemed residents.

Árpád (ca. 845–907 AD)
Second grand prince of the Magyars, Árpád is hailed as the forefather of all Hungarians, and many believe him to have been descended from Attila the Hun. In the 9th century, the tribes that would become the first Hungarian nation were part of the Khazar Empire in Eurasia. Árpád led ten tribes out of Khazar, but with the ever-shifting boundaries of power, Árpád knew he needed an empire on his side. He allied his people with the Byzantine Empire, who had Emperor Simeon I of Bulgaria in their crosshairs. Árpád and the Byzantine army defeated Simeon I, forcing him into making peace with Byzantium. But Simeon I would not go quietly. He forged an alliance with the Pechenegs, a semi-nomadic tribe of Turkic people, and together they forced the Magyars from the region.

Árpád's tribes fanned out into Central Europe, but around 900 AD, many settled back into what is now western Hungary, eastern Austria and the northern Balkans. Up to a quarter million Magyar are thought to have resettled in this area under Árpád’s rule and, together with his other tribes, declared him their grand prince. Árpád’s legacy is Hungary itself. Historians agree that he was largely responsible for bringing together a confederation of tribes into one unified Hungary. The Árpád Dynasty went on to rule the Kingdom of Hungary until 1301.

Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
From the moment four-year-old Béla Bartók mastered his first 40 piano pieces, he was on a course to change 20th-century music. Though he never garnered the fame of Richard Strauss or Franz Liszt, his life’s work led him to rethink the harmonic qualities that had defined music for 200 years. His stirring symphonies also brought a renewed sense of national pride to music composition.

The influence of Bartók’s early life on his career is clear. Born to a multiethnic family of simple means—his father was Hungarian and his mother Serbian—he came to value ancestry from an early age. As a student at Budapest’s Royal Academy of Music, his interest in regional folk music led him to travel throughout Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, collecting melodies whose roots lay in nomadic Romany culture. Soon he was composing pieces that drew on peasant traditions. In the hands of Bartók, foot-tapping Romany folk tunes—traditionally played on crude instruments—became symphonic wonders.