Why This City Is the Hollywood of Europe

Moviegoers settling into Denis Villeneuve’s nearly three-hour-long Blade Runner 2049 at theaters might have noticed, along with the brilliant cinematography, a few majestic buildings in the background. That’s because it, like so many other films from Evita and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to Inferno and Netflix’s Spectral, was shot in ambient Budapest, cementing the city’s reputation as Central Europe’s film capital.

Hungary’s moviemaking golden age is often considered to be the 1950s and ’60s, coinciding with the harshest era of the Communist regime. But with László Nemes’s 2015 Son of Saul snagging both Academy and Golden Globe Awards for best foreign language film, cinephiles around the globe are more recently paying attention to the country’s homegrown talent, and producers from abroad are discovering the allure of shooting there. A profitable Hungarian tax rebate for film productions is attractive, but so are a slew of distinct locations, like the Ethnographic Museum, Liszt Ferenc International Airport’s shuttered Terminal 1, and the Stock Exchange turned headquarters of Hungarian Television. With such locales, the worlds fashioned on the sound stages of quality Budapest-area studios like Origo and Korda Filmpark, and the ability to stand in for other cities like Berlin in this year’s Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron and Moscow in the 2013 A Good Day to Die Hard, Budapest is highly sought after.

Over the past year the city throbbed with celebrities—Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, and Harrison Ford from Blade Runner 2049, of course, but a roster of big names from forthcoming releases as well, including Jared Harris (The Terror), Mila Kunis (The Spy Who Dumped Me), Jennifer Lawrence (Red Sparrow), Jamie Foxx (Robin Hood), and Keira Knightley (Colette). It’s only going to grow more impressive—and chaotic. From a storied thermal bath to one of the world’s most ornate libraries, here are 10 of the most architecturally magnetic Budapest film sites.

One of Budapest’s most notable landmarks is the circa-1918 Art Nouveau Hotel Gellért. The cherished, restorative Gellért Baths, among the city’s myriad thermal complexes, is inside. Beyond the healing waters sourced from Gellért Hill, it’s a visually stunning locale, melding stained glass ceilings, Zsolnay mosaic tiles, and elegant sculptures. Appearing in Hungarian films and commercials, the Gellért Baths also enlivened the 2002 Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson comedy I Spy. Before detoxifying in the cluster of warm, gurgling pools, have a proper swim in the staggering one surrounded by columns and illuminated beneath a skylight, or between May and October, the boisterous, alfresco Wave Pool.

Boscolo Budapest, a 185-room Autograph Collection Hotel, dates back to the late 19th century, when it first opened as the Hungarian headquarters of New York Life Insurance Company. Since joining the Boscolo portfolio, the Art Nouveau-meets-Baroque-meets-Renaissance building was painstakingly restored in 2006 by a powerhouse of architects and designers: Maurizio Papiri, Adam D. Tihany, Massimo Iosa Ghini, and Simone Micheli. Tourists are especially drawn to the over-the-top New York Café, an early 20th-century literary haunt with frescoes and columns that after World War II devolved into a sporting goods shop. This resuscitated gilded backdrop made a cameo in the 2012 film based on Guy de Maupassant’s novel Bel Ami with Robert Pattinson and Uma Thurman. It remains a timeless spot to gorge on fancy ice cream sundaes.

Miklós Ybl’s spectacular Hungarian State Opera House is closed for renovations until 2019, and now the city’s other performing arts venues can bask in the limelight, including the Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre, seen in the 2014 History channel miniseries Houdini starring Adrien Brody. Built in 1894 by the Viennese architect duo Fellner & Helmer as a music hall, it was revamped in 2001, with an interior by locally based Mária Siklós and Gábor Schinagl that mixes marble, velvet, and stucco. A vintage chandelier buoys performances like The Count of Luxembourg and The Barber of Seville on the Great Stage. Swing by earlier for an additional dose of culture across the street at the photography gallery and bookshop, Mai Manó House.

A bronze statue of operetta composer Emmerich Kálmán is fittingly perched on a bench outside of the newly christened Kálmán Imre Theater, adjacent to the Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre. This space was once the lively Moulin Rouge cabaret graced by Eric Vogel’s chalk drawings, and so far it’s only been glimpsed in documentaries on the nightclub and in an episode of Linda, a popular Hungarian television show from the 1980s. But the petite, scarlet-hued theater, where productions such as The Picture of Dorian Gray are slated to unfold this season, is a cinematic dream, with balcony boxes flaunting friezes and a gilt-festooned blue–green ceiling that will surely make the production rounds. A retro-style café that opens onto the street encourages patrons to linger for a post-mortem and espresso.

Budapest’s hectic railway stations play a prominent role in daily life. These imposing transportation hubs also punctuate films, like Keleti pretending to be a 1940s Berlin terminal in the 2008 drama Good with Viggo Mortensen. Nyugati, with its iron and glass façade, is particularly commanding. Built by the Eiffel Company in 1877, it blends an old-timey ticket hall of wooden booths with a maze of side corridors and Soviet-era fiberglass seating. Look for it—and a classic Hungarian blue MÁV train—in the 2001 Robert Redford and Brad Pitt thriller Spy Game. Even eating Chicken McNuggets feels slightly glamorous when underneath a ceiling that looks plucked from a palace at Nyugati's McDonald's outpost.

Close to Keleti train station is the Miksa Róth Memorial House, an oft-overlooked museum showcasing the living quarters and courtyard workshop of Róth, a celebrated artist for the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Imperial and Royal Court who lived there from 1911 to 1944. His intricate stained glass and mosaic works, seen on the tour, as well as institutions including the Hungarian Parliament Building, are a vibrant contrast to the curiously austere residence, dominated by a palate of beige and brown. Still, the well-maintained rooms, containing portraiture, wallpaper, and original furniture, are infused with an old-fashioned graciousness that makes for attractive film sets in productions running the gamut from NBC to National Geographic. An American miniseries takes over the premises next.

Miksa Róth stained glass windows surround the marble-floored Winter Garden of the Writer’s Villa, the one-time residence of Dutch writer Jaap Scholten that is now part of the BrodyLand group, which spans the residential-style Brody House hotel, the private members club Brody House, the art gallery Brody Collection, and the extended-stay Paulay House with 16 apartments. This seven-bedroom, 19th-century abode built in 1881 for the Austro-Hungarian minister of commerce is tucked away in the hushed Buda Hills and has original rosewood-paneled walls and ceilings, a Zsolnay-tiled fountain flanked by trees, and a working fireplace in the just-want-to-curl-up-with-a-book Petofi Parlour. Celebs love decamping here for the secluded atmosphere, as well as the fully stocked booze cabinet, custom feasts whipped up in the breakfast room, and the bubbling Jacuzzi behind the pool reminiscent of a 1940s film noir. More than a playground for the jet set, the Writer’s Villa is increasingly making its way into film and commercial shoots to boot.

A posh, tranquil haven, naturally the 179-room Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace, at the foot of the Chain Bridge’s Pest side, is coveted by visiting celebrities. It also has some fine architectural bones, which pop on film. The zany 2015 action comedy Spy with Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law captured the grandeur of the Art Nouveau Gresham Palace—completed in 1906 as the digs for England’s Gresham Life Assurance Company—with scenes shot on the front drive, the fifth-floor corridor, the fireplace-adorned Royal Suite, and the lobby, a gorgeous mélange of stained glass (Róth’s work brightens the stairwell), mosaics, and ironwork. Soak up the classy vibe for a spell with a stellar negroni at the curvy bar of KOLLÁZS Brasserie & Bar, the handiwork of EDG Design.

Stretching along the banks of the Danube, the former CET Building is dubbed “the whale” for its striking, streamlined shape resembling that of the massive marine mammal. Crafted by Dutch architect Kas Oosterhuis from the likes of glass, steel, aluminum, and brick, the gleaming, futuristic structure housing a bizarre mish-mash of restaurants and retail was a perfect fit for Ridley Scott’s 2015 sci-fi flick starring Matt Damon, The Martian. After wandering the nearby Great Market Hall for pickles and paprika, head to the Bálna’s centerpiece, Jónás Craft Beer House, for a refreshing Arany Jónás lager.

The main branch of Budapest’s massive Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library network is situated in Wenckheim Palace, a 19th-century Neo-Baroque beauty designed by German-born Hungarian architect Arthur Meinig and accessed by fairy tale wrought-iron gates. Up a sweeping marble staircase is the old home of aristocrat Count Frigyes Wenckheim, a series of high-ceilinged rooms with elaborate gold, silver, and wood detailing and mirrored doors where members are free to pore over books—securing a visitor pass is also possible for a gander—when filming isn’t in progress. A few months ago, for example, surrounding streets were closed to traffic because of a shoot at the library for TNT’s soon-to-be-released The Alienist, an adaptation of Caleb Carr’s haunting novel that brings to life New York in 1896. Converted from a ballroom, the Gold Room, with its dramatic chandelier, is a highlight, as is the clubby Palace Smoking Room, a bibliophile hideaway complete with a fireplace and seductive spiral staircase. Uncover more of the country’s history with a stop at the Hungarian National Museum a short stroll away.