Top Filming Locations in Hungary
Vajdahunyad Castle
Budapest’s Fairytale Buildings by a Picturesque Lake
Last updated on May 8th, 2023
Budapest’s Vajdahunyad Castle and the buildings surrounding it are located in the Városliget Park by its picturesque large lake. This is a fairytale location; a historic atmosphere in a green park in the heart of the Hungarian capital, consisting of highly convincing fake historic buildings. The copy was built in Budapest more than a hundred years ago, in 1896 for the celebration of the millennium of the settling of the Hungarian tribes in 896. The castle is a partial reconstruction of the castle of the same name, originally built in Hungary, but now located in Transylvania, Romania, which was actually Dracula's castle. No wonder the 2013-2014 TV series Dracula was shot in the mysterious Vajdahunyad Castle in Budapest as Dracula's castle! This unique structure is also enriched by parts of other prominent architectural structures, freely mixing Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance elements. For example there is a copy of a Hungarian Romanesque church’s facade combined with a Medieval cloister inside, which has been used as a set for many films. Next to this is the quirky Agricultural Museum; although it was built at the end of the 19th century, they constructed it precisely according to the plans of a beautiful baroque palace. What makes these buildings even more exciting is the lake surrounding them, which has also been home to many sport occasions over the years; it is open to the public for ice skating in the winter and over the past hundred years it has hosted many world ice-skating and aquatics championships.
Many international and Hungarian productions have used it as a location for filming, such did the historical drama In the Land of Blood and Honey directed by Angelina Jolie, the fantasy films The Secret of Moonacre, Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire and the series The Witcher, which premiered in 2019. The castle has doubled as an Italian location in the 2016 movie Inferno and as Paris in the 2015 movie Spy. It also was a location in Gemini Man, a movie set in Budapest and starring Will Smith and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Progressive has filmed a commercial for Konica Minolta here, as well as having shot a stunning editorial with wolves in the cloister for Fabulous magazine. The castle’s park has also been featured in the episode produced for the 2023 season of The Bachelor by Progressive.