ÓPUSZTASZER MEMORIAL PARK (ROTUNDA, MONOSTOR, NOMÁD PARK)

This southern region, where the Great Plain is cut in two by the Tisza, is on the axis of major waves of migration. In the year 896, it was here in Ópusztaszer that Árpád, head of the first seven Magyar tribes, spent 34 days preparing the laws of what would become those of their new country, Hungary.

The park and the rotunda. You can visit the excavations of a medieval market town, Szer, a complex of pseudo-Hungarian houses (called the Temple of the Forest), all wood and forms inspired by tents, as well as an open-air ecomuseum that brings together typical farms and houses of villages from different regions of Hungary. In the park, lawns have been arranged for children and open-air barbecue facilities are available to visitors. During the tourist season, we can attend equestrian performances on the theme of "The time of shamans".

Within the new tourist centre is the rotunda, whose shape is inspired by a nomad quartile. A small wax museum honours the great characters of Hungary's early centuries, and a costume museum offers an Exhibition of fashion fashions at the end of the last century.

Panorama. The centrepiece of the tourist centre is an astonishing panoramic painting by Árpád Prof, the Hungarian conquest, which represents the arrival of the Magyar tribes in the Carpathian Basin. For the landscape, the artist was inspired by the Volóc Valley, currently located in the Carpathians of Ukraine. According to legend, the first Magyar tribes arrived through the passage of Verecke, before settling in the Carpathian Basin. Measuring 120 m in height 15 m in length, this surprising table is set out in a circular room specially constructed for this purpose. It was realized in 1896, for the millennium celebrations of the founding of the Hungarian State. Exhibited in Budapest, this work was one of the most popular attractions of the capital until the bombing of the city in 1945.

From that date, the table disappeared to reappear only 50 years later. Since 1995, after a restoration by Polish experts, it has again been exposed to the public. This slightly kitsch painting shows the arrival of the nomadic tribes guided by their chef Árpád who, from the top of his horse, stares the large plain plain on the horizon.

At his side, a barbaric queen is transported to a trolley fired by four long horns grey oxen. Before, we see a stone altar with the bodies of the vanquished inhabitants sacrificed. At the other end of the circular paint, a shaman dressed with beast skins is preparing to sacrifice a white horse. White smoke rising to heaven is a good omen. The crowd of nomadic tribes advances towards their new homeland, invading the entire region. This kind of painting was very popular in Europe at the end of the last century.

It was, in a way, the precursor of modern cinema. The viewer in the centre of panoramic painting hears recorded noises from behind the canvas: sounds of horse hooves, gnashing of wheels of a car pulled by the horse, sound of arms and din din of the horde in the distance…