Robert Capa Center Budapest: 138 Capa Photographs in a 1912 Art Nouveau House

Endre Friedmann left Budapest as a teenager and became Robert Capa, one of the first and best war photographers, from the Spanish Civil War to the D-Day landings. Since June 2023 the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center on Nagymező utca, back in his home city, has shown about 138 of his photographs, the first permanent exhibition anywhere of his whole life’s work, so you can follow him from Spain to Indochina in a single afternoon.

Walk the Capa rooms in the order he lived them, then stay for André Kertész, the other Budapest-born giant, and the 44th Hungarian Press Photo Exhibition until 15 November 2026, both on the combined ticket. Before you go in, look up at the blue and gold Ernst Museum mosaic over the door of a house that has shown art since 1912, and inside, find Ödön Lechner’s stone benches and Miksa Róth’s staircase window. Then walk up the street to the Mai Manó House, the city’s other photography museum. The Center is a block off Andrássy út, so it pairs easily with an Opera House tour, while the House of Terror further up the avenue makes a heavy double. Be ready for a few frames that are hard to look at. The weekday catch: Tuesday to Friday it is afternoons only.

The essentials: a combined ticket is 7,000 HUF (about $22), the Capa rooms alone 5,000 HUF (about $15). Open Tuesday to Friday 13:00 to 18:00 and at weekends 10:00 to 18:00, closed on Mondays.

Photo: Derbrauni, CC BY 4.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

Capa was born in Budapest in 1913, co-founded the Magnum agency in 1947 and died on a landmine in Indochina on 25 May 1954.

📋 At a Glance

Address	Nagymező utca 8, District VI, the theater street off Andrássy út
Hours	Tue to Fri 13:00-18:00, Sat and Sun 10:00-18:00, desk closes 30 minutes earlier
Closed	Mondays, 23 October, 1 November, 24-26 and 31 December, 1 January
Combined ticket	7,000 HUF (about $22)
Capa only	5,000 HUF (about $15)
Metro	M1 to Opera or Oktogon
Access	Barrier-free, and dogs on a leash are welcome

What is on at the Capa Center now

The house runs two permanent exhibitions and a rotating set of temporary ones, so the ticket buys more than Capa.

• Robert Capa, the Photojournalist. It opened on 13 June 2023 as the world’s first permanent exhibition of Capa’s life’s work, and draws on the 937 prints the Hungarian state bought in 2008, which makes Budapest one of the three big keepers of Capa’s work, alongside New York and Tokyo. The rooms follow the major stages of his life, from Spain through the Second World War to Indochina. It is war photography, and some of it is as hard to look at as you would expect.
• André Kertész, the Sentimentalist. The second Budapest-born giant, shown through the prints he gave to the village of Szigetbecse, in six themed sections.
• 44th Hungarian Press Photo Exhibition, until 15 November 2026. The best Hungarian news photography of 2025, picked by an international jury.
• Metamorphosis, until 17 January 2027. Nine young European photographers on change, from cells to families to landscapes, in the last stop of a touring show that came through Prague, Rouen and Turin.
• András Zoltai: Qurnawi, in the free 8F Gallery until 25 October 2026, about the villagers of Qurna on Luxor’s West Bank and their decades with the Hungarian archaeological mission.

Do not walk out after the Capa rooms. The other exhibitions in the house hold their own, and they are already on your combined ticket.

Photo: Derbrauni, CC BY 4.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

Tickets and the one that pays

Ticket	Full price	Student or 70 and over	Family
Combined, every exhibition	7,000 HUF (about $22)	4,500 HUF (about $14)	14,000 HUF (about $43)
Robert Capa exhibition only	5,000 HUF (about $15)	3,000 HUF (about $9)	10,000 HUF (about $31)
Kertész and temporary exhibitions	3,000 HUF (about $9)	3,000 HUF, single price	Per person, no family rate

Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay at the counter. Converted at 1 USD = 323 HUF, the ECB rate on 16 October 2026. Rates move, so treat the converted figures as indicative.

The student rate covers ages 6 to 26 with a Hungarian or EU student ID; the family ticket is two adults and their children under 18. The 8F Gallery is free for everyone.

The arithmetic is simple. Capa alone plus the 3,000 HUF ticket comes to 8,000 HUF, so if you want anything beyond Capa, the combined ticket at 7,000 HUF is the cheaper way in. With a Budapest Card, one exhibition is free and the rest are half price that day: spend the free entry on Capa.

The desk takes bank cards and SZÉP cards. It does not take euros or any other foreign currency. Tickets are also sold online through the Center’s ticketing partner, Jegymester, linked from the Center’s visitor page.

Hours, closures and when to go

Day	Capa Center	8F Gallery
Monday	Closed	9:00-19:00, free
Tuesday to Friday	13:00-18:00	9:00-19:00, free
Saturday and Sunday	10:00-18:00	9:00-19:00, free

The weekday hours are the catch. Nothing opens before 13:00 from Tuesday to Friday, and the desk shuts at 17:30, so a weekday visit is an afternoon or nothing. Weekends give you the full day from 10:00.

Closed in the rest of 2026: Friday 23 October, Sunday 1 November, 24 to 26 December and 31 December, plus 1 January 2027. It opens 10:00 to 18:00 from 27 to 30 December and on 2 and 3 January 2027.

A date worth knowing: Capa was born on 22 October, and in 2026 that falls on the Thursday, the day before the 23 October closure.

Source: Capa Center visitor information, current exhibitions and the Capa exhibition site, prices, hours and closures checked 17 October 2026.

The building is half the visit

Nagymező utca 8 was built for the art collector Lajos Ernst and opened in 1912 as a museum upstairs and a cinema below, the Tivoli, later a theater. After Ernst’s death it spent decades as a branch of the Műcsarnok, and art has hung in these rooms for more than 110 years.

Photo: Varius, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

Look up before you go in, and look around once you are inside. The reliefs over the door are King Matthias and Queen Beatrix. The stone benches were designed by Ödön Lechner, and the big staircase window is Miksa Róth’s glass, made to a design by József Rippl-Rónai.

Building history from the Capa Center’s own history page, read on 17 October 2026.

Getting there

The Center is on Nagymező utca, Budapest’s theater street, a few steps south of Andrássy út.

• M1 metro, the yellow line: Opera or Oktogon.
• Trams 4 and 6: Oktogon.
• Trolleybuses 70 and 78: Andrássy út (Opera).
• Buses 105, 201 and 201B: Opera.

Driving is a poor idea. Street parking around it is in the city’s most expensive zone and capped at three hours on weekdays, 8:00 to 22:00. There are garages on Király utca and Paulay Ede utca if you must.

The other photography museum on the same street

The Mai Manó House at Nagymező utca 20, opposite the Operetta Theater, is the city’s other big photography address, in the eight-level studio house the court photographer Manó Mai had built in 1894. It is run separately, with its own ticket.

	Capa Center	Mai Manó House
Address	Nagymező utca 8	Nagymező utca 20
Open	Tue-Fri 13:00-18:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00	Tue-Sun 12:00-19:00, last entry 18:30
Closed	Mondays	Mondays
Full-price ticket	7,000 HUF combined (about $22)	3,600 HUF (about $11)
On 23 October	Closed	Open, free entry
Wheelchair access	Yes	No

Full price is 3,600 HUF, a half-price ticket at 1,800 HUF (about $6) covers set age groups listed on the admission page, and a valid Budapest Card gets you in free. Mai Manó’s current exhibitions, on Nora Dumas, Émile Zola’s photographs and Mathias Depardon, close on 25 October. The next pair opens on 5 and 6 November, so in between, check the current exhibitions page before you walk up.

The two make a good weekday afternoon in that order: Mai Manó from 12:00, then down the street to the Capa Center once it opens at 13:00.

Source: Mai Manó House opening hours, admission fees and directions, checked 17 October 2026.

What to pair it with

You are a block from the grandest street in town, so the rest of the day is close.

• The Hungarian State Opera House is around the corner on Andrássy út; a building tour and the Capa rooms fit in one afternoon.
• The House of Terror is further up the avenue, just past Oktogon. It covers the same century from the receiving end, so it is a heavy double with Capa; split them across two days if you can.
• Our Andrássy Avenue walking guide has every door worth opening along the boulevard and which M1 stop serves which.
• On a wet day, the Capa Center sits well in our rainy day plan, and the wider museum picture is in Budapest museums ranked by time cost.

For more across the city, start at the attractions hub.