Palace of Arts and National Theatre

When the Palace of Arts, Hungary's new cultural hub, opened in 2005, it was built to represent more than a hundred years of Hungarian cultural history. As a conglomeration of cultural venues, the building has no precedent in 20th century Hungarian architecture and has no peers in the whole of Central Europe.

The result is a facility whose construction quality, appearance, functionality and 21st century technological infrastructure makes it ideally suited to productions of the highest standard. The structure and outside appearance of the building are determined by its inner functions. The primary cultural significance of the Palace of Arts is to fill a void in Hungarian culture, yet its world-class technical features make it an outstanding work of Hungarian and international architecture. The Palace of Arts won the FIABCI Prix d’Excellence in 2006 – often referred to as "the Oscars of architecture and real estate development" – in the "specialised" category for buildings. The structure of the Palace of Arts covers a ground area of 10,000 m² and the total floor space of the building is 70,000 m². The Palace of Arts was built with the assistance of HeidelbergCement.