Hungarian National Museum

This guide to the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest opens on the stone steps outside, on the morning of March 15, 1848, when a young poet named Sándor Petőfi climbs up with a poem in his pocket that Austrian censors never approved. It also traces the museum's own quieter origins, back to 1802, when Count Ferenc Széchényi handed over his library, coin collection, maps and manuscripts to found it. Stand on those same worn steps, where Hungarians still gather every March.