Underground military hospital right in the center of Budapest offers unique experience to all visitors of the museum.
The Hungarian capital Budapest boasts with a rarity. Right under the Buda Castle there is an underground hospital and a bomb shelter turned into museum. The hospital had capacity for 200 patients but during the heaviest fights between Germans and Russians in WWII there were as many as 1000 wounded people down there.
According to Rozhlas.cz, at that time the doctors lacked medicine and thus bandages from dead patients had to be reused. To make the experience more real today in the museum, called “Hospital in the Rock“, there are not photos but wax figures in period clothes. There are also period apparatus and even an ambulance. Visitors may see the operating rooms where the “wax doctors“ operate and throw away the blood covered bandages.
According to the manager of the museum Gábor Tatai the place that is currently open to public was operational during 1944-45 and also during the revolution in 1956. According to Mr. Tatai it is the only exhibition of its kind in Europe.
It is also surprising that such a facility is located in the center of the city right under the Buda castle where the government offices were located during the war. At first Hungarians converted the already existing tunnels into a bomb shelter and later they set up the hospital there. After the war the tunnels were used for civil protection as a nuclear bomb shelter and were fully operational until 2000.
Mr. Tatai points out that it is important for the young generation to understand the value of peace and seeing how terrible the war and its consequences were should make it easier for them. He also wants the museum to show that true heroes are those who save human lives not those who take them.
Central Europe is full of unique and interesting attractions. You just need to discover them. This military hospital sounds quite exciting. I heard the experience is worth it.