Budapest Guide
Terézváros and Erzsébetváros
The Museum of Electrotechnology
Opening time: Tues– Fri 10am–5pm, Sat 9am–6pm
Price: 400Ft
Address: Kazinczy utca 21
Website: www.emuzeum.hu
The Museum of Electrotechnology (Magyar Elektrotechnikai Múzeum) is set in a former electricity substation down the road from the Orthodox Synagogue. Its curators can demonstrate the world's first dynamo (invented in 1859 by Áynos Jedlik, a Benedictine monk) and other devices in rooms devoted to such topics as the history of light bulbs and the Hungarian section of the Iron Curtain, along the border with Austria. Though the current was too weak to kill and the minefields were removed in 1965, patrols kept it inviolate until 1989, when the Hungarians ceased shooting escapees, thereby spelling the end of the Iron Curtain as a whole.