Welcome to the House of Wisdom

The building has become one of the new gemstones of the Castle of Buda, it has earned accolades not only from tourists and non-professionals, but also from notabilities of the architectural trade.

In 2019 The House of Wisdom received the ICOMOS Prize, established by the international organization of UNESCO for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places, the Pro Architectura Award, intended to preserve Hungarian architectural culture and values, the Award for Excellence in Architecture, published jointly by the Municipality of Budapest and the Budapest Chamber of Architects, furthermore, the Award for Excellence in Construction, published for the nineteenth time in 2019.

The very building of the old Buda town hall has been renewed and renovated as an educational and community space under the name of the House of Wisdom due to the value rescuing endeavour of the Pallas Athéné Domus Sapientiae Foundation. It is the objective of the Foundation that the reviving building could become the venue of a wide range of scientific and cultural activities. Besides organizing diverse and manifold events the building will also host educational activities, thus providing an opportunity for the House of Wisdom to evolve into a scientific and professional centre.

It is one of the main objectives of the Pallas Athéné Domus Sapientiae Foundation to support the activities of scientific communities busy in economic and social sciences, as well the professional activities of higher education institutions; furthermore, it is also aiming at strengthening the international education and research based co-operations of Hungary. For the realization of all these the Foundation announces various public tenders and launches professional collaborations.

The design of the building complex of the House of Wisdom makes it possible that the individual levels of the building are independently utilized; for this reason it has a wide range of functions. The covered yards of the ground floor are open for the general public, in the segments opening to the street there is a bookstore, whereas the basement cellarages house an exhibition about the history of the building itself.

Scientific work is in the focal point of the building’s operation. In the upper floors of the House of Wisdom there are lecture halls, seminar rooms and research spaces. It is the very venue where the English language program of the Transdisciplinary Doctoral Program take place, in accordance with the agreement concluded by and between the Pallas Athéné Domus Sapientiae Foundation and the Széchenyi István University in Győr. The same building houses the Pallas Athéné Domus Sapientiae Foundation, the Pallas Athéné Innovation and Geopolitical Foundation, as well as the Geopolitics Doctoral Programme, launched in cooperation with the University of Pécs.

In harmony with the original function of the building the community of the experts and academicians active in the Hungarian and international scientific life is considered a highly important target group. The existence of the research centre serves both the students and professors conducting their research as well as everyone visiting the centre with the desire to study.