Nyugati, a ‘Treasure of European Film Culture’

Budapest Nyugati [‘Western’] Railway Station has been selected as part the ‘Treasures of European Film Culture’, the European Film Academy has announced.

Treasures of European Film Culture is a growing list of places of a symbolic nature for European cinema, places of historical value that need to be maintained and protected not just now but also for generations to come, the Academy stresses.

On the occasion of this year’s 35th European Film Awards, 22 places have been added to the list, to make it to a total of 35.

One of the new additions, the Hungarian capital’s Nyugati railway station is from where the first Hungarian steam train departed on July 15, 1846 to Vác, 35 kilometers to the north. Budapest Nyugati railway station was opened to the public in 1877. The architectural design is the work of Austrian architect August W. de Serres, while the structure of the hall was designed by Theofil Seyrig, working for Gustav Eiffel’s engineering firm, together with Hungarian engineer Viktor Bernárdt.