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Hungary’s Renaissance: The Nation Leading Europe’s Revival
While Europe tears down its roots and forgets who it is, Hungary is rebuilding faith, family, and beauty in a world that has chosen decay.
Culture Explorer
March 22, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
Table of Contents
Hungary is doing what no other Western nation dares: restoring the foundations of civilization.
The changes they are making are a model for the rest of the West ... Let me explain… 🧵
Family is the backbone.
1. No income tax for women with at least two children for life.
— Culture Explorer (@CultureExploreX)
10:30 AM • Mar 21, 2025
Apologies for the slight delay—travel set us back by a day. Today’s issue dives into how Hungary is reviving its cultural foundations while much of the West forgets its own, offering a bold and unexpected blueprint for renewal. In the premium version, we take you deeper into Hungary’s Art and Culture and explore Budapest, a city where history, architecture, and identity are being reborn.
Western civilization is in decline. The grand institutions that once defined Europe—the EU, NATO, and the UN—are either ineffective, bloated with bureaucracy, or disconnected from the people they claim to serve. The old-world order is crumbling, yet its architects refuse to adapt.
But while the rest of the West drifts, one nation is charting a bold new course. Under Viktor Orbán, Hungary has taken the lead in rebuilding what Europe has lost: faith, family, sovereignty, and culture. While Brussels clings to outdated ideologies, Hungary is proving that renewal is possible.
Is it leading Europe into a new Renaissance?
After World War II, the West reshaped the world through international institutions: the EU for economic unity, NATO for security, and the UN for diplomacy. These systems once served a purpose. Now, they are relics—bloated, inefficient, and out of step with the changing world.
NATO, designed as a defensive alliance, now fuels conflicts that do not serve European interests. The EU, once a model of cooperation, drowns in bureaucracy while its economy stagnates. The UN, meant to promote peace, has become a battleground for global power struggles.
Meanwhile, Asia rises. China, India, and the Gulf states are advancing in technology, infrastructure, and economics. Europe, once the center of innovation, now lags behind.
The main staircase of the Parliament Building in Budapest, Hungary
Hungary saw this transformation coming. And unlike its European counterparts, it took action. While Brussels promotes cultural amnesia, Hungary is reviving what made Europe great.
The West abandoned its intellectual heritage. Philosophy, history, and classical literature were replaced with ideological education. Hungary rejected this trend. It is restoring classical education—Latin, history, philosophy, and literature—giving future generations the intellectual tools that built Western civilization.
A society that tears down its heritage loses its identity. While much of Europe demolishes historic buildings to make way for soulless modernism, Hungary is restoring its past.
Buda Castle and other historical sites have been rebuilt.
Churches, not shopping malls, are rising across the country.
Public spaces are designed with beauty in mind, not brutalist efficiency.
Before and after in Budapest, Hungary
Architecture reflects a nation’s soul. Hungary has chosen to preserve its own.
Declining birth rates are a European crisis. Most governments ignore the problem or import populations as a short-term fix. Hungary took another route: making it easier for families to grow.
Tax breaks for families with multiple children.
Housing incentives for young couples.
Support for mothers who choose to stay home.
While the West devalues the family while promoting individualism, Hungary invests in it. And the results are showing.
Western Europe has surrendered to cultural relativism, allowing its identity to be diluted. Hungary refuses to follow.
Strict border control to prevent illegal immigration.
National traditions and festivals are prioritized.
Policies focus on preserving Hungary’s distinct identity.
Hungarian children wearing folk costumes. Photo by Ancient History
A civilization that forgets its past has no future. Hungary knows this.
The EU demands conformity. Nations must follow Brussels' rules—even when those rules weaken them. Hungary refuses.
It opposes EU overreach.
It prioritizes national interests over globalist policies.
It builds alliances based on pragmatic cooperation, not ideological alignment.
Hungary’s leadership sees the writing on the wall. A new world order is emerging—one where decentralized nation-states thrive while centralized bureaucracies collapse.
Hungary isn’t just resisting Europe’s decline. It’s creating a model for renewal.
György Matolcsy, the Governor of Hungary’s National Bank, envisions a new Europe—one where nation-states cooperate on their own terms, not under Brussels’ dictates.
A European Common Market could replace the rigid EU, allowing economic collaboration without political entanglement. A European Political Community could refocus security policies on real European interests, rather than following Washington’s lead.
These ideas aren’t just theory. They’re already taking shape.
Hungary’s approach—rooted in sovereignty, tradition, and pragmatic diplomacy—stands in stark contrast to the EU’s stagnation.
Its migration policies, once mocked, are now being adopted across Europe.
Its focus on families has proven more effective than mass immigration.
Its economic ties with Asia are positioning it for the future.
Change is coming to Europe. The only question is: will other nations follow Hungary’s lead or watch their civilization crumble?
Hungary has made its choice. Will the rest of the West?
“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”
Corvin Palace, Budapest. The original building (middle image) was cladded to hide the WW2 damage, resulting in the current store (top image). It now has undergone a restoration to its former glory (bottom image). Photo courtesy of r/ArchitecturalRevival in
Nearly a century after it first opened its doors in 1926 as Hungary’s first department store with an escalator, the Corvin Palace is undergoing a €20 million transformation that blends historic preservation with modernity. Located in Budapest’s 8th district, the iconic building is being reborn as a mixed-use space, with commercial outlets, office levels, a rooftop terrace, and plans for culinary and cultural venues—including a modern art gallery and possibly the revival of the beloved Corvintető pub. Delays due to heritage protections and late tenant departures slowed progress, but the restoration, expected to wrap up by fall 2025, aims to honor Corvin’s original innovative spirit while giving it new life in a changing city.
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Art
After the Hunt (Mathias Corvinus) by Alexander von Wagner
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