At the end of November, the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest will open its doors to an exhibition that is unique in Central Europe: “The Guardians of Eternity – The Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor of China.” The editorial team of Hungary Today attended today’s press presentation of the show, which promises a fascinating journey into the beginnings of the Chinese Empire.
A terracotta soldier is removed from a transport container for the exhibition “Guardians of Eternity – The Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor of China.” Photo: Zoltán Balogh/MTI
A terracotta soldier is being prepared for the exhibition “Guardians of Eternity – The Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor of China.” Photo: Zoltán Balogh/MTI
Unpacked terracotta soldiers from the exhibition “Guardians of Eternity – The Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor of China” Photo: Zoltán Balogh/MTI
The Budapest public was able to see the soldiers of the first Chinese emperor’s army for the first time in the spring of 1988, but the excavations at that time only allowed for the presentation of a much smaller collection of artifacts.
The current exhibition, on the other hand, summarizes the scientific results and findings of half a century and conveys an unprecedented, nuanced picture of this era.
The terracotta warriors on display in the current exhibition are not the same as those exhibited at that time.
Photo: Hungary Today
Photo: Hungary Today
“The Guardians of Eternity – The Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor of China.” Photo: Hungary Today
The main display case presents various units of the terracotta army in the order in which they were uncovered during the excavations.
In addition to the life-size warriors, visitors can marvel at 150 ancient Chinese artifacts, including weapons, ceremonial objects, and symbols.
Visitors to the exhibition are in for a special experience. The Chinese terracotta soldiers have lost their colors over time, but the Museum of Fine Arts (Szépművészeti Múzeum) has used technology to reconstruct these colors. In one of the exhibition rooms, the colors on the lifelike replicas of the terracotta warriors are brought to life through visual effects and Chinese background music.
Fact
The exhibition, which spans more than a millennium, focuses on China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi. At the age of only thirteen, he ascended the throne of one of the seven warring Chinese kingdoms in the middle of the 3rd century BC. Through his conquests, he unified China and a few decades later, ruled over a vast, unified empire. The era of his Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) marks the unification, strengthening, and rise of China.The emperor, who died in 210 BC, was buried in a tomb garden the size of a city, which took hundreds of thousands of people 33 years to build. The tomb complex comprises numerous tombs, and a miniature replica of the Chinese empire was built in the central part.
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The central part of the emperor’s tomb remains unexplored to this day. However, over the past 50 years, Chinese archaeologists have uncovered numerous tombs in the tomb garden. The most famous find is the terracotta army that guards the tomb of the first Chinese emperor.
Photo: Hungary Today
Photo: Hungary Today
In 1974, farmers digging a well in the area came across the figures. The thousands of life-size soldiers, each with individual facial features and buried in strict battle formation, remain one of China’s most famous archaeological discoveries to this day.
Photo: Hungary Today
Photo: Hungary Today
At the exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, visitors can follow the rise of the Qin Dynasty from the 8th century BC to the 3rd century AD. The show provides insights into everyday life at the time, the structure of the imperial army, as well as the weapons and individually modeled soldiers. Throughout his life, the emperor searched determinedly for the secret of eternity – the copies of the chariots intended for the afterlife are also part of the Budapest exhibition.
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The exhibition in the Hungarian capital is unique in its scope and the number of original artifacts on display. It is also rare in Europe for Chinese museums to lend such a large quantity of original cultural artifacts.
All of the objects come from museums in Shaanxi, the province that includes the former imperial city of China. The majority of the more than 150 exhibits – including ten original pieces from the Terracotta Army – come from the Museum of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of China and the Yangling Imperial Tomb Museum from the Han Dynasty.
Photo: Hungary Today
Photo: Hungary Today
Photo: Hungary Today
The show was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and the Museum of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of China. The exhibition can be viewed from November 28, 2025, to May 25, 2026.
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