The Budapest Operetta Theatre hides a peculiar secret: while its modest two-storey facade sits at 17 Nagymező utca, the actual auditorium and fly tower are tucked into the inner courtyards between three streets, completely invisible from the pavement.

The Viennese architects Fellner and Helmer, who designed nearly 50 theatres across Europe in the late 19th century, created this 1894 building for a circus impresario named Károly Somossy. He went spectacularly bankrupt five years later, eventually dying penniless after one last ill-fated venture: a pleasure park on a Danube island called "Constantinople in Budapest."

The theatre's fortunes fared better. Reopened in March 1945, just weeks after Budapest's siege ended, with a production of Imre Kálmán's "Csárdás Princess" that became the operetta's defining staging. A lyre crowning the roofline marks the building's purpose for those who know to look up.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours explore Nagymező utca's theatrical heritage, tracing the street's transformation into Budapest's Broadway and the cultural institutions clustered along this entertainment corridor.