Buda Historic Home & Garden

42 Hunter Street, CASTLEMAINE
Phone: (03) 5472 1032
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Buda Historic Home and Garden is one of the great heritage assets of the Victorian Goldfields region. The gracious historic home, built in 1861, is surrounded by 1.2 hectares of garden noted as being one of the most significant of its era surviving in Victoria.

Buda Historic Home and Garden was opened to the public as a museum in 1982. The property is owned by the Trustees of the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum and since 1986 has been managed by an independent body, Buda Incorporated.

Our Collection

The collection at Buda has approximately 4,000 catalogued items, comprising of domestic objects, furnishings, textiles, books, artworks, documents, personal effects and photographs, all belonging to the Leviny family who resided in the house from 1863 to 1981.

Noteworthy is the collection of silver objects made in the mid-nineteenth century by Hungarian, Ernest Leviny, a colonial gold and silversmith who arrived on the Castlemaine goldfields in 1853. In addition to this, items made by the Leviny daughters in the Arts and Crafts style also feature in the house, with articles of embroidery, woodcarving and metalwork displayed throughout the house and garden.

Of further interest is the collection of artworks, dating mostly from the early twentieth century, by artists such as Margaret Preston, Mildred Lovett, Ursula Ridley Walker, Eveline Syme and Alice Newell to mention just a few.