Hungary has long occupied the position of a frontier state and symbolic gateway in European history. In 1989, the removal of its barbed-wire fence along the Austrian border marked the first rupture in the Iron Curtain, facilitating the mass flight of East German citizens and helping to set in motion the chain of events that culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the eventual end of the Cold War. Yet the country that once facilitated Europe’s opening now maintains fortified barriers on its southern borders with Serbia and Croatia, erected in 2015 to deter refugees and migrants along the Balkan route. This paradox highlights Hungary’s dual role as both gateway and gatekeeper. Historically, too, Hungary emerged through migration: the Magyars’ arrival in the Carpathian Basin, their encounters with Slavic and Turkic groups, and King Stephen I’s incorporation of diverse populations forged a multiethnic kingdom. Hungary’s past reflects the shifting logic of borderlands, at once crossroads and fault lines, where hospitality and hostility have alternated across time.