History Cruising on the Danube
Your journey begins upon the deck of the Leitha Monitor. Afterwards, you will visit the exquisite Attila boat. Throughout the trip From Margaret Island to Rákóczi Bridge, an audio guide will walk you through all the famous, or in case infamous, events of Hungarian history. After 50 minutes cruising, the Attila boat stops next to the 105-year old Kossuth boat where the exhibition of the Transportation Museum can be visited! Lastly, you will board the Leitha Monitor, the last remaining steam warship that has been turned into a museum giving you an opportunity to walk through the past.
Sándor Palace
The smaller white building, the Sándor Palace, were named after the noble family that built it. Now it houses the offices and residence of the President of Hungary. He represents the nation at international conferences and signs laws passed by the parliament. There’s an urban legend about the two balconies of the building. As you can see, they are a bit oversized for the building. The story says that one member of the noble Sándor family that inhabited the palace, Móric Sándor, was crazy about horses, and he was the one who added these two balconies so that he could admire the view on the Pest side from the back of his horse.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.05.172
The funicular railway
The funicular railway dates back to 1870 and was inspired by the one in Lyon, France. It was the second in Europe operated by a steam engine. Before the Second World War some of the ministries were up on the hill, close to the Royal Palace in the Castle District. This funicular railway was created for the employees of these ministries, so that they could get to work easier. The first bus line appeared in that area as late as 1928, but by that time tourists had fallen in love with this old-fashioned means of public transport. During the Second World War it was largely destroyed, and in the sixties there were plans to replace it with an escalator. But luckily they were not carried out. It was finally reopened after its renovation in the eighties.
photo source: fortepan.hu
The Turul
You can see a statue of a bird on the hill. It’s called the Turul, the mythical bird of Hungarians from pagan times. It’s impossible to decide whether it’s an eagle or a bigger hawk.
photo source: fortepan.hu
The Court Theatre of Buda
The big yellow building used to be a monastery, the monastery of the Carmelites. As you can see, part of the roof is higher; that shows us the part of the building that used to be their church. There is one thing missing: the bell tower of course, which was destroyed during the reign of Joseph II, son of the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa in the 1780s. The Habsburg rulers saw themselves and their empire as the last bastion of Catholicism, so why would someone from this family do such a thing? The answer is very simple: to modernize the empire. Joseph II dissolved all the contemplative religious orders, since he saw them as unnecessary. As a result, the Carmelites had to go and their church was transformed to house the first theatre in the city. Plays were performed in the most commonly spoken language in the city at that time: German. Joseph II was a great reformer, but great reformers that turn the world upside down are never really appreciated, he wasn’t either, except among Jews and Protestants after the issue of the edict of religious tolerance.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.07.007
Matthias Church
The gothic bell tower of the Matthias Church indicates that the church was built in the 13th century and it’s one of the oldest churches of the city. It has two curiosities: the coloured tiles decorating its roof and the oriental decoration inside. Upon entering, one feels like they are in a mosque. The reason for this is that during the Ottoman or Turkish occupation of the 16th and 17th century, the church served Muslim worshippers. Actually, all medieval churches in the city were turned into mosques except for one. Why the exception? Because the Turks were very tolerant for the standards of those times: they let Christians keep one church. Matthias Church served as a coronation church; the last coronation was held there in 1916.
The last ruler of the monarchy was Charles IV. After being crowned he got on his horse and rode around the city. On his way, the crown nearly fell off his head, which was considered to be a bad premonition. The hastily prepared crown plies did not fit the king’s head properly, so the crown tipped aside. The bad omen proved to be true: Charles IV reigned only for two years, until the end of the war.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.08.018
Fishermen’s Bastion
The bell tower of the Matthias Church is surrounded by small white towers, a total of seven. Seven towers to commemorate the seven Hungarian tribes of pagan times. This ensemble is called the Fisherman’s Bastion. With a name like that, one would place it somewhere to the riverbanks. The reason for the name is quite simple. Under this section of the city walls, there was a quarter inhabited mainly by fishermen. In times of war the guild of fishermen had to protect the wall. But the building you see up there was only erected in the early 20th century; it’s not medieval at all, no fisherman ever fought there. The function of the building is purely decorative; it was built to give a nice frame for the church. And obviously it was built for you as there’s a very nice view from up there.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.08.105
Calvinist church
The brick church covered with coloured tiles is a Calvinist church. This protestant movement was hugely successful in Hungary, especially during the Turkish occupation. The strongly Catholic Habsburgs had no influence on these lands, so approximately two thirds of the population was converted to Calvinism.
One can recognise their churches very easily: they put a mace on the top of the church, not a cross. A mace – the medieval weapon – doesn’t seem very friendly you might think. To find the explanation we have to go back to the time of the counter-reforms led by the Habsburgs of Austria. As the Turkish presence in Buda meant a great threat for Vienna, the Habsburgs decided to push the Turks to the East. They liberated Hungary in 1686. But as previously mentioned, the majority of Hungarians were already Calvinists and the Habsburgs had a very strong catholic identity. So they started to re–Catholize the country. We call this movement the counter-reforms. During the counter-reforms there were 50 Calvinist priests that refused to change their faith, and they were forced to march to Venice, Italy, where they were sold to be slaves. Their guards had maces, and since this event the weapon was represented on the tops of their churches to show that the strong belief of the Calvinists cannot be changed by force.
photo source: fortepan.hu
Margaret Bridge
The Margaret Bridge was built between 1872 and 1876. The designer was a Frenchman, Ernest Gouin. It turns in the middle, at an angle of 30 degrees following the circular great Boulevard. The third branch touching the island was only added in the year 1900, and until that time the island was only accessible by boat. The bridge, just like the other bridges in Budapest, was blown up by the retreating Germans in the Second World War in order to slow down the Red Army. They always blasted the bridges at night after closing them, but on this bridge there was an accident; the explosion happened in the middle of rush hour with a tram and cars on the bridge, leaving hundreds of dead on site.
photo source: fortepan.hu
Margaret Island
You can see Margaret Island, the city’s biggest island, which is essentially a park. The island and the bridge bear their names from Saint Margaret, who lived in the 13th century. Her father was king Béla IV, whose army was badly defeated by the invading Mongols, so the royal family went into exile on an island that now belongs to Croatia. During the invasion he lost two of his daughters and he made a vow: if he has another daughter, and the Mongols leave the country, this new-born girl will be offered to God so that she prays for the country and the glory of God all her life. The Mongols left, Margaret was born, and she was raised by Dominican nuns. The island is a place where locals mainly go to do a bit of sport and there are also some tennis courts, a swimming pool where the European Championship of Swimming has been organized three times, the Palatinus bath, two thermal hotels, a Japanese garden, an old water tower, and one of Budapest’s three zoos.
Legend has it that Margaret’s father tried several times to arrange a political marriage for her, and make her change her vow, but she kept refusing. She preferred to wear an iron girdle, shoes spiked with nails, and to do the dirtiest jobs in the convent. She never cleaned herself above the ankle, but the lice of her hair shined like pearls. After her death her body did not decompose for 3 weeks and smelled like roses.
If you ask a Hungarian about the old name of the island they will say with a great deal of conviction that the island was called the Island of Rabbits. We all imagine little cute, soft, white rabbits jumping around the island. But it’s not quite true. Actually, the original name in Latin was Isola Leprorum, which was badly copied by a tired monk as Isola Leporum. Just an „r” missing. But this missing „r” changes quite a lot. Leporum means rabbits, leprorum means leper.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.05.091
The White House
The white modern construction was built right after the war, its nickname is the White House. In the early fifties it was the headquarters of the AVH, the local political police. Later, it housed the central departments of the Communist Party, and nowadays the offices of the MPs can be found in it.
photo source: fortepan.hu
Parliament
The House of Parliament was built between 1885 and 1904 by architect Imre Steindl. He oversaw the works on site throughout, in the end from a wheelchair, but unfortunately he could not be present at the inauguration ceremony as he had passed away before it. The style of the building is eclectic, its weight is typical baroque, its facade is neo-gothic, while inside you can also find art nouveau ornaments. If you think it looks very similar to Westminster, the Houses of Parliament in London, you’re right. It’s no secret. The inspiration was that building; the architect travelled to Britain several times to study Westminster. And now some facts and figures: 365 little towers decorate the roof just like the number of days in a year, the height of the cupola is 96 meters to commemorate the arrival of the Hungarians to the Carpathian Basin in 896, 40 kilograms of pure gold were used for the decoration of the interior. They say that the sum spent on this single building would have been enough to build an entire town of 40,000 inhabitants.
The idea was to use exclusively Hungarian materials, except for the 8 monolithic granite columns that were sent as a present by the king of Sweden. But because of this strict condition – the use of local materials – the limestone covering the building blackened too quickly, so that renovations of the facade have been more or less constant since 1927. The main facade was finished recently, and for that occasion the building received a new, must-see floodlight.
One of the curiosities of the building is its ventilation system. Around the building there are wells that connect through underground tunnels with the inside. A constant 21-23 degrees can be maintained by putting 8 tons of ice in these tunnels on every warm day, which seems to be the best temperature for hard headwork. So any counter productive legal regulations should be blamed on a malfunction of the ventilation system.
With its size, the Hungarian Parliament is the second biggest in Europe. You might ask the question: Why does a tiny little country have a Parliament as big as that? There are several reasons. First of all, you should know that it was a bicameral Parliament, with two meeting rooms for the lower and upper houses. Since 1944 only the lower house has operated. The northern wing, the old meeting room of the senate, is rarely used. Another reason for its size is the fact that Hungary at the time of the construction was nearly three times as big as now, so it wasn’t such a small country. And the third reason is historical; if you ask a Hungarian how he sees his national history, he will speak about the old glorious times, the pagan times, or the early Christian times, when Hungary was independent and strong. And then he will paint an image of cruelty about all those who invaded Hungary; the Mongols, the Turks, the Austrians and finally the Soviets. Hungarians always wanted their old independence back. And it was this independence, perhaps it’s better to call it a higher level of autonomy, that was granted after negotiations with the Austrian Habsburgs in 1867. This event, called the Compromise, was followed by incredibly fast growth, so that the end of the 19th century was one of the golden eras from the Hungarian point of view. Look around! Nearly everything you see was built at that time. Budapest became the most modern city of the empire. So in this historical contex,t Hungarians decided to build a grand Parliament as symbol of autonomy. And that building had to be absolutely huge, and especially bigger than the one in Vienna.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.08.106
Chain Bridge
The Chain Bridge was the first bridge spanning the Danube in the whole country. It was inaugurated in 1849 during a war of independence against Austria, and it was nearly destroyed right after its opening by retreating Austrian forces. You might wonder why it is called the Chain Bridge. Is there any story with prisoners in chains? Actually the official name of the bridge is the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, and it was named after the count who proposed its construction. Count Széchenyi was a great traveller, he saw a big gap in development between western countries and Hungary, and he sacrificed his entire life for the modernisation of the country.
In the beginning of the 1800s there were many polemics about the construction of a permanent bridge. Up until that time there was only a so–called boat bridge that served all those who wanted to cross. Imagine a series of small boats attached to each other spanning the width of the river. But these boats were made of wood of course so in wintertime, when large pieces of ice were floating down the Danube, they were too fragile. When the river froze completely there was no problem, it was possible to simply cross on foot. The critical periods – which could last for weeks – were always times when big pieces of ice appeared. No ferry risked the crossing, the boat bridge was too fragile. Once during a period like that, Count Széchényi’s father died in Vienna. The son wanted to go to his funeral, but was blocked for weeks on the Pest side and could not attend the burial of his father. He was furious and offered all his income of a year towards the creation of a permanent bridge.
The city was already thinking about building a permanent bridge, but there were no architects in the country with the necessary experience. People had heard about disasters that happened elsewhere on much smaller rivers involving bridges with several arches. They feared that a similar bridge would collapse. So there was a desire for a modern single-span bridge. Count Széchenyi travelled Europe to find an architect with the necessary experience and finally found an Englishman, William Tierney Clark, who had already designed the Marlow Bridge on the river Thames, in Marlow, England. And that bridge was also a chain bridge, the suspension was a huge chain.
The bridge was funded to a large extent by a merchant and a banker of Greek (Vlach) origin, Baron György Sinai who also convinced the Viennese Rotschilds to join the project. A condition of the bankers was that the two cities of Buda and Pest were not to build another bridge between the two sides within 8 kilometres for 50 years, and that everyone had to pay for the crossing, including the nobility. This created a scandal among noblemen as the former boat bridge was free of charge for them. The cities agreed, thinking that no other bridge would be needed in the future. They had not foreseen the incredible growth in population in the following decades. They didn’t know that very soon Budapest would become a city of a million people, not two hick countryside towns of the Empire, and another three bridges would be urgently needed.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.05.026
Vigadó
The so-called Vigadó is a place consecrated for fun, especially for music, concerts, balls, and receptions; a place to get together as „Vigadni” means to have fun, to have a party. The neo-classic predecessor of the building was destroyed by Austrian cannons in 1849 since that was the place where the independentist Parliament had its meetings. The actual building, designed by Frigyes Feszl and inaugurated in 1865, drew a lot of attention due to its excessive use of ornaments.
Although the acoustics of the Vigadó was not perfect, for many years it was the only concert hall in the city. The list of stars who gave concerts in the building is long, to name just a few of them: Johann Strauss, Claude Debussy, Franz Liszt, Camille Saint-Saens, Johannes Brahms.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.05.067
Vörösmarty Square, Gerbeaud Café
Vörösmarty square used to be the main square of the city. Nowadays, we cannot really speak about a single main square, like in smaller cities. At the square you can find one of the most prestigious cafés in Budapest, the Gerbeaud. To this day it’s a very nice place to have a slice of cake and a hot chocolate, even if it’s packed with tourists and the waitresses could perhaps smile more pleasantly. However, if you go there to have some cake, be careful! The recipes for the old traditional cakes suggested in your guidebooks were created for the tastes of 1900. You will probably appreciate their new creations more.
Its name, Gerbeaud, sounds French and that is no coincidence. The store was founded by a Hungarian, Mr. Henrik Kugler. It became a famous and elegant café, but Mr. Kugler was so busy creating new recipes and running the business that he forgot to provide succession: he died with no one who could inherit it. So before his death he asked a friend from Switzerland if he knew anyone talented who could continue the tradition. That’s how the young Émile Gerbeaud found his way from Switzerland to Hungary. The café flourished under his command; he paid attention to every single detail. He carefully designed the wrapping papers, he founded chocolate factories here and there in the empire, he travelled to Paris so that he could refurbish the café with the most fashionable furniture, and so on. He built a genuine palace of 4 stories. The café was on the ground floor, he lived with his wife and three daughters in a fair apartment, the laboratories to do the experiments for new recipes were on the first floor, new creams were created on the second, and the apartments of his best employees were on the third. The good times ended in 1919 during a brief communist period, when the business was nationalized. Still he was able to keep his job, and he ran
the place as an employee. As this communist period lasted only 133 days, he got the café back afterwards, but his heart suffered from the time of hardship, and very soon afterwards he passed away.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.06.051
Elisabeth Bridge
The Elisabeth Bridge was named after Sisi, the most popular empress in Hungary, wife of Francis Joseph, and the idol of beauty of the 1800s. This is the only bridge in Budapest that was not rebuilt in its original form after the destruction of World War II. It only kept its proportions. As you can see, the pillars were put on the riverbanks, which meant an incredible span for the time of its inauguration in 1903. It was considered to be a technical wonder and apparently the emperor didn’t believe his own eyes.
photo source: fortepan.hu
International Port
The larger boats mark the international port of the city, where cruise ships stop. One can continue until Amsterdam or Paris solely by water from Budapest. But that’s not very common. Tourists usually choose the cruises that do Passau in Southern Germany with a superb cathedral, the monastery of Melk in Austria, the picturesque Wachau valley, Vienna, Bratislava, the Slovakian capital, Esztergom, the spiritual capital of Hungary, and Budapest. This is also the port from where the fast hydrofoils, connecting Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna, embark. It might not be the fastest way to get to these capitals, but it certainly is the most beautiful.
photo source: fortepan.hu
Market Hall
The Central Market Hall looks like a railway station with coloured tiles. This is one of six market halls built the same year, 1896, the year of the Hungarian Millenium. All the six were opened on the same day.
The Market Hall was very modern for its time, complete with an iron structure, cold storage rooms in the basement, elevators, and so forth. Even now you can see the entrance of the tunnel at the riverbank which was created for goods to be delivered. Now it has a different function: it’s used for the waste that leaves the building. Entering the Market Hall on the ground floor one finds food, Hungarian specialities such as paprika, goose-liver, and salamis. On the first floor where florists once sold their merchandise, you can find handicrafts.
photo source: fortepan.hu
Liberty Bridge
This bridge is called the Liberty Bridge. Before communist times it was named after emperor Francis Joseph. The emperor was present at the opening ceremony in 1896 and he was the one to put the last rivet into the structure of the bridge. Obviously that last rivet which the emperor placed was very nicely ornated, made of silver. It was stolen, of course. It was then replaced by a copy, and then was again stolen.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.08.086
Corvinus University of Budapest
This neo-renaissance building designed by the architect of the National Opera, Miklós Ybl, used to be the headquarters for customs, but long ago it became the central building of the University of Economics. Note that up until recently there was a statue of Karl Marx at the entrance hall. In 1990 when George Bush, father of W., came to Hungary and gave a speech, in the background one could see the American flag and the statue of Karl Marx, creating an odd spectacle.
The nearby buildings were warehouses: the smaller one used to be a warehouse for salt and is called Salt House. It belongs to the University too, just as the modern building with the entrance of an imaginary spaceship.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.05.019
„The Whale”
Bálna is a commercial, cultural, entertainment and leisure centre. The building filled with galleries, cafés and design shops combines different architectural styles. The historic warehouse buildings of brick structure from 1881 are embraced by a 21st-century steel and glass shell. We call it the Whale due to its shape. The building was partly built above the old grain warehouses.
Pest is situated geographically on the Great Hungarian Plain that covers approximately a third of the country’s territory. It’s a plain where a lot of grains are grown. At the turn of the century, boats transported all these grains to the mills of Budapest, specifically to this quarter. The mills were very important to the city’s economy. In the world there was only one place where more cereal was transformed: St. Louis in the United States. At the end of the 19th century there was a dramatic rise in the prices of grain that was very beneficial to Hungary, and it’s not a mere simplification to say that the money that built Budapest came from cereals.
Expo plots
This quarter was known as the Expo plots since the government planned to organise an expo on both sides of the Danube. You’ve certainly heard about the Millenium Exhibition that was organised in 1896. If you’ve already seen Heroes’s Square, you’ve seen the entrance of that exhibition. But the list of monuments built to celebrate 1000 years of the Hungarian presence is extensive: the Liberty Bridge, the Elisabeth Bridge, the market halls and the first metro line. All these buildings mark a time of growth: the golden era. One hundred years later in 1996, right after the fall of communism, the Hungarian people had great hopes that the country would flourish again. So they wanted to show themselves to the world by organising an Expo. But the whole project was led by the government before the elections and the opposition that came to power cancelled the plans.
So nowadays at this site – which has been empty for a long time – one can see luxury apartments, offices, the new National Theater and the Palace of Arts.
photo source: fortepan.hu
National Theater
The new National Theatre inspired a lot of polemics. A left wing government decided to build a hypermodern national theatre in the middle of the city centre. The right wing opposition didn’t like the idea, of course. The downotwn construction had already started when the opposition won the elections. The construction work stopped, leaving a big hole in the middle of the city, and the new right-wing government began to build a new structure here on the river bank. The downtown construction site was dubbed the National Hole by locals, and remained unfinished for some years.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.05.083
Palace of Arts
The building of the Palace of Arts has two main functions. It houses a hypermodern concert hall, where the acoustics can be modified according to the orchestra that gives a concert. A soloist requires different acoustics than a choir or a symphonic orchestra. The concert hall has the shape of a whale, so that’s the second whale of the Danube. The building also houses the so called Ludwig Collection, a collection of artworks from the 20th century.
The Ludwigs were a German couple that became rich from the chocolate industry. Their story is a typical story of the Cold War. They started to collect 20th century artwork and their mission was to help communication between artists of the east and those of the west. What they bought in the East was exhibited in the West, and what they bought in the West was exhibited in the East. So in Budapest you can see mainly western artworks, works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, some Picassos, and so on.
Rákóczi Bridge
The next bridge is called the Rákóczi Bridge. There’s not much to know about this bridge, it only dates back to 1994. Its lighting was a technical curiosity of the time as it provides a very solid light for the road.
Close to the bridge, on both banks, there are clubs attracting thousands in the summer. The one called Budapest Park is found on the Pest side, while the Barba Negra Track or the A38 ship can be found on the Buda side.
On the Buda side you can see the new university buildings, one of them has an astronomical observatory. These buildings were also built on the old Expo plots.
photo source: fortepan.hu
Petofi Bridge
The Petofi Bridge was opened for the traffic in 1937. The tram that crosses it is on the same line that you saw up in the north on the Margaret Bridge. Locals are less proud of this bridge. It’s kind of ugly, we have to admit. The first plans were made in the twenties, and on these plans some decoration at the pillars could still be seen. But the crisis of 1929 intervened and the plans were simplified. At the time of its inauguration it was named after the regent of the country, Miklós Horthy. Nowadays it is named after Hungary’s most popular poet, Sándor Petofi. He was a poet in the 19th century who wrote about freedom and love. He disappeared in a battle at a very young age, but apparently he still lives with Elvis Presley and John Lennon.
That tram is very important, because it runs all along the Great Boulevard. It is the most frequent tramline in the world, in rush hour there’s not even 20 seconds till the next tram comes. It is also the longest tram in Europe that carries passengers. Why this refinement? Because in Dresden, Germany there’s a tram that’s 2 meters longer but it only transports merchandise. It’s a very useful line as it runs all night and pretty much everything in the centre is accessible by taking these trams.
The bridges all have a curious feature, the so–called bridge master. It’s the bridge master’s duty to control the state of the bridge. They report new rust stains, new tags, the smallest things that happen to the bridge. They always live somewhere very close in an official apartment. For example, the master of the Chain Bridge used to live in an apartment created inside, yes inside the tunnel that passes under Castle Hill. The master of the Margaret Bridge is the only inhabitant of Margaret Island. But the master of the Petofi Bridge has the strangest apartment of all. His was created on the Buda side inside the pillar. Apparently the gas meter readers had hard times finding the address, he never guessed the location.
photo source: fortepan.hu
Stalin baroque, Technical University
On the Buda side you can see the buildings of the Technical University. One of them is definitely not the nicest building in Budapest. The style of that building is called „Stalin Baroque” in common Hungarian.
The central building of the University is home to the Faculty of Architecture. In the garden there is a nuclear reactor serving educational purposes. Apparently it’s not dangerous.
Between the Technical University of Budapest and the Corvinus University of Budapest passes the 4th underground line under the river, which is considered the largest construction project of the capital ever. This line opened in 2014 and is the first automatic line of the city which operates without a driver. The stations, especially the ones in the centre, are spectacular architectural gems of our present times. The 4th metro line links the south-western districts with the eastern side of the city. They say that a passenger taking the metro between the end stations saves an incredible 6 minutes compared to the surface transport. The original cost of the construction was an estimated 2 billion euros. According to traffic experts it would have been much more economical to rebuild the once discontinued tram lines.
Building this metro line was the dream of the former mayor. He was in office for twenty years and always dreamt about the opening ceremony. The construction itself was delayed several times, but they finally started work. After 20 years he was not reelected unfortunately. So his dream was realised but he was not the one to inaugurate the new metro line. Budapest has 23 separate self-governing districts. These districts have a very high level of autonomy, while the mayor of Budapest is not responsible for too much. But as it is difficult to memorize 23 names, citizens just blame everything on the mayor of Budapest.
photo source: fortepan.hu
Gellért Hotel
The famous Gellért hotel is a thermal hotel built at the place of a Turkish Bath-house, the so called Acik Ilice. The years of construction are easy to remember: it started in 1914, finished in 1918, exactly the years of the 1st World War. The building is a nice example of the art nouveau style. The most beautiful part of it is the men’s thermal bath. During the bombing of the city in the Second World War, the women’s side was badly damaged and was renovated as a simplified version. The men’s side is accessible for women though, but only on weekends. There’s a remarkable decoration made of turquoise ceramics. In 1928, the garden and the minigolf were replaced by outdoor pools. In the central outdoor pool there are artificial waves for ten minutes every hour. For the inhabitants of a landlocked country that’s a great fun. If you decide to go to have a bath, buy a ticket with a cabin. Choose the entrance where sexes are already separated. Entering there, you will have the best cabins. In these cabins clients have beds to relax after having a bath. Having a small nap is part of the experience.
photo source: fortepan.hu
Liberty Bridge
It’s quite easy to get up to the top of the pillars of the Liberty Bridge. Every month there’s someone who goes up there planning to commit suicide by jumping into the Danube. When it happens, the fire brigade rushes to the spot and brings a gentleman with them who has an incredibly high rate of success convincing suicides that life is beautiful and they can start all over again. It’s very rare that someone jumps in the end.
About ten-to-fifteen years ago there was a man called Ferike, Franky in English, whose passion was to climb these bridges. He not only went up the Liberty Bridge, but also the Elisabeth Bridge where one has to climb by hugging the cables. Anyway, he never really wanted to jump, but he was saved all the time by the fire brigade. Later, a rule was created that every Hungarian citizen has the right to be saved for free only once in his/her life. The second time one has to pay the fees for the operation.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.08.086
The Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty on top of Gellért Hill is a young woman holding a palm leaf in her hands and looking to the East. She is waiting for the liberators, the Red Army that came from the East in the end of the Second World War. There are obviously a few who don’t really see the arrival of the Red Army as liberation. So this statue provoked a lot of polemics. The other statues of the communist era were not destroyed as in other countries; they were simply moved to an open-air museum at the border of the city. But this statue wasn’t moved. There were people saying that it should be turned to the West to show that liberty came from the West. Finally it wasn’t turned, it was just modified. Before, there was also a statue of a Red Army soldier with a machine-gun and a flag on the pedestal – that statue was moved. And the inscription was changed from: „To commemorate those Soviet soldiers that sacrificed their lives for the liberty of Hungary” to „to commemorate all those who sacrificed their lives for the liberty of Hungary”.
photo source: fortepan.hu
Citadel
The fortress, the so called Citadel, was built in 1851 by Austrians to control the rebellious Hungarians. It’s the highest point of the centre, a strategic point from where one could control the whole city with cannons. The Castle District wasn’t created on the top of that hill, but on the lower Castle Hill, because in the 13th century when the royal court was moved to Buda, cannons were not yet used in warfare.
The Citadel was a symbol of oppression; one could see it from nearly every point of the city. After the compromise of Austrians and Hungarians made 20 years later, imperial troops abandoned the fortress and it was partly destroyed by citizens.
Inside the hill there’s a huge water reservoir that provides pure drinking water for the city. Tap water in Budapest is among the best in Europe.
Around the hill there are three historical bathhouses altogether. The two oldest date back to Turkish times, to the 1500s. Under the small Turkish dome people are having a bath. One day it’s open for men, the other for women. The sexes are separated because one can have a bath naked.
If you prefer to relax after having a party, come here on Fridays or Saturdays after 10pm, when it reopens as a mixed bath, for men and women. Under the pillar you can also taste the rejuvenating thermal waters of the area for ridiculously low prices.
photo source: Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára. Levéltári jelzet: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.08.016
Statue of Saint Gellért
The statue of Saint Gellért is holding a cross in his hand showing us that he played an important role in baptising pagan Hungarians. This switch to Christianity was led by our holy king, Saint Stephen, and was a very important political decision. Hungarians arrived at the Carpathian Basin in 896. In the first half of the 900s Hungarian troops, a light cavalry, ventured basically everywhere in Europe to burn monasteries, loot villages and towns. They passed through Switzerland and Southern France as far as Catalony, Southern Italy, and Byzantium. For 60 years they were invincible thanks to their unknown combat style. Finally in 955, the Germans defeated them. Hungarian tribal leaders realised that these campaigns had to be stopped. Their integration into Europe also meant adopting Christianity. Monks were invited to baptise Hungarians, but they were not very popular as they imposed a completely different religion and the old pagan cult was smashed. Gellért was in a key position during this period, being an advisor to the first Christian king Saint Stephen. After the death of the king, a pagan rebellion broke out, and Gellért and other bishops were captured. It happened at the foot of the hill, where these churchmen attempted to cross the river. Gellért was put in a nailed barrel and was rolled down to the Danube. He became Hungary’s first martyr, and the hill is named after him. According to the legend, the church on the Pest side at the foot of the bridge was built on the tomb of Saint Gellért.
photo source: fortepan.hu
The Royal Palace
The Royal Palace dominates this section of the riverbanks. Hungary is a republic, so no king lives there now. The building is used as a cultural centre; housing the National Gallery with artworks by Hungarian artists, the Budapest Museum, and the biggest library in the country.
The first royal palace dated back to the 13th century when Béla IV decided to move the royal court to Buda. The result was a gothic and renaissance style complex. One of the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund of Luxemburg, chose this palace as his imperial seat. Its golden era though was during the reign of king Matthias, who surrounded himself with Italian artists, writers and architects. During his reign, the court became the centre of renaissance in Central Europe.
This flourishing period came to an end with the Turks occupying Buda in 1541. They settled down for the next 145 years. As their presence meant a serious threat to Vienna, the Habsburgs asked for help from the pope and invited soldiers from all over Europe to fight the Turks. The pope announced a crusade, and mercenaries from all over the Christian world gathered under the walls of Buda in 1686. The siege lasted for 75 days and the city was ruined completely. After the departure of the Ottomans, Maria Theresia, the empress who ruled in the 1700s, would order the construction of a baroque palace. That palace was approximately half the size of the actual palace, as Buda was a dusty little town in the empire’s countryside. It was only at the end of the 19th century that huge works were started in order to enlarge the small baroque palace. The idea was to create an independent Hungarian royal court. The works ended in 1905. At the end of the war, as the Nazis and their Hungarian allies retreated to the castle district, it was heavily bombed. Reconstruction started after the war and lasted until the 80s. Nowadays one can see a simplified version of the palace, a large part of its decorative elements have not been restored.
In 1541 there were two families competing for the royal throne; the Habsburgs of Austria and a Hungarian family, the Szapolyais. János Szapolyai died in 1541; his son claimed the throne, or actually the mother of his son as he was only a baby. The Turks supported the claims of the baby king when the Austrians sent an army against Buda. The Turks came to help, they came as liberators. After the defeat of Austrian troops, the Sultan and his army set up camp under the walls of Buda. The Sultan invited the toddler king, his mother and some Hungarian noblemen to his tent. Meanwhile the Hungarian guards of the fortress let the Turkish soldiers inside the castle. The Turks acted as if they were only tourists looking around. They searched for the weakest points of the fortress, killed a few guards, and Buda fell into their hands.
photo source: fortepan.hu
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