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On Monday, September 22, 2003, we left Prague at 8:00 A.M. for Budapest. Lunch was in Lednice. Our drive took us through a small area of the Slovak Republic between the Czech Republic and Hungary requiring two border crossings.
Budapest has two million residents, one-fifth of Hungary's population. It is situated on both banks of the Danube River and unites the hills of Buda and the wide boulevards of Pest. The city of Budapest was not officially created until 1873 at which time a third town, Obuda, was also incorporated. What is now Budapest was destroyed by the Mongols in 1241, captured by the Turks in 1541, and nearly destroyed by Soviet troops in 1945. About 30,000 buildings were destroyed during World War II and in the 1956 Revolution.
On Tuesday, September 23, after a lecture covering the history of Hungary and lunch at our hotel, Hotel Corvin, our first of several excursions in and around Budapest began.
In Heroes' Square the Millennial Monument is a semi-circular twin colonnade with statues of Hungary's kings and leaders between its pillars. The symbolic figures on the top of the colonnade represent work, welfare, knowledge, honor and peace. Set back in its open center, a 118-foot stone column is crowned by a statue of the archangel Gabriel, his outstretched arms bearing the ancient emblems of Hungary. At the base of the statue are seven bronze horsemen. In front of the column lies a marble slab, the National War Memorial, where visiting foreign dignitaries lay a ceremonial wreath as did Queen Elizabeth II on her 1992 visit. Pope John Paul II conducted a mass in the square in 1991. The Palace of Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts face each other across Heroes' Square.
A short walk from Heroes' Square took us to the edge of the city park and its lake where Vajdahunyad Castle stands. Its architecture borrows from Hungary's architectural past as a Romanesque gateway leads to a Gothic castle with Transylvanian turrets, Renaissance loggia, Baroque portico, and Byzantine decoration. The castle was designed for the Millennial celebration in 1896 but was not finished until 1908. It houses Budapest's Agricultural Museum. The structure was built of stone after it was first made of wood and cardboard for exhibition at the 1000th-year anniversary celebration to show Hungary's architectural history.
Most of the major sites of Buda are on Castle Hill, a long narrow plateau with cobblestone streets and well-preserved Baroque, Gothic and Renaissance houses. From Castle Hill it is possible to appreciate the size of the Parliament building on the Pest side of the Danube River.
The Fishermen's Bastion on Castle Hill was built as a viewing platform in 1905 and named after the guild of fishermen responsible for defending this part of the city wall in the Middle Ages. It is dominated by seven turrets representing seven tribes in this area in the 9th century. A bronze equestrian statue of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary in the early 11th century, is near the bastion in the area where a fish market once stood.
We walked from the bastion between Matthias Church and a Hilton Hotel which has incorporated the remains of Castle Hill's oldest church built in the 13th century, its tower rising above the hotel, and the Baroque facade of a 17th-century Jesuit college, the hotel's main entrance. Matthias Church is reflected in the mirrored glass covering of the Hilton. Matthias Church is officially known as the Buda Church of Our Lady but usually referred to as Matthias Church after the 15th-century king of Hungary who was twice married there. The church occasionally is also referred to as Coronation Church because the last two kings of Hungary were crowned there in 1867 and 1916. Originally built for the city's German population in the mid-13th century, the church has had many alterations and assaults. For about 150 years it was the main mosque of the Turkish overlords. Badly damaged during the recapture of Buda in 1686, it was completely rebuilt between 1873 and 1896 and has an asymmetrical front with one high and one low spire and a rose window.
Holy Trinity Square, bordered by Matthias Church, gets its name from a Baroque Trinity Column erected in 1713 as a gesture of thanksgiving by survivors of a plague.
As the sun was setting, we drove to Gellert Hill, known at the end of the 17th century as Little Serbia because so many Serbian refugees settled there after fleeing from the Turks. It later became a district of vineyards and small taverns. The hill, 761 feet high, takes its name from St. Gellert, a Venetian bishop who was killed here in the 11th century. There are panoramic views from the terraces on the hill. The statue of Bishop St. Gellert, the citadel used during the 1848-49 War of Independence, and the Liberty Monument towering over the city since after World War II are near the top of the hill.
We continued on to a boarding area along the Danube River for a boat ride and dinner. Other than Hong Kong, I have not seen from a boat or a driving tour a city as beautifully lit as Budapest. Not only were buildings and bridges outlined in lights, many flood lights emphasized the architecture of the structures. Buda Castle on the hill stood out above most other buildings. Even construction cranes on a bridge had small lights. One unusually-shaped building was referred to as the "Typewriter Building."
On Wednesday, September 24, after a lecture on "Hungary Today--Sociology" at the lecture hall across the street from the hotel and lunch at the hotel, we had a choice of activities - a visit to the Jewish quarter or a thermal bath. However, because of the day's rain a museum was substituted for the bath.
The first settlers in Budapest chose that site because of its many hot springs. Centuries later the Turks and Romans built baths and developed the use of medicinal bathing. More than 1,000 medicinal hot springs exist in Hungary, and Budapest has about 15 historic baths open to those wanting to soak in the water, try a massage or other treatment, and enjoy the architectural beauty of the bathhouses. Another information source indicates Budapest has almost 50 baths supported by natural medicinal springs or drilled thermal wells.
There were about eight tour members who chose to visit the Jewish quarter which we reached using the Metro (subway).
Europe's largest active synagogue, the Great Synagogue on Dohany Street, seats 3,000 people. Built between 1844 and 1859, the Byzantine-Moorish style structure was desecrated by German and Hungarian Nazis, but it reopened in 1996 after reconstruction was financed by donations from all over the world. It has a white and red brick facade with ceramic decorations and two onion-dome towers. It is used for regular services during months other than December, January, and February when it is too large to heat. Behind the Great Synagogue is a more modern building, the Heroes' Temple, built in 1931 for weekday and wintertime services.
In the garden behind the synagogue the "memorial tree," a metal weeping willow tree, has leaves shaped like a menorah. Each leaf is engraved with the names of victims of the Holocaust. Near the memorial tree is a black marble plaque in the ground with the names engraved of those who saved hundreds or thousands of the persecuted during World War II.
The Jewish Museum, a four-room exhibit next door to the Great Synagogue, opened in 1932. Containing mostly 18th and 19th-century art treasures, exhibits are arranged in three main rooms according to their ritualistic significance such as the Sabbath, holidays and life cycle ceremonies. A fourth room, which covers the Holocaust, gives a harrowing insight into the fate of an estimated 550,000 Hungarian Jews murdered by the Nazis and Hungarian Arrow Cross fascists during the final years of World War II. Most of the collection was stolen in 1993 but recovered months later in Romania and returned to the museum.
Prior to World War II there were 184,000 Jews living in Budapest out of the total population of 1,712,000. Today there are about 80,000 to 100,000 Jews in Budapest although many are not registered as Jews and others are assimilated. Today there are 48 synagogues in Hungary, 22 of them in Budapest.
Dinner was at the Kaltenberg Restaurant followed by an optional activity, the Danube Folkdance Ensemble at the Danube Palace.
On Thursday, September 25, we left Budapest at 8:00 A.M. for an all-day excursion to the Danube Bend north of the city. The descriptive term Danube Bend refers to the 13-mile long bend of the Danube as it turns south, later flowing through Budapest, as well as the resort area formed south of the bend.
Esztergom, the center of the Hungarian Roman Catholic church, is the home of the primate of Esztergom, the highest-ranking dignitary of the church in Hungary. St. Stephan, the first Hungarian king, was born, crowned, and died in this town.
Built in the 19th century, Esztergom Cathedral is the largest church in Hungary and has one of the largest canvas-based altar paintings in the world. Franz Liszt composed the Esztergom Mass for the consecration of the church in 1856, and he conducted the piece at the ceremony. The Bakocz chapel, the artistic attraction of the church, was built in the 16th century as a separate chapel of the archbishop. The Cathedral Treasury has the country's largest and most valuable church collection. The library in the basilica is the oldest and one of the largest in Hungary. The Christian Museum exhibits art from the collections of several bishops.
The ruins of a royal palace built in the 11th and 12th centuries and used later as the archbishop's palace is quite close to the cathedral. At a coffee stop before our visit to the cathedral, we could see the dome of the cathedral, the ruins of the palace, and what had earlier been a Jesuit church. A nearby bridge crossed the Danube to the Slovak Republic.
Lunch was in Visegrad at the Nagyvillan Restaurant over- looking the Danube River. In the distance high on a hill were the ruins of a 15th-century royal residence used by King Matthias.
Szentendre, the Danube Bend's most visited tourist area, is a small town on the banks of the Danube River with winding streets, church towers, colorful houses, and many museums, restaurants, small shops, and handicraft stalls to interest the tourists. We walked along a pedestrian street with shops and restaurants to the Margit Kovacs Ceramics Museum where we had a guided tour.
On the outskirts of Szentendre the largest outdoor ethnographic museum in Hungary has been under development for several years. It was founded in 1967 to present the traditional types of vernacular architecture of Hungary's most characteristic regions, the interior decoration used by the various social groups of people, and details on their way of life in villages and market towns from the end of the 18th century to the first third of the 20th century. Future plans call for up to ten reconstructed villages, although only four have been completed. Original buildings are being moved to the site. It is planned 340 buildings will represent the ten regions. The most unusual building in the village we visited was a church with a free-standing bell tower.
We returned to Budapest. Dinner at the hotel was followed by folk music entertainment.
On Friday, September 26, after a lecture at the hotel on "Hungary Today - Politics" some of the group went by metro to the Parliament Building, Europe's largest, on the Pest bank of the Danube. In neo-Gothic style, the structure was designed by a Hungarian architect and built by 1,000 workers between 1885 and 1902. The exterior has 90 statues of great figures in Hungarian history. Inside there are 691 rooms, 10 courtyards, and 29 staircases. More than 88 pounds of gold were used for the staircases and halls. The halls are a gallery of late 19th-century Hungarian art with frescoes and canvases depicting Hungarian history beginning with a conquest in 896. Generally the Parliament is in session on Monday and Tuesday from late summer to spring. Several municipal governmental authorities also have offices in the building.
Since 2000 the Holy Crown has been kept at the Parliament building on display with other royal relics. It is thought the crown is from the 12th century and, therefore, would not be the one presented to St. Stephan, the first Hungarian king, in 1000. In 1945 the fleeing Hungarian army gave the crown and its regalia to the Americans so they would not be taken by the Soviets. They were kept at Fort Knox until being returned to Hungary in 1978.
At the conclusion of the Parliament visit, the group separated for about an hour. I walked with the guide in the business and commercial area near the Parliament. A McDonald's Restaurant was pointed out as being one of 84 in Budapest. Here, as in many other cities in the world, the comment was made that after the novelty wore off most people found they preferred other types of food at less cost. There were many examples of Art Nouveau architecture.
After dinner at the hotel, arrangements had been made for the group to visit the homes of Budapest residents. Three or four group members either went by taxi or were picked up at the hotel and taken to the apartment or home for a visit of two to three hours. The next day on the bus the details of each visit were related.
On Saturday, September 27, we left Budapest in a southeasterly direction to Hungary's Great Plain stretching from the Danube to the country's eastern border with Romania.
In the small village of Ocsa we visited a Calvinist church, one of the country's important Romanesque-style structures built in the early 13th century. Frescoes at the church painted in the late 13th century received an award in 1996 after their renovation. Adjacent to the church are thatched peasant houses from the old village furnished as traditional peasant homes.
In Kecskemet our first stop was at Kossuth Square, the main square. The town hall, considered a masterpiece in Art Nouveau style, has a glazed tile roof and fire-glazed ceramics on its facade. It has been in use since 1895. Its carillon is part of the facade, and chimes each hour ring with melodies composed by Zoltan Kodaly. We saw several couples who first had a civil marriage ceremony at the hall before proceeding to a nearby church for a religious ceremony.
The Kodaly Institute of Music Education, which we visited, is in a restored former Franciscan monastery. The Institute offers post-graduate training programs in theory and practice of Kodalys concept of music education for music instructors and choral conductors. English is used for instruction in courses during the academic year. In the summer classes are offered in different foreign languages depending on request.
At one end of the square the Roman Catholic Big Church, built in the late 18th century with a 230-foot tower, faces a former synagogue built about 1860 which contains the House of Science and Technology. We walked by the Jozsef Katona Theatre built about 1895 and saw the Holy Trinity Monument in front of the theatre which was erected by the survivors of a plague in 1742.
After lunch at Harom Gurni Restaurant, we drove to Fulophaza.
Horses and Hungary are synonymous. Over a thousand years ago warrior horsemen arrived in the Carpathian Basin and brought with them horseman skills not seen before in Europe. Today, horse riding still plays an important part in Hungarian life. In Hungary the equestrian tradition is best preserved on the Great Plain, called the Puszta, which is a vast wilderness plain similar to the old American West. The authentic Hungarian cowboys known across Europe for their prowess on horseback are found in this area. Many of them are masters of the "Puszta Five," a feat of equestrian skill that involves riding five horses simultaneously in a standing position. The horse show we attended at Fulophaza also included demonstrations of carriage driving, sitting horses, laying horses, kerchief tearing, and whip cracking. The whips cracked loudly around the horses' ears even though they didn't hit anything. The specific structure of a whip and the slight movement of a wrist create the sound to which a horse responds.
We returned to our hotel for dinner.
On Sunday, September 28, our speakers from earlier in the week returned to informally answer our questions on various aspects of Hungary and Central Europe and at times exchange opinions with each other before arriving at an answer.
After lunch at the hotel, the last afternoon in Budapest was free for individual pursuits.
I was one of several tour members who went by taxi to the outskirts of Budapest to visit Statue Park, an outdoor exhibit of 42 Communist statues and memorials once dominating the citys streets and squares. After the political change in 1989 the Hungarians promptly removed the reminders of communist rule. The statues and memorials are scattered throughout a fenced area which, according to the original plan, should have been surrounded by a brick wall. Songs from the Hungarian and Russian workers movements poured from loud speakers, and socialist-nostalgia souvenirs were available in a small gift shop.
The guides who were with us for the seven-night stay in Budapest provided some information earlier in the week on the statue park and the best way to reach it (taxi), but I felt one guide expressed what might be a combination of surprise, regret, disappointment, and hesitancy with regard to our choice of activities for the last afternoon in Budapest.
After returning from Statue Park, I walked to the Museum of Applied Art spending the last of my Hungarian money and time. Our farewell dinner was at the hotel followed by a performance of folk music and dancing.
On Monday, September 29, I flew from Budapest via Munich to Chicago and caught a bus from OHare Airport to Peoria.
Two comments - the hotels where we stayed were well located permitting much to be seen within walking distance in Warsaw and Krakow and by use of the tram or metro in Prague and Budapest.
the food was tasty and varied. Although I have a complete menu from only our Budapest stay, in each country we were served a wide variety of locally popular dishes.
I strongly recommend this Elderhostel to those who enjoy their programs, and as to all other travelers I can only say I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to all three countries. Go now, visit as much as possible of each country, and spend your time wisely.
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