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| Parliament Building |
Each morning on the Danube was beautiful, but this day was
special. We were awakened to a wonderful view of the House of Parliament
with the rising sun’s rays on it. Although it was close on to 5:00AM, it was
hard to go back to sleep with the stunning scenery sliding by. Budapest was
officially created by merging Pest, Buda and Óbuda in 1873. But back in the
first century BC the Celts built the first town that would become a portion of
Budapest. This was a densely populated settlement with potteries and bronze
foundries, and perhaps a trading center. Romans colonized an area immediately
west of the Danube, using the natural thermal springs; the new baths in
Budapest reminded me of those in Karlovy
Vary in Czech Republic. By 106 AD the city had become the
capital of the
province Pannonia Inferior and the headquarters of the governor and a significant
military force. Of course this means that it was frequently involved in wars
along the Danube. A parade of conquerors made the city their headquarters from
the 5th century AD through the Middle Ages. Buda and Pest
started their development in the 12th century because the French,
Walloon, and German settlers worked and traded under royal protection along the
Danube. The history of Hungary followed the path of Czech Republic, Slovakia,
and Austria with prosperity, and the flourishing of the arts followed by wars
and destruction; in some instances Buda was a leading in others Pest was
preeminent.
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| Exterior of a bath house |
Buda
Castle, sitting atop Castle Hill, is historic home of the Hungarian kings
in Budapest. The first iteration of the castle was completed in 1265, but the
Baroque building that today occupies most of the hilltop was built
between 1749
and 1769. We got to the top by taking a replica of the historic Castle
Hill Funicular. Although it was originally built in 1868, it was bombed
during World War II then restored and re-launched in the mid-1980s. From this
hill you can see part of Buda and most of Pest. There are lots of shops, places
to eat, and even a falconer dressed in period clothing. We had some ice cream
then wandered into a paprika shop to pick up the spice of the area. Paprika is
actually ground from bell pepper or sweet peppers. Smoky paprika is from smoked
peppers and hot paprika has cayenne pepper added to it. What I found odd was
that although paprika is most often linked to Hungarian cuisine, the peppers the
spice comes from are actually native to central Mexico then introduced to Spain
in the 1500s.
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| Top L to R: Patterned roof, Matthias Church, Funicular Bottom L to R: Gargoyle, Falconer, Chain bridge and Buda Castle |
While Buda Castle is very historic, Vajdahunyad Castle didn’t
come into
existence until 1896. Designed by Ignác Alpár, the building features
copies of landmark buildings from various places in the Kingdom of Hungary, including
the Hunyad Castle in Transylvania (with border changes it’s now in Romania).
Since parts come from different buildings, the architectural styles range from Romanesque,
Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque. The castle was actually constructed for the 1896
Millennial Exhibition to celebrate the colonization of the Budapest Basin
by the Magyars. This materials used in this initial construction were wood and
cardboard; however, the people liked it so well that it was rebuilt out of
stone and brick. In the courtyard is a wonderful statue of the Anonymous the Chronicler
and although his identity really is unknown, it is known that he was a notary
for King Béla III of
Hungary and that he wrote ‘Deeds of the Hungarians’ sometime in the 12th
century. Much of the building was obscured when we visited by a festival with
people selling all sorts of goods; and I also missed the statue of Béla Lugosi
that was inside the castle.
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| Top L to R: Castle, Happy dog Bottom L to R: Festival, Castle |
One of the most beautiful buildings we visited was the Dohány Street Synagogue
in Budapest. It was built in the Moorish Revival style between 1854 and 1859;
the decoration is based on Islamic forms from North
Africa and medieval Spain.
Just inside the entrance is a gift shop with all sorts of items that one would
classify as ‘Jewish art’ and with an item that I had been told was Arabic. The Hand of Fatima,
I was told by one of the docents, was a symbol of protection and to quote the
man, ‘If you believe in it, it works.’ Prior to World War II about 200,000 Jews
lived in Budapest making it the center of Hungarian Jewish cultural life. But once
Hungary joined with Nazi Germany this all changed. Jewish life became severely
restricted, with homes confiscated and hundreds of Jews across the country rounded
up and interned in the Kistarcsa
transit camp. The Jews in Budapest were effectively the only ones remaining in
Hungary; they were sent to over 2,000 Star of David designated buildings
scattered throughout the city, thereby completely breaking up their community. However,
the Jews living in the suburbs were not nearly so lucky; they were sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau
extermination camp. Numerous foreign
diplomats living in the city aided many Jews who were looking for places to hide,
trying to obtain false papers, and hunting safe houses. The Eichmann-plan moved
70,000 Jews into the Ghetto of Pest in 1944. Within the ghetto more than 2000
people died of exposure and hunger during the 1944 – 1945 winter. These people
are buried in the courtyard of the synagogue in a makeshift cemetery. Generally
there is no cemetery next to a synagogue, but in this case oppression and
hardship made interment here necessary. The Raoul Wallenberg
Holocaust Memorial Park is just behind the synagogue and has a sculpture of
a weeping willow with the names and tattoo numbers of the dead and disappeared
etched on the leaves. It is a peaceful and lovely place.
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| Top L to R: Willow sculpture, Synagogue Bottom L to R: Willow leaves, Jewish cemetery |
Once World War II ended, Hungary was gobbled up by the
Soviets and
they manipulated elections to become the political leaders. It took
years, but communism was finally peacefully ousted in 1989 through a free
election. Once this change took place, capitalism rose, unemployment fell, and
the standard of living increased. Budapest has long been hailed as the ‘Paris
of the east’, and that designation has endured because of the architecture, culture
and art, fine food and wine. The people, freed from the tyranny of communism,
set about destroying public art that reminded them of that time. One of the
statues was of Stalin. This artifact was 26 feet tall and made of bronze. The
crowd sawed the statue off at the knees; all that was left were Stalin’s boots.
Eventually, cooler heads prevailed and most of these works, including the
boots, have been put into an outdoor museum called ‘Memento Park’. Thankfully there was some
shade for some of our group to take refuge in, but the rest of us went out to
play among the statues. We walked around and saw these statues as works of art
rather than having the looming over us on city streets as a reminder that you
are the lessor being. There is a film, The
Life of an Agent, that is subtitled in English; it’s about how people were
recruited to spy on their neighbors – rather chilling.
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| Top L to R: Park arch, Soldier from Gellert Hill, Stalin's boots Bottom: Worker's Movement Memorial, Monument to Hungarian Socialist Republic |
Several of the statues that were put up during the Communist
Era are still standing where they were intended. One such is the Spirit of
Freedom (originally called Spirit over Budapest), which is located at the top
of Gellért
Hill, and was designed in 1947 by Kisfaludi Strobl in honor of the Soviet
soldiers who liberated Budapest from the Nazis. We first saw the
statue from
our ship on the Danube. I told Barb it was a man holding up a tuna; she this believed
until we actually went up the hill. The Soviet soldier that once stood in front
of the monument has been moved to Memento Park. There are several other
sculptures on this hill and Hungary is sprucing up this UNESCO
designated site to support its bid for the 2024 Olympics.
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| Left: Warrior Right T to B: View down the river, Spirit of Freedom |
We saw lots of places on this tour, stayed in hotels and on
a boat, found some interesting things to do, and ate in several restaurants.
Next week I’ll post my review of these experiences!
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| Soft sculpture decorating one of the booths at Vajdahunyad Castle |
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