expedition_retirement: (European Union)
With only three full days in Budapest, there was so much we didn't get to see. We didn't visit any of the museums, and we didn't go inside the Parliament building. We didn't ride a tram (although we did ride the Metro). But we did visit the Central Market Hall, which, to my eye, looked more like a train station. Inside, we wandered through the rows of stalls offering meat, produce, wine, and spices. The sights and sounds were similar to other market halls we've visited, but we had a mission here...paprika. I have been told many times that American paprika can't be compared to Hungarian paprika, and I wanted to bring some authentic Hungarian paprika home with us. We had seen it in other shops, but the prices here were better, and so we stocked up. We also got some cured sausages to snack on and lángos, a fried flatbread that is popular street food here.
Central Market Hall
We also visited the Basilica of St. Stephen. This church is dedicated to King St. Stephen I, who Christianized Hungary. It is a relatively modern church, built in the 19th Century, but is quite ornate and striking inside. Behind the main altar is a statue of King St. Stephen (there seem to be statues of him everywhere in the city), and a proudly displayed reliquary holds a mummified right hand alleged to be that of St. Stephen. The church was still decorated for Christmas, with Christmas trees and a nativity scene still set up. During our tour earlier in the day, our tour guide recited the amount of gold leaf used in the construction of the Parliament building, but didn't mention how much was used in the church, but it was clearly a significant amount.
Basilica of St. Stephen The main altar at St. Stephen's St. Stephen's nativity
On our way back to our hotel from the basilica, members of our group wanted to stop at the opera house. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to take a tour of the building, but the lobby itself was beautiful, and worth taking a few minutes to stop in and see.
The lobby of the Opera House
On our final day, we walked across the Danube on the Chain Bridge. Like all of the bridges in Budapest, it was rebuilt after World War II, bu like most of them it is a reproduction of the original bridge, and it is very striking. Flanked by lions, it definitely makes an impression.
The Chain Bridge One of the lions guarding Chain Bridge
Finally, after visiting the Hospital in the Rock, we went inside the Matthias Church before we left Castle Hill. The interior of the church was surprisingly intimate compared to the impressive appearance outside. Somehow it felt smaller, almost cozy, and it is difficult to envision how crowded it must have been as the coronation church for Hungary's Kings. They also had a small museum up in the galleries, with a collection of religious artifacts from the church's history.
Inside the Matthias Church
With so much left to see and do here, it was hard to say goodbye to this beautiful city. I suppose that just means we will have to return someday to see more.
expedition_retirement: (European Union)
 The hill underneath Buda Castle is riddled with caves and tunnels. While the Labyrinth under the Castle is open for tours in the summer, it was closed for the off season, so we were unable to visit them. However, a portion of this cave network was transformed into an underground hospital prior to World War II, and is now operated as a museum, which was open. Known as the "Hospital in the Rock", it was recommended to us by a friend, so after we finished our visit to the synagogue on our last day in Budapest, we walked across the Chain Bridge and up Castle Hill to check out the museum.

Our visit to the museum included a guided tour of the facility. Because it was built inside an existing cave system, the layout is a bit of maze, and it definitely didn't feel like any other hospital I'd ever been in. The facility was only used as a hospital twice. The first time was during the Soviet siege of the city in 1944-45. Because the hospital was operating under the authority of the International Red Cross, they treated both civilians and soldiers, regardless of which side they were on. Designed to treat a maximum of 60-70 patients, the high casualties of the siege left the hospital overwhelmed with an order of magnitude more patients. Patients were placed two or more to a bed, and treated on stretchers in hallways, or even on the floor. Because the facility had its own generators, it never lost power during the siege, and remained in operation throughout the siege.

After the war, the facility was upgraded and expanded to provide a higher capacity. But it was only used as a hospital one more time, during the 1956 uprising against the communist regime. After the Soviet army put down the uprising, the hospital was closed again. With the threat of nuclear war looming during the Cold War, it was decided to convert the hospital into a nuclear bunker, and the complex was further expanded and modified for that purpose. These portions of the complex include decontamination showers and storage for food and water supplies. The portions of the tour in this section included displays on the power and impact of nuclear weapons with decidedly anti-nuclear weapon messaging.

The entire tour took about an hour and was a fascinating glimpse into the measures taken to provided high quality medical care under less than ideal circumstances. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in the museum, so I don't have any images to share from the tour, but it was enlightening, and definitely something we would recommend to other visitors.

expedition_retirement: (European Union)
After our two morning tours of the city, we were also treated to an hour long evening sightseeing cruise on the Danube River. In spite of the chilly weather, this was a spectacular way to end a day in this city. The views of the city and its bridges from the river were breathtaking and the city felt magical as we glided along the water and under the seven bridges that connect the two halves of this city. On the east side of the river, the Pest half of the city featured the immense facade of the Hungarian Parliament illuminated and commanding the waterfront. To  the west, on the Buda side of the river, Buda Castle sat on its hill overlooking the river and the rest of the city. Nearby, the Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion also commanded their portion of the hilltop. And in between, the bridges stretched overhead, brightly lit and connecting the two halves of the city. It was a lovely way to see the city, and I was reminded how attractive a city can be at night when viewed from a boat. It brought to mind a similar river cruise we did on the Seine in Paris back in 2018. In both cases, I felt like I was seeing the very best face of the city.
Hungarian Parliament Buda Castle Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion
The Chain Bridge
The Liberty Bridge
Vajdahunyad CastleAfter the cruise, we joined others from our group for dinner at a restaurant in City Park, a short walk from our hotel. After a lovely dinner in good company, we took a short walk through the park to see some of the highlights lit up for the night. In addition to the enormous public ice skating rink that was full of people skating under the lights, there is the Vajdahunyad Castle, a fantasy structure that blends a plurality of architectural styles from Romanesque and Gothic to Renaissance and Baroque. It was constructed in 1896 for the Millennial Exposition that was held in the park to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the Hungarian conquest. It now houses the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, and is a very picturesque structure, especially when lit up at night.

On our way back to our hotel, we stopped at Heroes' Square, at the edge of the park, to take in the monument to the founders and heroes of Hungary's history. We had visited here on our first evening, before sunset, but now, in the dark, with the monument lit up, it took on a whole new appearance, every bit as impressive as any of the monuments I've seen in Washington, DC or in Paris. The Millennium Column looks empty without the statue of the archangel Gabriel on top of it, but the statue is currently removed for renovations. Surrounding the column are equestrian statues of the seven chieftains of the Magyars who conquered Hungary. Behind the column is a colonnade with statues of important leaders in the nation's history, including (at the far left) King St. Stephen I, and above the colonnade are four sculptures that symbolically represent Labor and Wealth, War, Peace, and Knowledge and Glory. Heroes' Square anchors the end of Andrássy Avenue, which is highlighted as part of the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The overall impact of the square and the monument is impressive, especially at night.  
Heroes' Square
expedition_retirement: (European Union)
 The Holocaust came late to Hungary and Budapest, at least compared to most of the rest of Europe. Because Hungary was allied with Nazi Germany, the Nazi's "Final Solution" did not extend inside the country for much of World War II. While Hungary did enact a series of anti-semitic laws starting in 1938, there was no systematic effort to deport or kill Hungarian Jews until after German troops invaded Hungary in 1944. That invasion was prompted by Hitler's fears that Hungary was trying to negotiate a separate peace with the Allies, and almost immediately afterwards highly organized efforts to deport Hungary's Jews to Auschwitz began. The number of German troops in Hungary was insufficient to accomplish this operation without extensive cooperation by Hungarian officials, and the successful deportation of more that 400,000 Jews in the first two months of the German occupation is a testament to the extent that the Hungarian authorities collaborated with the Nazis.

Shoes on the Bank of the DanubeWe encountered our first tributes to the Holocaust during our second guided tour of the city, on our second morning here. After a walk through City Park, we were taken to the banks of the Danube by bus to continue our tour. Our first stop was the "Shoes on the Danube Bank" memorial. The shoes are metal sculptures representing the shoes of the Jews and others who were executed along the river bank by the fascist Hungarian militia in 1944-45. The victims were ordered to remove their shoes, clothing, and valuables. Then, to save bullets, they were handcuffed together in pairs or groups of three, and one of each set of handcuffed victims was shot and all were pushed into the river, according to our tour guide. Sobering in its simplicity, this memorial was a deeply moving reminder of the atrocities committed here. Mixed in with the shoes and the snow were numerous yellow ribbons, added by recent visitors in support of Israel in its war with Hamas.

Memorial for Victims of the German OccupationOur tour then continued around the Hungarian Parliament building and over to Liberty Square, with its monument to the liberation of Hungary by the Soviet Army. We walked by the US Embassy, located on this square, and then stopped at the Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation, located along the far edge of the square. This monument was approved in secret and erected overnight, and has been highly controversial because it appears to lay the entire blame for the atrocities of the German occupation upon the Germans, while giving the Hungarian officials and fascists a pass. The vast majority of those that died during the German occupation were Hungarian Jews, and the Hungarian authorities collaborated deeply with the Germans in their deaths. As a consequence, visitors have created an improvisational memorial by leaving letters, photos, and other possessions and tokens of the victims, along with flowers and candles along the fencing in front of the official memorial. These highly personal remembrances stand in sharp contrast to the starkness of the official memorial, and offer a counter perspective to the attempt to whitewash the history of the occupation.

The next day, we visited the Dohány Street Synagogue, which serves as yet another reminder of the thriving Jewish community in Budapest prior to World War II. This is the second largest synagogue in the world, and was built in the 19th century to serve the large Jewish community that lived and worked in the city. The synagogue is gorgeous, but now serves a shrunken community that is a mere fraction of what the building is capable of holding. During the German occupation, the synagogue stood at the edge of the ghetto that confined the Jewish population of Budapest, and upon liberation of the ghetto by the Soviets in January 1945, about 2,000 deceased inhabitants of the ghetto were buried in mass graves in the courtyard next to the synagogue, forever changing it from a place of peaceful meditation to a solemn place of remembrance. And in the memorial garden behind the synagogue, named in memory of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who used his position to try to save as many Hungarian Jews as he could, stands a stainless steel willow tree that serves as a memorial to the Jewish Holocaust victims, with their names engraved on the leaves of the tree.
The interior of the Dohány Street Synagogue The exterior of the Dohány Street Synagogue
Mass graves of the victims of the Budapest Ghetto Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs
As we walked the streets of the city, we watched the sidewalks, looking for the "stumbling stones", small brass plaques engraved with the names of Holocaust victims who lived at that location. We've seen them in every other European city we've visited over the last few years, and we saw some here as well, although they were less common than I expected. I don't know if that means that the neighborhoods we walked through didn't have large Jewish populations, or if it is because Budapest's Jewish population lost a smaller percentage of its residents than other cities of comparable size. Either way, they do exist and serve as a reminder of the individual lives that were taken.

It is difficult to travel anywhere in Europe and not be confronted in one way or another with the vastness of the Holocaust. The story of the Holocaust in Budapest and Hungary follows a different arc than much of the rest of the continent, but is no less sobering and disturbing. As tempting as it is to avoid contemplating this evil legacy while traveling, we compelled to devote at least a little time on these trips to learn and remember the atrocities committed here. 
expedition_retirement: (European Union)
The Matthias ChurchOn our first morning in Budapest, we woke to find the city wrapped in a winter snowfall. As we set out on our morning tour of the city, our tour guide recalled that snow used to be more common in the city, telling of playing in the snow in her childhood. However, in recent years, snow has become a rare event in the city, and so it felt special to be exploring the city under a light blanket of snow. As we rode around City Park in our bus, we were greeted by the sights of children (and a few adults) enjoying the opportunity to throw a few snowballs. And the snow accented the lovely architecture of the city, highlighting the shapes and textures of the city.
Equestrian statue in the snow King St. Stephan I
Our tour took us up onto Castle Hill, where our tour guide walked with us past the Matthias Church (named for King Matthias, who was married here, though the official name is the Church of Our Lady of Buda Castle), through the Fisherman's Bastion, the seven towered fortifications along the crest of the hill facing the Danube River, and over to the grounds of Buda Castle, the historical seat of Hungarian Kings, and now the Hungarian National Gallery. The stunning views across the river towards the Pest portion of the city were muted because of the continuing snowfall, but the architecture and sculptures on the hill near the church and the castle were impressive, and the snow just added another layer of magic to the experience.
Sculpture of the Hunt at Buda Castle Buda Castle
Later in the trip, we would learn that the Soviet siege of the city in 1944-45 left much of this area in ruins, so much of what we saw as we walked around the hilltop has been rebuilt since the end of World War II. This reconstruction continues, with cranes and construction crews evident as the restoration of Buda Castle continues. In spite of this, the area is quite lovely and on a clear day commands impressive views of the Danube River and the city below.


This area is significant in the city's designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its numerous historically significant buildings and cultural importance to the Hungarian national identity. We would return a couple of days later to spend some more time here before we left the city.

Profile

expedition_retirement: (Default)
Expedition: Retirement

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
8910 11121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags