Naturally, the iconic picture of Budapest is the Parliament Building, finished, sort of, in 1896, on the 1000th anniversary of the settlement of the Magyars in the Carpathian Basin. This impressive pile was built in the Neo-Gothic style, and used 40 million bricks, half a million semi-precious stones and 40 Kgs of gold. Miraculously, it was untouched during WWII. A must visit.
This view is from the Buda side of the Danube, up on Castle Hill, from the ramparts of that folly called The Fishermen’s Bastion, very pretty and decorative and housing a super-expensive restaurant.. There used to be real castle walls here in the 17th century, but these serve a super impressive locale for the photography of Pest, and, of course, you should get here early to avoid the throngs. The name comes from the fishermen’s guild that lived below the walls in Water-town and were responsible for its maintenance.
The funicular, from the Buda side of the Chain Bridge is the best way to get to Castle Hill, home to the Habsburg era Castle, Fishermen’s Bastion, the Mathias Church, originally built in the Romanesque style in 1015; the current building was built in the 14th century in extravagant neo-gothic style in the 19th century. Of course, it was damaged in WWII and lovingly restored.
There are 7 turrets representing the 7 tribes who founded Hungary in 895.
There is also the statue of St. Stephen on Trinity Square and a bit to the right, the Castle itself. The whole ensemble has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site…all of it rather spoiled by the garish Hilton hotel, right next to the church, oh well.
Saint (King) Stephen, ruled in the late 10th, early 11th centuries and introduced Christianity (by force) to the pagan, animist Magyars who, much like North American Native peoples, worshipped nature, chief among them the mythical White Stag and an enormous eagle, called the Turul bird.
Not content with just being the chief of chiefs, he sent an emissary to Pope Sylvester II asking for a crown. The Pope obliged if he would Christianize the Magyars. That famous 1000-year crown was spirited out of Hungary and kept out of the clutches of the Nazis, then the Communists, and returned after the fall of the USSR…by the US.
The castle itself, while impressive from the outside… on the inside it doesn’t match the Hofburg in Vienna. Give it a pass, OK, you might want to visit the Art Gallery.
Part of the pleasure of Castle Hill is wandering the streets. Most of the two-story houses are hundreds of years old and have gates wide enough to pass horse and buggy.
Worthwhile is a visit to the Buda Labyrinth, an underground series of caves and tunnels used since prehistoric times, but enlarged and used by successive generations for storage and refuge in times of war, even up to WWII, when it was used as a bomb shelter and hospital. Great for aging wine. The tunnels are 4000 feet long and the deeper you go the more fog gathers until the light is gone….uuh.
The apocryphal story goes that the Transylvanian Voivode (Count) Vlad Tepes, aka the Impaler, aka Count Dracula, was imprisoned in these caves by his one-time ally King Matthias for years. Superstition claims that he is buried in the cold stone floor of the caves, and a tomb marks the spot. Yikes!
Budapest, like Vienna, had a vibrant coffee-house culture where the “intelligentsia”: artists, painters, struggling writers, poets (lots of poets), and, in the middle of the 19th century, revolutionaries, would gather to discuss how to throw off the Habsburg yoke, while noshing on pastries. Of course, the Emperor’s spies also liked yummy pastries. So, bad things happened. Now, if you wanted to do serious plotting, you would want to go to one of the several thermal baths around the city where the sound of running water offered some privacy. Not only did you soothe your aches and pains, but you could plot revolution, discuss Marx in relative anonymity.
On the Pest side are venerable places like the New York Coffee house, or Gerbeaud’s, or Auguszt, or Gundel’s in the City Park, all still going strong, but the oldest pastry shop is on Buda, on a side street: the relatively modest ‘The Ruszwurm’ confectioners, founded in 1827, and…in continuous operation since then. A lot of the cherry-wood with mahogany inlay counters date from that period. Despite damage to the building from the rebellion of 1849 and WWII, miraculously, the interior was untouched. It is now protected as a valuable artefact.
Gerbeaud’s has the “Gerbeaud Slice”, a decadent 3-layer cake with ground walnut/apricot jam filling and a chocolate glaze topping … Ruszwurm has the “Ruszwurm cake”, a decadent-er Cream cake – two inches of eggy, creamy custard between two thin layers of pastry, visible in the center of this display in the cherrywood cabinet – so old-fashioned.
Now, speaking of yummy things to eat, the best place to taste the Hungarian version of strudel: Rétes, is at “Első Pesti Rétesház” - the “First Budapest Rétes-house” for truly this best Hungarian specialty.
Restaurants are everywhere, high and low end, take your pick…plenty on the Danube bank on the Pest side for a romantic evening dinner overlooking the Castle Hill. The streets in front of the Basilica are filled, as is Liszt Ferenc Square, off Andrássy Boulevard: wall-to-wall restaurants, with soft music, right next to the renowned Music Academy, named after Liszt.
However, there are two distinctly Hungarian specialties, one a savoury snack, the other a dessert, that must be mentioned:
Lángos is simply a yeast raised dough flat bread, (probably Turkish in origin) very soft…fried on both sides and topped with any number of savoury fillings. Ends up being incredibly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Then there is Chimney Cake (Kürtȍskalács), a unique, hollow freshly-baked (over charcoal) pastry, rolled in any number of coatings; the sugary smell wafting in the air guides you to the nearest Chimney Cake kiosk (always just a kiosk), where you may wait in line to try this yummy delicacy. All you have to decide is which topping you want. A must try, if you have a sweet tooth. One of the best is on Váci street: Molnár’s Kürtȍskalács.
St. Stephen’s Basilica, like St. Peter’s in Rome, or like the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence is a must-visit. Started in 1851, completed in 1901 in neo-Renaissance style. It has a beautifully ornate nave and altar piece with serpentine columns holding up the canopy over the altar with a statue of St. Stephen behind. The dome can be accessed, for an additional price by elevator or 365 steps (interesting number, no?). Choral and organ music is available twice a week.
Nearby, is Budapest’s Champs Elysées: leafy Andrássy Boulevard. You should walk it, (3.5 Km) from its start at Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Road to its end at Heroes’ Square – the start of the Great City Park. Like the Champs, the street is filled with expensive name-brand stores, The boulevard is filled with mid-19th century buildings, very ornate (they don’t make them like this any more…).
Part way along is the Budapest Opera House, worth a visit. Almost opposite the Opera is the venerable Muvész Kávéház, (Artists’ Coffee House), and opposite the Opera is the Drechsler Palace, currently under renovation as a super ritzy hotel.
Alternately you could take the Metro line 1, second oldest in the world, in constant use since 1896, very cute, worth taking just for the experience, 5 Km long under the Boulevard, with nine stops, totally automated, in fact all four of Budapest’s metro lines are automatic, with a train every 3 minutes. The trains and stations are short, and cutesy ceramic multi-coloured walls and floors make you smile, but beware, on lines 2, 3 and 4, the escalators are super fast.
BTW, Budapest’s transit system, with the subways, buses, trolley-buses and trams is super efficient, covering the city with a fine web. Just be sure to validate your ticket as you get on any public transport.
The second last stop at the end of the Boulevard is Heroes’ Square with statues of Hungary’s kings and the plinth with the apocryphal 7 Magyar chieftains of the 9th century.
Wander the streets near Heroes’ Square and check out the ante-bellum mansions from the 19th century.
If you like parks and ruins, maybe at the same time the Great City Park (not so great) was not enough, head on over to St. Margaret’s Island in the middle of the Danube accessible by bridges on both ends, by foot or public transport. Beloved by Budapest denizens, the island, almost 3 Km long and ½ Km wide is home to old tress, stretches of lawn, a water park (Palatinus) with a thermal pool section, a rose garden, a small zoo for the kids, and the ruins of a medieval monastery. Great for a picnic, or a leisurely stroll in fresh air.
There is a third large park on the Buda end of Elizabeth bridge, with intersecting walks leading up to the Citadella on Gellért Hill. By pure happenstance, as we walked up to the top, we came upon a most unique set of bronze statues, the Garden of Philosophers. Gathered in a circle are the five founders of modern religions: Abraham, Jesus, Buddha, Akhenaten, and Laotze. Gazing from the sidelines at this interesting meeting of minds are Bodhidharma, Gandhi, and Saint Francis. The place is entirely spiritual leading one to inevitable contemplation. The recumbent figure is 'all of us'.
As a counterpoint, nearby are the statues of the personified Prince Buda reaching out to personified Princess Pest across a divide: the personified Danube. Cute.
The dark side of Budapest’s 20th century history is on display at The House of Terror, also on the Boulevard, dedicated to telling the world about the horrors of Fascism and Communism. The pictures of all those known to have died at the hands of the fascist Arrow Cross or the AVO, the Hungarian equivalent of the KGB, are on most walls. The Museum is actually set in the former headquarters of these terror machines and the torture cells in the basement where so many died can be visited. Separately, the Holocaust Museum is nearby.
The Shoes on the Danube Memorial has to be seen to be appreciated. The 60 pairs of bronze shoes affixed to the stone embankment commemorate the slaughter of around 20,000 persons, most of them Jews by the Arrow Cross at the end of 1944. They were made to remove their shoes, as they were considered valuable, then killed.
And now for something completely different. A peculiarly Budapest phenomenon: ruin bars.
These are the edgy, funky side of Budapest night life. They have to be seen to be believed... they are within previously decrepit, but structurally sound, abandoned buildings which have been, at one point ,squatted… the walls and ceilings covered in graffiti. Then it was taken over by a particular type of developer, the squatters kicked out, all the doors removed, creating open spaces, several bars installed on two floors, mismatched chairs, stools, tables, scavenged from flea markets, sundry lamps, hanging and otherwise of all sizes and shapes, funky-odd decorations, the ensemble creating a totally unique grungy space. The vibe is electric, the music loud, that is, after the tourists all go home after 9 and the youth arrive. The best-known one is Simpla Kert (Simple Garden) in the Jewish Quarter, near the large synagogue, but it’s not alone. Outdoor cafés and terrasses are everywhere, this though, adds some fun and some spice.
Walk across the Chain Bridge between Pest and Buda with the four lions ‘guarding’ the entrances, before taking the funicular to Castle Hill and consider that this wrought iron and stone suspension bridge was built in 1849. At the time of its construction, it was considered an engineering marvel, one of the longest bridges in the world…and the first one to cross the Danube.
Not to be missed is The Great Market Hall, at the foot of the Freedom Bridge on the Pest side. A feast for the eyes along with your taste buds. Built on two floors and a basement, the basement has all the fish stalls, the ground floor will assault you with the smells of fresh produce from a multitude of stalls (best peaches ever, unique white Hungarian peppers), fresh meats, Hungarian charcuterie specialties, fresh cheeses, boxes of goose and duck foie gras (not cheap), breads, and pastries, all in abundance (prices about equivalent with Canada)...the stalls of the second floor are all about tourist bric-a-brac with some fine hand-made embroideries, clothing specialties, porcelain added in. A great wander-around even if you don’t plan on buying anything (but you will).
…and, although I wince to mention it, there is the ‘famous’ Váci Street, which stretches from the Great Market to Gerbeaud’s. For me, the only good thing on Váci Street is St. Michael’s church which has regular musical evenings, but….the street is always packed with tourists (and pickpockets).
If museums are your thing, you won’t be disappointed, as you'll find 45 to choose from, from large: the Hungarian National Museum, the Museum of Fine Art... to small, e.g., the pinball museum.
Budapest is a great walking city, in keeping with most European cities. There are ogle-worthy building everywhere, from government ministries to just 19th century fancies. A few selections are below.
Well, if this hasn’t enticed you to visit 'cause, there is so much more to see, to experience...at least two weeks…I say Just Go!!
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