Budapest, but Mostly Pest

Most people may already know this, but just in case, I will write this:  Budapest was actually two cities with the city of Buda to the west of the river and sitting up on a hill (where our hotel is), and the city of Pest to the east and mostly flat.  Our plan today is to start in Buda (where we are obviously), but then explore the sights in Pest.  Of course, our touring begins next door at the St. Matthias Church.  The outside of this church is spotless and it is obvious that a cleaning was recently performed.  Inside is also like new.  The exterior of the church reminds us a little of the churches we had seen in Portugal built in the style called Manueline.  Although Gothic in design, there are elements of nature, like leaves, in the design.  Don't know if there is any connection, most likely not.  Inside is a riot of jewel-tone colors with beautiful patterns painted on all surfaces.  This is where east meets west.  You can really see the influence of the Ottomans/Turks, who are not too far away and actually owned Hungary for a few centuries.  Although there is statuary, this interior is all about the colors.  I really enjoy this type of church more than the Baroque style.  I previously had a picture of the exterior of the church.  Here are three photos from the interior:

Departing the church, of course we admire the views to the Danube River and Pest below, but now it is time to descend.  We follow the steps down from the Fisherman's Bastion, seemingly a purely decorative place for admiring the views in front of the church.  The Bastion was built with seven towers to honor the seven Magyar tribes who settled the Carpathian basin.  It was named after the Fisherman's Guild who had the responsibility to guarding the old Buda city wall in this area.  We proceed down many steps and then downhill on a street that takes us directly to the Chain Bridge.  This is Budapest's oldest bridge over the Danube and was completed in 1849.  It, like all the bridges in Budapest, was destroyed in World War II.  Looking up from the bridge, I take a photo of the Royal Palace, now the home to the National Art Museum (we will visit this tomorrow).

A note on Budapest in World War II.  We did some research yesterday evening to learn what had happened here during the war.  Prague, for example, was never bombed in the war.  However, Budapest was not so lucky.  Hungary, unfortunately, was aligned with Nazi Germany from the start.  As a result, they were not invaded by Germany and had some semblance of autonomy during the war, while its troops fought in the Nazi effort.  Towards the end of the war, that autonomy was revealed to be untrue, and Germany called the shots.  For example, Hungary's Jews were not transported to concentration camps for many years.  That changed in 1944 (more on that later).  In December of 1944, what is known as the Seige of Budapest began.  Soviet troops had encircled the city, cutting off the German and Hungarian troops inside.  Two Soviet delegations were sent to negotiate a peaceful surrender that would provide somewhat humane treatment for the citizens of Budapest.  Both delegations were shot at by the Germans with many of the delegates killed.  Hitler had declared that Budapest was a "fortress" city, to be defended until the last life.  At that point, the seige began in earnest and was over by early February -- 50 days in total.  Eighty percent of the buildings in Budapest were either destoyed or damaged, and many, many were dead.  38,000 civilians died, most from starvation.  German and Hungarian troops were also starving.  Soviet losses actually exceeded the German/Hungarian losses.  Anywhere from 50 to 200 thousand women were raped by the Soviets.  This was one of the most horrible seiges in the war.  When it was over, the Soviets were ready to move on to Vienna, but the Seige of Budapest was considered a dress rehearsal for the Battle of Berlin.  Needless to say, Budapest features some new construction.  Visible scars in some buildings from bullets, shrapnel, etc., can still be found.  In fact the St. Matthias Church was not completely rebuilt until 1968.

From the Chain Bridge we proceed to our next destination, St. Stephen's Basilica.  There is no charge to enter here (surprise!), so we go in.  This is a darker church, but also beautiful.  This is built in a more traditional style, but also features vivid colors.  The giant pillars in the interior are a deep maroon color.  The highlight of the church is the mummified arm of St. Stephen himself, who died in 1038.  He was also a king of Hungary, who had a pretty successful reign, I guess.  The arm is contained in a golden, jeweled chest ina chapel behind the church's main altar.  We take a look, but these religious relics really have no significance to me.  The church does offer (for a fee) an elevator ride up to the dome for viewing the skyline which is very nice.  I spy a building to the north with a brilliant green tiled roof.  What is it?  I ask a few people later in the day, but no one seems to know.  Later, I discover a photo of it in the guidebook and learn that it is Museum of Applied Arts.  The beautiful tiled roofs that can be seen in Budapest are considered part of the Secessionist art movement that occurred from the 1890's until about 1920.  It was heavily influenced by Art Nouveau.

Here is a photo of the chest containing St. Stephen's mummified arm:

We stop near the Basilica at a restaurant called TG, an Italian restaurant, for lunch.  I have chicken caesar salad, and Rob enjoys salad with grilled shrimp.  It is good, and we each have a glass of Hungarian chardonnay, which is also good, but a little different from chardonnays at home.

We continue our walking tour of Pest by walking to a main square where we find the Lutheran church.  I almost can't spot it, because it doesn't really look like a church, more like a large hall.  After it is pointed out to us by a helpful tour bus salesman, I do see that there is a cross on top.  It doesn't appear that it is open, so I cannot report on the interior.  We continue on the large boulevard towards the Jewish Quarter and the Jewish Museum.  The Jewish Museum is housed in the Great Synagogue, which is impressive inside and out.  This is the largest synagogue in Europe and was completed in the 1850's.  Franz Liszt played the organ here in 1859.  It was built in the Moorish style and is also beautiful inside with lovely colors.  I can't find any information as to how much damage the synagogue sustained in World War II, but do learn that it remained in its damaged state until 1990, after the fall of Communism  The complete restoration was then completed in the 1990's, largely paid for by Hungarian Jewish American Estee Lauder!  The museum is small but interesting.  There are also memorials to Raoul Wallenberg (Swedish Ambassador to Hungary) and Carl Lutz (Swiss Ambassador) who worked to save Budapest's Jewish population and help them emigrate to Palestine.  The attendant ot the museum tells us that his own family had been saved by Carl Lutz.  Until 1944, many Jews were "safe."  His ancestor had a brother that was a member of the Hungarian parliament, but in 1944 all the rules changed and the so-callled final solution was to be fully implemented in Hungary, which Germany considered an occupied country at this point, not an independent ally.

Here is a photo of the synagogue's beautiful interior (who's that guy taking a picture?):

We continue strolling on the main avenue (Korut), which takes us south past the National Museum (we will visit on another day), and then turns southwest to the large Central Market.  This is an impressive space.  The east side has a large corridor with one produce stand after another.  It all looks good!  We walk down the central corridor and find what we are looking for:  the papricka seller.  The very nice young woman helps Rob select a sweet paprika, a smoked paprika, and a tube of paprika cream.  He is hoping that it will be super tasty and better than that available at home.  We shall see.  Departing the market, we stroll up the Vaci Utne, the main pedestrian street that heads to the north.  At first, it is not very interesting, mostly bad restaurants and cheap tourist shops, then we we cross the street that leads to the Elizabeth Bridge, the shops become much nicer with well-known international chain shores.  We stop for a beer at the Anna Cafe, where the service could use some improving, then we continue to the Vorosmarty Square, which is very nice and much more populated.  The is modern, multi-level mall here, but we pass and go into the Herend porcelain store.  This is a large space featuring Hungary's best known porcelain brand.  It is very lovely, but not really our style, so we don't see any piece that we feel that we need to buy.  It was a nice visit, though.  It is time to head back to the hotel (a little after 4pm), so we cross back over the Chain Bridge, only to find a political demonstration on the other side at the base of the funicular.  I definitely do not want to walk through that crowd to push our way onto the funicular, so we retrace our steps up the hill to the hotel, following the way we took down this morning.

We relax at the hotel, and for dinner we eat in the Executive Lounge, where a very generous happy hour happens every day from 6pm until 8:30pm.  There is a ton of hot food, including the tastiest stuffed cabbage rolls, plenty to make a dinner of it, so we do -- all for free, since we are Gold status with Hilton -- what a great benefit!

We take an evening stroll through Buda, which is quite charming, especially at night.  We pass a few really nice looking restaurants and think maybe we made the wrong choice regarding dinner.  Ours was delicious and free, but a nice meal in a restaurant might have been more interesting.