2024 Sept 29 Sunday

Budapest

There were many Budapest places yet to visit and not much time left. We usually crossed the Danube on the Chain Bridge, but decided to follow new territory and cross on the Margaret Bridge.

11:13 am to 7:52 pm. 8.79 miles, 23,545 steps. Elevation +463 ft. Temperature 58 degrees, no rain.

Richard’s Relive memories are here: https://www.relive.cc/view/vE6JNy3pNx6

This controversial monument was installed in 2014. It shows the imperial eagle of Germany and the Archangel Gabriel representing the innocence of the Hungarian people. Hungarians are upset at the horrors of the Holocaust being falsified, and personal mementos and stories are posted in front of the monument. This is not the first time we have seen evidence of atrocities—on castle hill there were placards also proclaiming the lives lost to nazi atrocities and efforts to whitewash the stories.
This Soviet Freedom Monument is the only monument with the Soviet hammer and sickle in Budapest. It memorializes the Soviets who died liberating Budapest from the Germans in WWII. It is guarded due to the feelings of Hungarians towards the Soviets.
This monument to the Jews massacred by the Fascist Hungarian militia called the Arrow Cross Party was installed in 2005. 600 pairs of iron shoes are installed along the banks of the Danube to commemorate the 3500 people, 800 of them Jews, who were forced to remove their shoes And then were shot so their bodies would fall into and be carried off by the Danube. This is a case of a Hungarian far-right ultra-nationalist party. During the short rule of this party, 80,000 people were deported to Austrian concentration camps. In only three months, the Arrow Cross Party may have killed as many as 38,000 Jews.
This is part of a statue to Tisza Istvan, former Prime Minister of Hungary, who opposed war pre WWI but later decided it was the lesser of evils to save the Austria-Hungary empire. He was killed by leftist revolutionists in 1918. The monument has many scenes of war, including this poignant family saying goodbye to a soldier heading off to war.
This memorial to the Mermaid Boat disaster of May 2019 commemorates the Mermaid boat that collided with another boat and sank in 7 seconds. 27 people were killed, including a large percentage of South Korean tourists.
The Margaret Bridge, a three-way bridge linking Budapest and Pest and Margaret Island. The Bridge was named for the daughter of King Bela IV.
Parliament as seen from the Budapest shoreline.
Looking back at the Margaret Bridge.
The Chain Bridge is the oldest bridge in Budapest, and is one of the most convenient linking the castle with the major squares of Pest.
St. Matthias Church ( also called the Church of Our Lady of Budapest Castle or the Church of the Assumption of Budapest Castle) was built in the Romanesque style in 1015 but the current building dates from the second half of the 14th century and was extensively restored in the 19th century. Two kings of Hungary were crowned here. The church has an usual diamond tiled roof and frescoes detailing the inside walls and ceilings.
With only a short time left in the day, we headed to the castle with the intention of seeing the National Gallery. There was much to see outside, but our gallery visit had to be short.
The National Gallery at Buda Castle.
The Matthias Fountain in the Buda Castle district is supposedly the most photographed monument in Budapest. According to legend, King Matthias often went hunting in disguise to see the true affairs of the Hungarian Kingdom. He met a beautiful girl called Szep Ilona and they fell in love, but when she found out he was king of Hungary, she realized that their love could never be, and she died of a broken heart.
There is a funicular available to take folks up to the castle, but the walkways are not steep and many folks were walking.
From the castle steps, the Chain Bridge is almost a straight shot to St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
Richard is heading across the Chain Bridge at sunset.
One last look back at the castle with the sunset skies.
Our last visit of the day is to the Rumbach Street Synagogue very near our apartment.
The synagogue is affiliated with Neologism Judaism and is both a concert hall and Jewish museum as well as temple for a congregation.
The temple was designed by Otto Wagner, an architect (and mentor to Plecnik) in Medieval Revival Style with eight sides. It was completed in 1872, and restored in 2021 with a grant from the Budapest Government. It was built in homage to (but not an exact replica of) the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem.
The Synagogue was a place of worship for 70 years, but in 1941 Hungarian authorities converted it into an internment camp. In 1941, the Hungarian state deported nearly 20,000 Jews of “irregular nationality” to German-occupied Ukraine where most of them were murdered by German SS units. Before the deportation, most were rounded up and kept in the ghetto around the synagogue. Despite everything, services were still held during this period.
After WWII, minor renovation was carried out and the building was reconsecrated. Because of dwindling congregants and dangers, several non-religious uses were considered for the site. In 1988 before the fall of Communism, the site was sold with the iplan to convert the building into a conference center. A few years later with the re-introduction of capitalism, the company went bankrupt . The Budapest Jewish Community was able to get back the site and plan for a sensible restoration project.
This sidewalk marker outside the Rumbach Synagogue marks the boundary of one of the Hungarian Jewish ghettos from the 1940’s. After further reading, we believe that the streets bordering our apartment would have been in that ghetto area.

2 Responses

  1. Really enjoyed your day’s video. You really packed a lot into your day! Interesting how Budapest has become a much more popular tourist destination over the past couple of decades. Can’t believe you “walked” to Castle Hill again when there were other alternatives. You both must be shooting to live to be 100! Too late to tell you now but the train station has one of prettiest and eloquent McDonald’s we have ever seen in our travels!
    Dan

    1. We tried to get to most of our highlights but still had to leave some. We missed McDonald’s since that would never be our stop, but there are several Budapest train stations so chances are we wouldn’t have been at the same one anyway.

2 Responses

  1. Really enjoyed your day’s video. You really packed a lot into your day! Interesting how Budapest has become a much more popular tourist destination over the past couple of decades. Can’t believe you “walked” to Castle Hill again when there were other alternatives. You both must be shooting to live to be 100! Too late to tell you now but the train station has one of prettiest and eloquent McDonald’s we have ever seen in our travels!
    Dan

    1. We tried to get to most of our highlights but still had to leave some. We missed McDonald’s since that would never be our stop, but there are several Budapest train stations so chances are we wouldn’t have been at the same one anyway.