Budapest visit

Castle Hill

The castle hill is part of the World Heritage, contains Budapest’s most important medieval monuments and museums. The hill’s appearance has changed much since building began in the thirteenth century. The main streets still follow their medieval courses, with Gothic arches and stone carvings in the courtyards and passages of 18th and 19th centuries.
Buda palace was erected by Bela IV. after the Mongol invasion of 1241-42, replaced by the imposing palaces of the Anjou-Angeving kings. During the reign of Mátyás Corvinus (1458-1490) the palace was the centre of Renaissance in Hungary. Artist and scholars from all over Europe were drawn by Queen Beatrice. After the Turkish occupation only ruins were left, which the Habsburgs, Hungary’s new rulers, levelled to build a palace of their own. The Royal palace expanded enormously during the 18th century. After the World War I, Admiral Horty inhabited the building until the German occupation in 1944. Reconstruction work began in the 50’s in tandem with excavations of the medieval substrata beneath the rubble. Today the complex houses the Hungarian National Gallery (Wings b, C and D), the Budapest History Museum (E) and the National Széchenyi Library (F).

Kiscelli Castle Museum and Municipal Gallery

Kiscelli utca 108. Website: http://www.btmfk.iif.hu and http://www.btm.hu/Kiscell/kiscell.htm,
Decorative arts coupled with important Hungarian 19th century works are among the permanent exhibits in this Baroque Trinitarian monastery. Downstairs there's a history of Hungarian printing houses in the 18th and 19th centuries, including an antique printing press. Contemporary 20th century Hungarian art is also featured, highlights of which are works from cubist János Kmetty, Károly Ferenczy and the vibrant puppet themed paintings of Margit Anna. Temporary exhibitions and concerts are also held during the summer. The Municipal gallery (Fovárosi Képtár) upstairs, with its impressive art collection (Rippl-Rónai József, Tihanyi Lajos, Csók István, Czóbel Béla etc.) is also here.

Vasarely Museum

III. Szentlélek tér 6. Housed in a two-storey wing of the old aristocratic home of the Zichy family, Vasarely's vast collection of over four hundred works creates one of the most vivid and inspirational galleries in Budapest.
Born in Pécs, Hungary, at the turn-of-20th-century, Victor Vasarely spent his early working life in advertising before moving with his wife Klára to Paris in 1930. Inspired by the Bauhaus movement of Walter Gropius in 1919, he found fame as an artist after exhibiting at the Boétie Street Gallery, Paris in 1944.
Dubbed as the father of Op Art in the 60s, his familiar style of creating illusionary 3D geometric shapes on flat canvases has an almost hypnotic effect. Early efforts such as MITIN (1938) give a clear indication of the style he would later follow, while more recent works such as BULL (1973-74) are a prelude to modern day computer imagery.

Military History Museum

I. Tóth Árpád sétány 40. Website: http://www.militaria.hu
Situated in a former municipal army barracks, the Museum of Military History has a sprawling collection of weaponry and war memorabilia housed on two main floors. Open to the public since 1937 and restored after World War II, the museum has permanent collections covering the 1848 revolution and War of Independence, both World Wars and the 1956 uprising, together with more modern displays showing machinery, guns and other military equipment used by the Hungarian army. On the staircase leading to the first floor, there are two lovely stain glass windows depicting Buda in 1493 and Budavár Bevétele in 1849. You'll find exhibits on military history during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including uniforms worn by the Hungarian Hussar regiment. They are also large display cases featuring models and battle scenes from World War II, although the addition of a Huey helicopter (as used in Vietnam) was somewhat puzzling. The displays devoted to the tragic events of the 1956 uprising are the most poignant by far.
One nice touch is the WW2 American helmet which sits on a clear glass case on the ground floor landing. A slot has been cut in the top so that visitors can make a donation to the museum. The entrance, which is from Tóth Árpád sétány (promenade) has a fine lookout over Buda's western suburbs.

Museum of Music History

I. Táncsics Mihály utca 7. Website: http://www.zti.hu/museum.htm
Set in the magnificent Baroque surroundings of the Erdody Palace, the Museum of Music History charts the history of musical life in Budapest from the 18th to 20th centuries. A section of the exhibition is devoted to the life and works of composer Béla Bartók, while early Hungarian musical instruments are also on display.

Bem tér was named after the Polish general Joseph Bem, who fought on the Hungarian side in the 1848-49 War of Independence. Traditionally a site for demonstrations, it was here that crowds assembled on October 23, 1956, prior to marching on Parliament, hours before the uprising. At Bem utca 20, 200 m west from the square, the Foundry Museum (Öntödei Múzeum) is housed in the ironworks founded by Ábrahám Ganz in 1844, which grew into a massive industrial complex.

Batthyány tér-square

Batthyány tér is in the centre of Víziváros, named after the first prime minister of the independent Hungary in 1848, Batthyány Lajos. Now home to a long-established market, M2 underground and HÉV suburban railway to Szentendre. On the southern side is the twin-towered St. Anne’s Church (Szent Anna templom, Batthyány tér 7., II. District), with one of the lovest baroque interiors of any church in Budapest.

The Tabán, the leafy area between Gellért and castle Hills, once Buda’s artisan quarter, inhabited by Serbs, who settled here after fleeing from the Turks in the early 18th century. Later it became known for its restaurants and wine gardens. Most of them burned to the ground at the turn of the 20th century, and the area was razed in the 1930s and replaced by an anodyne park that was later carved up by flowers. Thankfully the city planners spared Taban’s historic Turkish baths.

Rózsadomb itself is as much a social category as a neighbourhood, for a list of residents would read like a Hungarian Who’s Who. During the communist era this included the top of Party funkcionáriusok. Nowadays wealthy film directors and entrepreneurs predominate, and the sloping streets are lined with spacious villas and flashy cars.

Cave Church (Sziklatemplom)

XI. Gellérthegy (near to the Gellért Hotel)
Cared for once again by the Hungarian Paulite order of monks, this unique Cave Church was first dedicated in 1926. Having been expanded in the early thirties by the Archbishop of Kalocsa to cope with large numbers of worshippers, it was boarded up during the Communist era and only re-opened in 1989.

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