BUDAPEST, an Imperial City of the Hapsburgs

After our visit to Vienna, my husband Joe and I rode the train to Budapest. These are just a few of the highlights from our personal visit in April, 2005.

Budapest is a very large city of 2 million people and is split down the middle by the Danube River. The east side of the river is Pest, the commercial heart of the city. We choose to stay on the Buda side in the Castle Hill district. Badly destroyed in World War II, it has been lovingly restored to its former glory and contains the city's most important medieval monuments and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our modern hotel, the Burg, was in the old medieval area, right in front of Matthias Church (pictured at right), named after King Matthias who ruled in the 15th century. The church is a neo-Gothic creation with a colorful tiled roof and remarkable interior. It is known for its stained glass windows, frescoes and wall decorations. The church celebrated the coronation of Emperor Franz Joseph and Elizabeth as King and Queen of Hungary in 1867.

Behind Matthias Church is Fishermen's Bastion (pictured below), built in 1905 and named after the guild of fishermen responsible for defending this stretch of the wall in the Middle Ages. The seven gleaming white turrets represent the Magyar tribes who entered this area in the late 9th century. From this pavilion visitors have magnificent views of the city below. In front of the bastion is a fine equestrian statue of St. Stephen, the first King to accept Christianity in the 11th century.

The Parliament building sits on the Pest side of the city, and like much of Budapest was built around the city's millennial celebration in 1896. The design and riverside location were inspired by its counterpart in London—only one meter longer! This enormous building has 12 miles of stairs and 700 sumptuously decorated rooms. This was appropriate for the time when Budapest ruled much of Eastern Europe. Today, however, only an eighth of the building is used by the legislature.

On display in Parliament is the Crown of St. Stephen (below, right), the nation's most important national icon. Legend tells us around the year 1000 Pope Sylvester II presented a crown to Stephen as a gift. This legitimized the new king's rule and assured his loyalty to Rome over Constantinople. The crown has disappeared several times over the centuries, only to reappear later. During the Mongol invasions of the 13th century the crown was dropped while being transported to a safe house, bending the cross on top. In 1945 Hungarian fascists fleeing the Soviet army took it to Austria. Eventually the crown fell into the hands of the U.S. army, who transferred it to Fort Knox in Kentucky. In January 1978 the crown was returned to Hungary by President Carter.

About a 30-minute drive from Budapest is the restored Baroque palace, Godollo (above, left), built in 1741. It was given to the royal couple by the Hungarian state in celebration of the coronation of the King of Hungary in 1867. This was the favorite residence of Queen Elizabeth, wife of Franz Joseph. If I had seen this palace without a guide, I would have asked myself "Why did I bother coming here?" Our guide made everything come alive by telling the history of the family who lived in it.

Empress Elizabeth or Sissy, as she was known to her family, was Emperor Franz Josef's mysterious, narcissistic and beautiful wife. Publicly she was mostly silent, but worked out frantically and dieted to maintain her Barbie-doll figure, spending hours each day tending to her ankle-length hair. Sissy's main goal in life was to preserving her reputation as a beautiful empress. In spite of all the dieting and exercise, age took its toll. When she turned 30 she allowed no more portraits to be painted of her and was seen in public with a fan or umbrella to cover her face. Franz Josef whom she respected absolutely adored her. Sissy's personal mission and political cause was promoting Hungary's bid for nationalism. While she was married to Emperor Franz Josef, she spent seven years in Budapest, enjoying horseback riding and the company of the charming and good looking Count Andrassy. It is believed that Sissy's third daughter was the count's. Andrassy was a key player in the 1848 Hungarian Revolution and ultimately helped forge the "dual Monarchy" of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Later he served as the Hungarian Prime Minister. Sissy's personal tragedy was the suicidal death of her only son Rudolf, the crown prince. Disliking Vienna and the confines of the court, she traveled more and more; she and Franz Josef became estranged. In 1898, while visiting Geneva, Switzerland, she was murdered by an Italian anarchist. Sissy has been compared to Princess Dianna of the early 20th century Hapsburgs, because of her beauty, bittersweet life and tragic death.

Of interest to me, was a walking tour that gave me insight to life in communist Hungary. Our guide Beth, in her mid-twenties, lived under what was called "soft communism." We were taken to a mock up of a communist flat (pictured at right), about 1,200 square feet. Our guide told us everyone worked and it was common for family members to work different shifts. No one had a kitchen table, but ate around the coffee table in the living room. Everyone's furniture was alike, with the exception of a color choice of orange or green upholstery. On government holidays it was "suggested" that everyone appear in the square and celebrate with the cheap beer and food provided for them. Photographs were taken of masses of the people enjoying communist life and published in the US newspapers!

In 1991 after the fall of communism, a clever entrepreneur gathered up all the statues in the city from this period, bought land outside the city and made a park. The main entry gate has three openings. The center gate is permanently closed representing what a dishonest system communism was. Under the system you would never walk in the front door, but through a side door. Our guide shared the example of the time the government gave her Dad a car. He went to pick up one of the cars that had previously been used by higher officials. The man issuing the cars knew the "secrets" of all the cars. Her Dad had a choice of taking the car given to him for free or paying the man who knew the secrets to get one of the better working cars! We then toured the park and discovered each statue had its own story including every communist leader was shown over-sized with clenched fists, a tactic for intimidation. Statues representing the people were impersonal, showing the people as a cog in the machine, strong, stoic, doing their jobs well and proudly for the good of the nation. What a horrible system to have to live under.

For my husband, the highlight of our visit to Hungary was the visit to the town of Tiszadob where his grandmother was born and left for the United States with her family, 105 years ago. We hired a driver to take us to the town, as renting a car for a day was very pricey and the town so small did not offer bus service from Budapest. The private driver charged $300 for a full day, but looking back it was well worth the money. Thanks to our driver who really pushed and asked a lot of questions, Joe was able to find his roots. Today, Tiszadob is a quaint town with one main street running through the center, boarding on the Tisza River. It continues to be a co-op farming community, very much like the time when Grandma Horkey's family left. We met with Pastor Toth of the Hungarian Reformed Church who did not speak English but was so kind and helpful to us. He unlocked the church safe where all the records were kept. It took a while of searching but we found the book recording Grandma's birth and baptism. She was born July 4th 1888 and baptized July 5th 1888. We discovered it was Pastor Toth's great grandfather, who at that time was pastor of the church who baptized Grandma! Pastor Toth showed us the communion challis with a date of 1705 on it, older then the United States of America and still being used. We also toured the church. What a wonderful day to experience something so special and personal as returning to the town of Joe's heritage.

We experienced so much more in Hungary, these are just the highlights. Someday we plan to return, as we know first hand how much more this country has to offer its visitors.

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