The Heart of Pest

Today we thought we’d walk north, through the same two districts as yesterday, Belvaros and Lipotvaros, but this time along Vaci Utca. We passed the pair of Klotild Palaces, standing like sentries either side of the road, the one on the right belonging to the swanky Buddha Bar Hotel who have given the exterior a good clean, unlike its twin which remains a bit black and sooty.

They seem to guard the Erzsebethid or Elizabeth Bridge which stands out with its bold white pylons and cables. Of all the Danube bridges which were blown up by the Germans in 1945 as they left, it is the only one that was not rebuilt in its original form.

We continued north up Vaci Utca, past shops and restaurants but also saw signs of Budapest’s architectural heritage. These included the oldest building from 1805 at No13 …

… Thonet House with Zsolnay tiles at No11 …

… and the Art Nouveau Philanthia flower shop at No9.

In Szervita ter there was this lovely Art Nouveau Mosaic ‘Our Lady of Hungary’ set high on a facade, the work of Miksa Roth whose work can also be seen in the Gresham Palace and Parliament.

Continuing north, we came across another couple of gems, the Hungarian State Treasury, once the Post Office Savings Bank, decorated with bees and bee hives to represent thrift …

… and the Art Nouveau Bedo House, recently restored with an pretty uninspiring museum inside but a great facade.

Time for lunch and we stopped at a hummus bar, another Budapest trend, with lots of brands but a similar menu everywhere and ours offered hummus either in a wrap with salad or on a plate with flatbread to dip in with or without extra bits. A great lunch, veggie and cheese-free!

Our afternoon was to take in the two most important buildings in Budapest, The Parliament and St Stephens Basilica, both with domes 96m high, symbolising the balance between church and state in Hungary but also alluding to the Magyars arrival in Hungary in 896. Current building regulations say no other structure in Budapest can be taller.

St Stephens took 50 years to build and was finished in 1906 in Neo-Renaissance style, held up by having the dome collapse during construction. It has been joked it took almost as long for the recent restoration! The inside is stunning, with the gilding really shining. The patron saint of the church is St Stephen who was the first Christian king of Hungary and is credited with the foundation of Hungary. His mummified right hand is kept in a glass case for all to see.

We took a tour of the Parliament so we could see inside and the decoration is splendid, but it was also high-tech for its time with an AC system using ice in the basement. There are two debating chambers, although their present system of government only requires one so we were able to see into the other used for conferences.

Outside in the corridor are numbered brass cigar racks where peers left their cigars while they popped back inside to hear someone speak … if it was good it was said to be worth a Havana!

The highlight was entering the domed hall with St Stephens crown in the centre, protected by guards. It is actually made of two crowns, one sent by Pope Sylvester II to Stephen for his coronation combined with a circlet sent by the Byzantine Monarch to his father King Geza. The crown has had a lively history – it has been hidden more than once, the cross got bent in the C17 and it was even kept in Fort Knox for safety. Unfortunately this was the one part where we were not allowed to take photos, although others have either been privileged or sneaky and I found a couple online.

For dinner we went to Parisi 6 where Chris was lucky enough to have a vegetarian menu with choices and went for a Gorgonzola and apple salad with walnuts and stuffed aubergine while I had Hungarian specialities of fish soup and beef stew.