Budapest. Capital of Hungary. Lady of the Danube. In the miserly sun of a winter's day, it is cold, beautiful, and stony. A city of baroque and neoclassical houses, churches, monuments. A thrumming heart of hills and bridges in the land of Magyars. A quick stroll along the riverfront reveals the Hungarian Parliament Building. A demonic doom fortress, more like. The neo-gothic architecture is undoubtedly incredible – it is just that in a certain light it looks like a monstrous redback spider stalking the banks of the Danube... Strolling across the bridge, from the flat eastern half of inner Budapest to its hillier western portion, you reach the Fisherman's Bastion with its Neo-Romanesque, fairy tale towers located in the Buda Castle area. Here, I will always remember my conversation with an old Hungarian man who was surprised by the colour of my skin when I was a New Zealander, going as far as to rub my cheek briefly in curiosity. Located next door is Matthias Church, also known as the Church of the Assumption of the Buda Castle, a Roman Catholic church whose long-lost foundations date back to the 11th century. Whatever had originally stood there was destroyed during the Mongol invasions, its predecessor was severely damaged by the Ottoman invasions of Hungary, as well as bombarded by Allied forces near the end of World War II. But the peaceful decades that followed has been kind to this location, allowing it to heal back to glory. Speaking of the region's history, the name 'Budapest' came about from the 1873 unification of three separate towns in the area called Buda, Óbuda, and Pest. Today, Budapest is a youthful, culturally zestful city but this was a hard-won status. It suffered under not only Nazi Germany, but also under Soviet military occupation during the Cold War era, all the way to 1991. Political change has been largely kind to Budapest. Another highlight: Buda Castle, a historical castle and palace complex that once belonged to the Hungarian kings of yore. It is pleasant to visit, but if the architecture seems a little dry then you should know that you're instincts are correct. The palace was gutted in the 1950s since the communist government of Hungary considered it a symbol of the former regime. What visitors now see is a largely a 'modernist' creation, reconstructed in the vision of a new post-war order. And behold: St. Stephen's Basilica, a neoclassical Roman Catholic basilica named in honour of the first King of Hungary and undoubtedly the most important church structure in Hungary. When I visited it, the sunlight struck its interior in such a delicate way, I felt as though I was walking around in a meditative, dreamlike state. I gazed at its finely painted cupola, at its sanctuary and altar, at its statues and stained glass windows. I floated. I was washed in wordless wool-gathering.
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AuthorMing is an economist, traveller, and creative writer from Melbourne, Australia. He’s a nebulous collection of particles on the lookout for a good corner to sit with a book and a cup of coffee. Archives
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