Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Travel2013
STANDING in the vast Heroes’ Square in Budapest, I wasn’t too sure whether it was the cutting wind chilling me to the bone, or what had taken place in the city during and after World War ll.
Our guide, Peter, spoke about the city and Hungary’s history and then jumped straight to World War ll, when the country thought they’d be better off being pals with Nazi Germany. But when they saw the error of their ways – which coincided with the Nazis fleeing and the Russians closing in on Hungary – they decided to welcome their invaders.
However, there was carnage in the boulevards and alleyways of Budapest, a city that saw itself as “the Paris of Central Europe”.
Hungary’s capital endured a brutal siege by Soviet forces; the fascist Arrow Cross Party began to kill as many Jews as possible, while the trapped German armies, having no option but to obey the Fuhrer’s orders, took out their frustrations on the local populace with guns, cannons and bombs.
Worse was to come under Soviet rule – the House of Terror museum (the former HQ of the Secret Police) in Andrassy ut (street or avenue) is a reminder to visitors of the bloody old days when political prisoners were locked in basement cells. But today the recent history can be smiled upon, though laced with dark humour.
Peter explains: “We thought the Russians would stay for two years or so – in the end they stayed for 40.”
For the first- time visitor, Budapest is a breath of fresh air, or icy if you’re from warmer climes.
You can’t go wrong by visiting two cities for the price of one – Buda is the posh woody, hilly bit on the western side with bourgeois residential and set-piece castles and churches, the ancient capital that comprises about one third of the city’s area.
Eastern Pest is modelled on 19th century Paris and is mostly built-up and flat – though not when it comes to the city’s nightlife, shops and restaurants – and through them flows the Danube River.
This odd couple, connected by a series of elegant bridges, were officially united in 1873, in time for Budapest’s golden era, and have become a classic European capital, full of history and yet a buzzing city with charms all of her own, throbbing with culture, history, food and industry.
The road into Budapest from the airport disguises the pleasure ahead. There are communist-styled blocks of flats, a massive concrete football stadium, shabby trams and billboards.
Once at Heroes’ Square, it all changes. You cannot but be overawed by the sights in one of the city’s most impressive open venues.
At the centre of the square stands the Millennium Monument and soaring above is the 36m-high Millennium Column, topped by the Archangel Gabriel. Around its base are a number of statues, honouring the seven chiefs of the tribes that founded Hungary. Then there are the two colonades – the left honouring the country’s kings and saints, the right its many heroes.
The square is flanked by the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Gallery. The museum contains works from old masters such as Raphael, Goya, Vermeer and Rembrandt. However, laughed Peter: “I don’t think you want to visit the museum, it contains no paintings of Hungarian artists.”
But the road to Budapest’s many other delights starts with a journey down Andrassy ut – a World Heritage site – built to resemble Paris’s Champs Élysées with all its charm and elegance.
Almost 2.5km long, it is one of the city’s main shopping streets, with restaurants, coffee houses, theatres, the Hungarian State Opera House, the Franz Liszt Memorial House, luxury fashion shops and much more on either side while traffic flows speedily in both directions. To trawl this Hungarian boulevard and take in its wonders could take half a day, but time was not on our side.
We headed for Buda Castle and four sights took my breath away – the Chain Bridge crossing the Danube River, the statues of two massive lions on either side of the road, the broad, beautiful and