Budapest Springs
My Hungarian Rhapsody
Rhapsody Past and Present
When I was in 11th grade, I had an assignment to interview someone who had immigrated to the United States. My grandmother suggested Charles, our neighbor who had fled Hungary in 1956 as a teenager, so down the street I went plied with note-taking materials!
Charles was kind enough to tell me his entire story. While it was ultimately a triumphant one that saw him graduating from USC and establishing a successful architecture business, it was a grueling tale to relive. He was born in 1941 in Debrecen, a city near Hungary’s border with Romania. His earliest memories involved sheltering in a cellar while Nazi bombardiers flew overhead. As a child he looked after animals on a farm before moving with his family to Budapest. It was there in Hungary’s capital that he sustained a shrapnel injury to the leg before unrelenting government brutality forced his family to flee to Austria. With photos and drawings of buildings he remembered from his youth in Debrecen and Budapest, Charles painted a picture of the country he had left behind and reminisced over the aesthetics that informed his own practice as an architect in the greater Los Angeles area.
Spring 2024 in Budapest is a vastly different place from the autumn one of Charles’ youth. Other than the occasional traffic cop on the beat, there was no noticeable police presence. Restaurants, bars, hotels, museums, churches, and spas were all open for business and well-attended by locals and tourists from across the world. Air Serbia offers daily flights from Belgrade to Budapest, and a new high-speed rail connecting the two capitals is due to be done in 2025. The plane ride was quick and smooth, and as the flight prepared for descent onto the tarmac of Ferenc Liszt International Airport, aerial views of the city provided a preview of its beauty.
First and foremost, a very special thank you to Krisztian for acting as guide around the amazing Hungarian capital. We arrived in the capital and got to see his newly renovated flat, and then made our way downtown towards the Danube. That mighty river cuts through the city, separating the flat plain of Pest from the hillsides of Buda, giving the city a similar feel to Novi Sad. I stayed in a hotel on the Pest side, just a stone’s throw from the famous Erzsébet Hid, which leads to the ethereal Gellért Hill Waterfall just over on the Buda side. Speaking of the name Erzsébet, that is Hungarian for Elizabeth (or Elisabeth), and in this case refers to the Empress of Elisabeth Austria-Hungary (aka Sisi), who is remembered affectionately for her patronage of Hungarian culture during the period of the dual monarchy. Another Erzsébet from Hungarian history has a less savory reputation, so when this name pops up in modern Hungary, it is referring to the 19th century Empress Elisabeth and NOT 15th century the “blood countess” Erzsébet Bathory. Budapest is easy on the eyes, but the Hungarian language is a force of cadence and annunciation. I managed to pick up the diminutive for thank you, which is “köszi,” and that was it. Funnily enough, one of the receptionists at the hotel spoke fluent Serbian (and English) which goes to show you just how linguistically adept people in this part of the world are!
Paprika is the national seasoning, but architectural richness is what defines Budapest’s built environment. The streets, alleys, and boulevards of Budapest is lined with the most enchanting examples of Baroque, Neoclassical, and Art Nouveau buildings. It is clear how anyone who had ever lived there, even in the most trying of times, would be inspired to pursue architecture as a vocation. The streets of Buda are narrower and climb the hills that overlook the river, whereas the boulevards of Pest are broader and generally house larger structures. On the Buda side, a winding road takes you to the top of Gellért Hill, providing a full view of both sides of the city. Up river from Gellért another hill leads to Buda Castle, with a direct view across to the famed parliament building with its mixture of domes and spires. Evening brought us to Heroes’ Square (Hősök tere), a massive complex at the end of Andrássy Avenue flanked by museums and faced on one side by none other than the Serbian Embassy.
This square’s construction kicked off in 1896 to commemorate 1000-years since the Magyars conquered the lands between the Pannonian plain and the Carpathian basin, with its central portion dedicated to the seven chieftains of the Magyars. The semi-circle platforms around the back of the square feature statues of great Hungarian monarchs. The last personality interred in the square was Imre Nagy, the politician who expressed support for the relaxation of communist-rule in 1956. Nagy was no democrat by Western standards, but his mere support for those challenging the rigid communist order led to his imprisonment, trial, and secret execution. As Hungary’s last communist government melted down in 1989, Nagy was reinterred in the square as the Cold War winter came to a close.
Heroes’ Square by night
Speaking of Imre Nagy, Charles from my childhood neighborhood caught a glimpse of him descending the steps of a government building back in 1956, and several photos from that time period were on display at the Hungarian National Museum, where day two kicked off.
The Hungarian National Museum offers a millennial plus tour of Hungarian history, starting with artifacts from before the Magyar migration into the Pannonian plain in the post-classical period, all the way through the 20th century traumas of world wars, fascism, and communism. Northern Serbia was historically part of the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Hungarian language is still an official second language in the province of Vojvodina, so there was plenty of overlap in content from previous museum visits to Sombor and Subotica. Our neighboring city Šabac features on maps under its Hungarian name, Szabács, recalling the time when the city’s Turkish-built fortress (tvrđava) was captured by Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus and his Wallachian conscript-in-service, Vlad Tepes.
Artifacts from Hungary’s Jewish community date back to the 12th century, while 16th century documents evidence Hungary’s great progress when it came to religious freedom, with Lutherans, Calvinists, and Unitarians given the right to worship openly in the Catholic-majority kingdom. Ongoing struggles against Ottoman incursions from the south formed much of Hungary’s early modern history, with plenty of artifacts in the museum to chronicle the kingdom’s European frontier position.
Maria Theresa, the great empress of the 18th century features prominently, just as she does in the museums of Serbian Vojvodina. Her appearance before the Hungarian Diet at Pressburg in 1741 saw her pleas supported by Hungary’s nobles, even though the diet lost power as Austrian rule centralized power out of Vienna. By the period of the Dual Monarchy (est. 1867), Hungarian and Austrian power were better balanced, and great public works projects were undertaken in Budapest, forming the city as it is recognizable today.
Hearts Left in Budapest
From the national museum it was back across the river to the Gellért Thermal Baths, one of the city’s many mineral-rich springs. This particular one is part of a massive complex that includes a hotel-under-renovation, multiple swimming pools, massage rooms, thermal hot tubs, a cold plunge, locker rooms, showers, steam rooms, and saunas. Feeling brave, I started off in the soothing thermal tub, and slowly lowered myself over a period of ten minutes into the cold plunge, where I was joined by some Canadian ladies from Newfoundland who hopped right in, unfazed to the point of chill!
Taking advantage of Hungary’s culture of holistic health, the next stop was a private clinic provider of PEMF and ozone therapy. Riviera Ozone began as a treatment center in the south of France, while the Budapest location was founded by Lilla Losonczi. Lilla discovered the treatments as supportive modalities for her father during his battle with Parkinson’s, starting her practice in Hungary while a third chapter of the franchise opened in Singapore. I hoped to try these therapies for connective tissue inflammation, and the series of procedures left my audibly tense joints relaxed with improved range of motion. Definitely a plus to feel flexible and energized while traveling!
The next morning, it was up to Buda Castle, and then back down the hill to Ilcsi, the flagship boutique salon of the niche skincare brand. They have a distributor in California now under the DBA ilike, but this was the first time I got to try their products. After a skin analysis, esthetician Barbara Saliga administered selected items for my rosacea-prone skin as part of a thorough facial treatment that involved a uniquely rigorous massage for the face and neck.
At Buda Castle I bought a little handmade doll, and in honor of the skincare salon that sits at the base of the castle complex, she was christened Ilcsi (pronounced Il-chee).
The afternoon concluded with a trip to the St. Stephen’s Basilica. St. Stephen, known in Hungary as Szent István, was crowned king sometime around the year 1000 A.D. after having married Gisela of Bavaria. With a strong Christian faith and marital connections to the Holy Roman Empire, Stephen pushed for the elimination of pagan practices while throwing state support behind the foundations of religious infrastructure and the creation of the Hungarian state’s secular apparatus.
Stephen’s faith drove his leadership, but his personal life was marred by misfortune. His only surviving son, Prince Emeric, died in an accident and Stephen spent the last years of his own rule in poor health. The years after his 1083 passing were marked by political chaos, but after miracles were reported by pilgrims at the gravesites of both King Stephen and Prince Emeric, both were canonized in 1083.
This basilica is where the saint-king’s hand lies as a relic in a glass case, petrified from a millennium severed from a living body. From the top of St. Stephen’s there is a 360° view of Budapest, which is far lovelier than the mummified hand of a king who died in the 11th century. 😱
Slice of the 360° from the top of St. Stephen’s
This spring in Budapest was a beautiful one, and the cleanliness, organization, and preservation of the city were really impressive. This visit forced me think back to how the Hungarian Uprising of Charles’ youth faltered, and how the people of this beautiful country spent many more decades bereft of civil liberties and the right to freely travel. Today’s Budapest stands strong, and its buildings remind visitors of the historical moments when beauty and development took center stage.
Until next time!
So interesting! Im going to Novi Sad in April next year! Maybe the train to Budapest will be ready by then!
Love this one, and miss Charles!