In late October, early November, 2022, my wife and I took a Viking river cruise down the Danube River from Budapest, Hungary to Regensburg, Germany. We figured a river cruise beginning in Budapest with stops in Vienna, Krems, and Passau, Austria ending in Regensburg, Germany was a good introduction to a part of the world we had little experience with. We had planned to extend our trip with additional stays in Budapest and Prague.
We flew into Budapest from Atlanta with a connection in London. After a very long day of air travel, we settled into the Corinthia Hotel on a Thursday as we were not to board the cruise boat for a couple of days. The Corinthia was opened in 1896 as the Grand Hotel Royal, housing the who’s-who of 19th century society. Undergoing much modification in the 20th century, it was restored and reopened as the Corinthia in the 21st century - very nice hotel. After a drink at the bar, we decided to get some rest so we could use the full next day to explore as much of Budapest as possible on our own.
Corinthia Hotel in Budapest
We rose early and decided to explore on foot and headed through the Pest side of the city toward the Danube. The city is divided by the river into the more flat terrain of the Pest side and the hilly, more beautiful Buda side. Both sections of the city have much to offer, but in our short time here, we decided to focus on the Buda side that promised great views of the city. We passed a number of beautiful buildings, including St. Stephen’s Basilica and the Budapest Opera House. One of the finest opera houses in the world, it is renowned for its beauty and quality of acoustics. Originally known as the Hungarian Royal Opera House, construction began in 1857 and opened in 1884. But most of the buildings we passed on our route through Pest were industrial, square, uninspiring, and a little depressing. Not to mention it was a dull, dreary, overcast autumn day. Upon reaching the Danube we intended to cross the river over the Chain Bridge, the Danube’s most renowned bridge, into the Buda side of Budapest. Alas, it was our luck the Chain Bridge was closed until the autumn of 2023 for renovations. We needed to find another way to cross the Danube into the Buda side of the river.
After a long walk, it was starting to look like an inauspicious start to our trip. Not to be deterred, we decided to hike the hundreds of meters over to the Elisabeth Bridge. The Elisabeth Bridge is the third newest bridge in Budapest and named after Elisabeth of Bavaria, a popular empress of Austria-Hungary who was assassinated in 1898. I guess she wasn’t that popular. The original bridge was built between 1897 and 1903. It was blown up by the retreating Nazi Wehrmacht, along with many Hungarian bridges, toward the end of World War II. Rebuilt between 1961 - 1964, it is the only Budapest bridge to not be rebuilt in its original form.
Reaching the Buda side of the bridge, we happened upon Gellért Hill. Looking down on Elisabeth Bridge up on the hill between two ascending staircases sits the statue of St. Gellért, an Italian missionary invited to Hungary by King Stephen to convert the pagan Magyars. According to legend, this monument marks the spot from which St. Gellért was hurled to his death in a spiked barrel by some of those same pagans he was trying to convert. He was rolled down the hill into the Danube in 1046. Beautiful as it is I’m beginning to think we haven’t ended up in Budapest’s happy place. We also passed the World War I museum and its Brother-in-Arms bronze sculptures unveiled in October 1928. There is a lot of pain in Hungary’s past - ruled by various empires over the centuries, two world wars, Nazi and Communist rule in the 20th century.
But things were looking up as this side of the river was turning out to be the more interesting of the two. Our ultimate goal was to reach the Fisherman’s Bastion in the Buda Castle District. Across the Chain Bridge from the Pest side, we had another long walk along the river. Beautiful walk with neighborhoods crawling up into the hills - a mixture of the old and the modern. There were a lot of historical landmarks on this side of the river such as Buda Castle tunnel connecting the Chain Bridge to the Buda Castle, but we only had a limited amount of time. We decided to bypass the Buda Castle and its iconic funicular for a climb up to the Fisherman’s Bastion.
Castle Hill originally served as a lodging and fortification for the surrounding settlements at the time of the kings of Árpád dynasty. The development became more prominent as a result of urban development. It became dominant as the administrative center in the 15th century under King Matthias. Following the defeat of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, much of the Castle Hill District, as well as the castle itself, was destroyed or transformed. The Ottoman victory put an end to an independent Hungary. This victory precipitated nearly 200 years of conflict between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, devastating the Hungarian population under nearly constant warfare. The Castle District’s defenses and bastions were fortified by the Turks (Ottoman Empire), but repeatedly damaged. Habsburg Austrian forces ruling from Vienna eventually retook the city from the Turks. Hungary would not reestablish its original boundaries with full independence from Habsburg rule until the end of World War I.
The original walls of the Fisherman’s Bastion were built in the 1700’s, forming part of the walls of the Buda Castle. In the Middle Ages some historians believe that this part of the castle was protected by a guild of fishermen who lived under the walls in the so-called Fishtown or Watertown. The Buda Castle Quarter lost its military function in 1874 when the Ministry of War declared that the castle as a fortress did not meet that era’s military defense requirements. The current structure of the Fisherman’s Bastion (Halászbástya) was built between 1895 and 1902, part of a number of developments due to the urban planning related to the restoration of the Matthias Church. The Bastion was inspired by the Neo-Romanesque architectural style prevalent in early medieval times (around 1000 AD) when the first Hungarian king ruled.
Everything on Castle Hill including the Bastion was severely damaged in World War II during the Siege of Budapest by Russian and Romanian forces. Seventy thousand defending Hungarian and German Nazi Waffen-SS forces as well as 800,000 civilians were trapped by the encirclement of the city by Russian troops in late 1944. Hitler ordered his troops to defend the city to the last man. As the Pest side of the Danube is relatively flat, the hilly-side of Buda was considered more defendable. The Germans gradually retreated through Pest into Buda, destroying all seven bridges spanning the Danube. The fighting was brutal as the Germans used the Buda terrain and various counter-attacks utilizing, snipers, sappers, Panzer tank relief units to slow the Soviet advance. On February 11, 1945 the battle was all but over as 28,000 German and Hungarian troops attempted to escape from Castle Hill to the main German lines - only 600-700 made it. The remaining defenders surrendered on February 13, 1945. Casualties were high on both sides with entire divisions being wiped out. Budapest lay in ruins as 80 percent of the cities’ buildings were destroyed or damaged, including The Hungarian Parliament Building and the Buda Castle.
As the Fisherman’s Bastion was an important landmark of Budapest, it was a priority for restoration after the war. The restoration was completed in 1953. It is now one of the most important tourist attractions, with beautiful panoramic views of the river and the Pest side of the city. Its seven stone towers symbolize the seven Hungarian chieftains who led their tribes who founded Hungary in 895 AD. The current Bastion was designed to enhance the beauty of the Matthias Church and provide beautiful views of Budapest - a system of terraces with windows, stone benches, arches, and arcades that castle walls do not have.
According to myth, the first church on the Matthias Church site was founded by St. Stephen in 1015, but there is no clear evidence of this as the church was destroyed by the Mongols in 1241. After the Mongol invasion, the smaller church was replaced with a towering three-nave basilica. In the second half of the 14th century, the whole building was remodeled in a Gothic style. Under the reign of Matthias Corvinus, the 15th century saw the building of the southwest bell tower, one of the finest pieces of architecture in Hungary. During the Ottoman invasion in 1526, the medieval roof structure was destroyed. The church was then converted into a mosque after the Turk’s conquest of Buda. The church was the site of the “Marian Miracle” when Buda was retaken by the Holy League in 1686. While the Muslims were praying, cannon fire collapsed a wall which revealed an old hidden Madonna statue. Muslim morale suffered a blow and the garrison collapsed. The city fell the same day. The church became the property of the Franciscans and then the Jesuits who restored it in a Baroque style. After the Jesuit Order was dissolved in 1773, ownership was transferred to the council of the city of Buda.
In the 19th century, under Franz Joseph I of Austria, the church was restored faithfully to its original 13th century plan under architect Frigyes Schulek. However, adding new elements such as the diamond pattern roof, his work would prove to be controversial. Despite this, the church was regarded as the highest-quality example of Hungarian neo-Gothic architecture. Originally named after the Virgin Mary, the church has been referred to as the Matthias Church since the 19th century. Two Habsburg kings, Franz Joseph I of Hungary and Charles IV of Hungary were crowned within its walls during this period. A complete renovation of the church was started before World War II, but not completed. The building was severely damaged during the siege of Budapest in 1944-1945. The Germans used the crypt as a camp kitchen. After the fall of the city, the Russians used the sanctuary to stable horses. The Hungarian state gradually repaired the damage between 1950-1970. The last bit of damage occurred in 1994 when some knucklehead terrorist detonated an IED at the gate of the building leading to Fisherman’s Bastion, blowing out a number of church windows.
Even though it was dreary and overcast, the Fisherman’s Bastion complex was definitely the highlight of our first full day. Gone are the scars of the past. Not the antiquity we expected, but a thoughtful reconstruction of the past, with views that highlighted the beauty that the current Budapest has to offer.
It was time for us to head back to the hotel as we had a long walk ahead of us. Walking by the Chain Bridge, built between 1839 and 1849, it was the first permanent bridge over the Danube connecting Buda and Pest. As stated earlier, the bridge was currently under renovation for the first time in 36 years. The lion statues guarding the bridge had been removed for the renovation. However one of the lions was temporarily replaced by a lion made entirely of 850,000 lego bricks, recreating the exact proportions of the original statue. The work of Balázs Dóczy, it took this Lego builder 560 hours to build this thing - amazing. Since we couldn’t walk across the bridge, I’m not going to recount its history here. It’s back to cross the Elisabeth Bridge and get to the hotel for a little rest before going to dinner.
Lego Lion at the Chain Bridge and Buda Castle in Budapest
We settled on the Aszu Restaurant, a short walk from the hotel near St. Stephen’s Basilica. Hey, let’s be adventurous and try some modern domestic Hungarian gourmet cuisine. They had a good selection of local wines and the traditional Hungarian goulash soup was outstanding. The main course was good, but a little out of my comfort zone. I think my wife enjoyed it more - her palate is more expansive than mine. Time for dessert - OK, I honestly didn’t know what this was - I guess some custard, lime, and marshmallow confection inspired by the crucifixion. After all, Catholicism is the biggest religious denomination in Budapest. We staggered out of the restaurant stopping at St. Stephen’s to pray for guidance finding our way back to the hotel. Tomorrow we check into our stateroom on the Viking River Cruise Longship that will take us up the Danube.
It took most of the next day to get situated and settled on the ‘Longship’ - the Viking Egil. Although we did take advantage of the Budapest by Night excursion where our group was bused around the city. We saw more of the Pest side of the city than we had the day before, but mainly out of the bus window. However, we did get out of the bus at Heroes’ Square, a major square in Budapest. Its Millennium Monument features statues of the Seven chieftains of the Magyars and other important Hungarian national leaders. Construction began in 1896 to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the Hungarian state in 896. Inaugurated in 1906, the monument looked basically like it looks like today, including the Museum of Fine Arts and the Palace of Art on either side. Originally constructed when Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the monument was damaged in World War II. Habsburg dynasty statues were replaced when the monument was restored. Heroes’ Square has played an important part in contemporary Hungarian history and hosted many political events.
Heroes’ Square
We loaded back onto the bus and passed through Pest across the Danube to the Buda side of the city. Stopping at a small outside venue to sample an alcoholic beverage, we were able to view the highlight of the night - the fully-lit Hungarian Parliament building. Across the Danube, the main facade overlooking the river, it is an incredibly impressive building. Construction began in 1885, but not fully completed until 1904. About 100,000 people were involved in its construction - 40 million bricks, half a million precious stones, and 88 pounds of gold were used. Built in the Gothic Revival style - centered on the symmetrical facades is a dome of Renaissance Revival architecture. During the People’s Republic of Hungary, a red star adorned the top of the dome. but it was removed in 1990 after the fall of communism. Today, only a small portion of the building is used by the government.
Heading back across the Danube, even though the local time was about 10 PM, the lights went out on the Parliament building exterior. We had seen it fully-lit just in time. In early 2022, the Budapest General Assembly had voted to limit decorative lighting due to economic and energy conditions. Glad we got to see the outside of the building lit. Tomorrow we begin our trip up the Danube.
Hungarian Parliament Building at Night