Travel-and-Leisure
Budapest World Heritage Sites
The view of the Danube bank at Budapest offers one of the most beautiful panoramas of the world, looking either form the promenade on the Pest side, or from the quay on the Buda side. Reaching from the Technical University to the Chain Bridge, it includes the Gell?rt Spa, the Statue of Liberty, the Citadel and the Buda Castle. On the opposite side, in Pest, the beautiful Parliament can be found (length 268 m, height 96 m) with frescoes of famous painters and the 1000 years old Coronation Jewels of King St. Stephen. Then the Chainbridge follows, the first bridge that connected Buda and Pest, which was built under the guidance of Adam Clark, from the donations of Count Istv?n Sz?chenyi in 1842. On Roosevelt square one can find the Hungarian Academy of Sciences finished in 1865, the art-nouveau style Gresham Palace from 1907 and the Ministry of Home Affairs (the former building of Hitelbank).
During the conquest of the land in 896 a settlement was formed on the Buda hills, which due to the Mongolian attacks was strengthened and built to a Gothic fortress by King B?la IV. Since 1347 it has been the seat of the kings, which was later developed to a magnificent Renaissance palace by King Matthias. It was released after a 150 years of Turkish occupation in 1686. When in 1873 the three city parts Buda, Pest and ?buda were unified, the castle was rebuilt using the middle age remnants but characterised by baroque features. Unfortunately in the second world war it was damaged again. Since the rebuilding, archaeological excavations and renovation takes place. The history of the castle is presented in the Budapest History Museum in the ?E? building of the castle.
In 2002 the Andr?ssy Avenue became part of the World Heritage List too, with its unique environment, along with the Millenium Underground Line and the Heroes' Square. Both of them was built to commemorate the thousands anniversary of the conquest in 1896. Two and three storey high, eclectical and neo-renaissance residential buildings and villas line the Andr?ssy Avenue, which is divided into three parts by double line of trees. The two outer lanes were once cowered by wooden cubes for the genteel public on horse back. Among the edifices the Opera house, the Academy of Music - founded by Ferenc Liszt, the Institute of Ballet and the houses decorated by sgrafitto and mosaics at the corner of Kod?ly K?r?nd are of outstanding national value. At the Heroes' Square the great personalities of our history are represented by the statues of Gy?rgy Zala in the colonnade. At the two sides of the square the Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Gallery are facing each other. Under the avenue the first underground of the continent is still running. The renovated stops and trains regained their old splendor. Period documents present the most beautiful buildings of Buda and Pest in the underground stops.
For more information about sights and accommodation in Budapest visit our website. |
Zsuzsa Fodor
Similar articles
Botanical Gardens of Costa Rica
On my last trip to Costa Rica in Feb. 05, while doing research for my botanical tour programs, I visited the three most important botanical gardens in this small Central American Republic ? Read more →Branches On My Family Tree
When I first started exploring my family tree, I sought to draw a line straight back as far as possible. Within a short time, I had names and dates ? all taken from shaky sources ? Read more →Buffets in Las Vegas
One of the most common restaurants in Las Vegas is the buffet. The first buffet in Las Vegas appeared at the El Rancho Vegas in 1947. The first gourmet buffet started in the Bellagio resort and it remains one of the top five buffets in Las Vegas. Read more →Bus Stop at Somerset
Sometimes the potentially mundane becomes the pivotal point to an adventure or simply generates a feeling of ?I am glad that happened.? Such an event occurred during a recent visit to Bermuda. Read more →Aphorism
The personal appropriation of clichs is a condition for the spread of cultural tourism.