From the lower station of the funicular in the Castle District, we turn towards the Danube and cross the Széchenyi Chain Bridge to reach the Pest District.
The bridge bears the name of its builder, Count István Széchenyi. On his initiative the bridge was designed by the English engineer William Tierney Clark in 1839, while the Scottish engineer Adam Clark supervised the construction on site. The Széchenyi Chain Bridge was opened in 1849.
In 1915, a stronger construction replaced the first bridge, but it was destroyed during the Second World War and had to be reopened a third time in 1949.
The bridge is one of the most famous buildings in the city and of great importance to the city’s infrastructure. It connects Buda and Pest.
Video Budapest, along the Danube to the Parliament
On the banks of the Danube in Pest, a small, happy group is probably celebrating a Bachelorette party.
A little further upstream, the victims of Hamas terror are remembered with their shoes.
Next to the Parliament building stands a mighty equestrian statue of Gyula Andrássy. He came from an old Hungarian aristocratic family. He actively participated in the Hungarian Revolution against the Habsburgs and led the Zemplén Landsturm against the imperial troops in the Battle of Schwechat, which he lost. He then became an envoy to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople.
After the suppression of the revolution, he was sentenced to death and later pardoned after the intervention of his mother. In the meantime, he had undergone a process of rethinking. He now advocated remaining part of the Austrian monarchy, doubting Hungary’s ability to survive independently.
Andrássy became one of the most important politicians of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. He developed a trusting and friendly relationship with Empress Elisabeth and Emperor Franz Joseph I. He managed to be elected Prime Minister of Hungary.
As a member of the Council of Ministers for Common Affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, he fought for the strict neutrality of the monarchy towards the German Empire. At the European Congress in Berlin, he achieved a mandate from the Great Powers for Austria to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina. He later resigned from his ministerial post as Russia’s influence on Hungary grew. After health problems, he spent his last months in Villa Minach in Voloska, Kvarner Bay, Istria.
The impressive parliament building is one of the largest in the world. It was begun in 1885 and opened in 1896 but was not completed until 1904. It housed the upper and lower houses of the Imperial Diet of the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.
The Kossuth Monument stands on the adjacent Lajos Kossuth Square in front of the Parliament building. It was erected in honor of Lajos Kossuth von Udvard and Kossuthfalva, a Hungarian lawyer and politician.
He served as the acting President of Hungary during the Hungarian War of Independence against Austria in 1848/49. Kossuth is still considered a Hungarian national hero. The Kossuth Monument is an important Hungarian national symbol and site of official celebrations.
Behind the Parliament are the Palace of Justice and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Between these buildings stands the equestrian monument of Prince Francis II Rákóczi. He led the uprising against the Habsburgs from 1703 to 1711. Since then, he has been considered a Hungarian national hero. He organized the uprising and, at its peak, commanded the Kuruc army of 60,000 cavalry.
After his defeat, he refused an amnesty and the German principality and went into exile in Paris, where he received a pension from Louis XIV. However, always short of money, he maintained a gambling club in his house and had numerous love affairs. In 1714, he entered a Carmelite monastery and wrote his memoirs. In 1717, he left France and went to Turkey. However, Prince Eugene defeated the Turks. After the Peace of Passarowitz, he and his followers were given 20 houses in Tekirdağ (European Turkey), where he lived until his death.
Passing the National Martyrs’ Monument, which commemorates the 500 victims of the Red Terror during the radical leftist Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, we reach the Eternal Candle for Count Lajos Batthyány on the square between Báthory Utca and Hold u.
Count Lajos Batthyány (1807-1849) was the first Prime Minister of Hungary. After the failed revolution and the War of Independence of 1848-1849, many Hungarian patriots were imprisoned and executed here in the Aedificium Regium Novum. Among them was Count Lajos Batthyány.
On the way to the hotel, we pass Báthory Utca. The Báthory were an influential noble family (Báthory of Ecsed) who owned fiefs and castles from Transylvania to Austria. Georg Báthory was a landowner and Hungarian officer. He was married to Anna Báthory of Somlyó, sister of the Polish King Stephen Báthory and daughter of Prince István Báthory of Transylvania. Elizabeth was George and Anna’s daughter. There was a long power struggle between the Báthorys and the Habsburgs, which the Habsburgs eventually won. After the death of her brother and husband, she inherited a large fortune.
Count George Thurzo of Bethlenfalva, Palatine of Hungary and Báthory’s cousin, searched the castle of Čachtice in 1610. Her ancestral seat. Since then, Elizabeth has been considered the worst mass murderer in history. She is said to have tortured and murdered about 600 young women and girls.
It cannot be said with certainty whether personal power and lust were the trigger for the crime or whether political motives also played a role. Georg Thurzo also had political and personal motives, as he also had serious financial problems. Nevertheless, there are many indications of cruel deeds.
See also Our visit to Lockenhaus Castle
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