FROM BUDA TO PEST

BUDAPEST - APRIL 2006

THIS IS THE 150th POST ON BLOGTROTTER!

Coming down from Gellert Hill, we got to the Gellert Baths, still in Buda. Then we crossed Independence Bridge and arrived at Fövám Tér, already in Pest!


"HOTEL GELLERT - This jewel of Art Nouveau, located at the foot of Gellert Hill on the right bank of the River Danube, was erected between 1916 and 1918 and opened to the public on September 24th, 1918"


"GELLERT BATHS - Next to the Gellert hotel one can find the world famous Gellert Baths"




"INSIDE GELLERT BATHS - The Hall, the Pool and the first floor"


"THE INDEPENDENCE BRIDGE (333.6 m long and 20.1 m wide) was built between 1894 and 1896 for the millennium celebrations. It was then called Franz Joseph Bridge and it was the king himself who, at the inauguration ceremony, hammered the last silver nail into the bridge. The bridge was destroyed in 1945, as the Nazis left Budapest. But in 1946 it was rebuilt again in the same style with the central towers decorated with Hungary's coat of arms"


"ELIZABETH BRIDGE (380 metres long) is one of the eight bridges in Budapest. The original construction took place between 1897 and 1903 and many houses had to be destroyed at the Pest end of the bridge. The bridge was blown up in 1945 by the retreating Nazi troops. It was rebuilt in 1961-1964 by Pal Savoly, and was the first newly designed bridge to reopen after WWII"


"FÖVÁM TÉR - On the other side of these buildings one may find the National Theatre opened in 2002"


"GREAT MARKET - The building was constructed for the millennium exhibition in 1895-97 according to plans by Samu Petz, and reopened in 1996 after a major face-lift"




"INSIDE THE GREAT MARKET HALL - Vegetables, souvenirs (including paprika for the goulash and perkölt, tokaji and caviar) and iron structures (which justify that sometimes it is referred to as «a symphony in iron») are on display. It is the largest of the market halls in Budapest"



"THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE (75m long and 27m wide) was built between 1854 and 1859. The original synagogue, basically Moorish in style, with two tall towers, was bombed by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party in 1939, but a reconstruction programme (with the help of funds raised by the actor Tony Curtis - born Bernard Schwartz - whose father was from Mateszalka in Szabolcs County) was completed in 1996"




"INSIDE THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE - The synagogue is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world after New York City’s Temple Emanu-El; it seats 2,964 people"


"BURIAL GROUNDS"


"TREE OF LIFE is a 1991 memorial located on the Raoul Wallenberg Park, designed by Imre Varga and dedicated to the memory of the Hungarian Jews that perished in the Holocaust. The monument resembles a weeping willow tree and the names of the dead can be found on the leaves. It also pays tribute to many non-Jews who helped save Hungarian Jews from extermination"