Budapest-
the Parliament Building |
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on any photo for a more detailed view. |
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  The Parliament building is enchanting. It changed with the
light, and always looked different, whether it was dawn, full daylight or
dusk. It was built for the millennium celebrations of 1896, but not finished
until 1902, the year of the death of Imre Steindl, the architect. Inspired
in part by the Palace of Westminster, it stretches for over 250 meters along
the Danube embankment. The building includes 691 rooms, immense halls and
over 12.5 miles of corridors.
We went there straight from Regina's visit to
a dental clinic
and took the tour. There are much better things to do in Budapest than
hang around a hotel room recuperating
from a tooth extraction!
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| One of the halls in the interior. The pillars have statues
representing the different professions. The building was made
entirely of materials from Hungarian sources; the only exception
was a set of marble pillars which were gifts of the King of
Sweden. |
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| Above is the crown traditionally believed to be St. Stephen's,
although scholars now believe that it was made later. There
are a lot of explanations about why the cross on top is crooked,
but no one really knows for sure. The crown was taken out of
Hungary and brought to the US by nationalists in the communist
era; it was returned in 1978. |
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The center statue, we found near the Parliament building.
It is a tribute to Bela Kovacs,
a leader of the Social Democratic Party. This was the party that
first tried to overthrow
Communism. Kovacs was arrested and sent to political prison. He was released
in 1956 and returned briefly to public service but, weakened by
his captivity, he died in 1959. This statue is new -- it was erected after
our 2001 visit.
Learn More?
We weren't able to photograph the main meeting hall but we were
allowed to peek in briefly from the visitors' gallery. It's the
usual quarter-round formal meeting hall, seating perhaps 200. Ron asked what it was used for
during the Communist era and the guide replied, "Oh, parliament
still met.... but they were all Communists." That must have
led to some really lively debates. |
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