Budapest: Opera to Heroes’ Square

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State Opera House

Our hotel in Budapest was called the Opera Garden – the clue is in the name: it was very near the State Opera House which we passed regularly. It’s very grand and adorned with a wonderful collection of composers’ statues:

Erkel
Glinka
Donizetti
Liszt
Verdi
Wagner
Gounod
Rossini

Here’s a slightly dodgy set of iPhone photos of the interior from the night we went to see a ballet version of Anna Karenina.

Staircase
Auditorium
Auditorium ceiling
Boxes
Bar

And finally from the Opera, here we are having lunch in the Café on the day we left for the airport (and very good it was too).

Cafe
Cafe
Cafe
Cafe

The Opera House lies on Andrassy út, Budapest’s longest and grandest avenue.  There are many more interesting sights both on it and in the surrounding streets, such as the tiled Mai Manó House. During the interwar years it was “the most glamorous nightclub I have ever visited” (Patrick Leigh Fermor) and long before that it was home to the Hapsburg court photographer after whom it was named. Fittingly, it is now a photography museum.

Mai Manó House
Mai Manó House
Mai Manó House
Mai Manó House

Nearby is the Operetta Theatre and more quirky sculptures. Miklós Radnóti, the leaning statue, was a poet who was shot in 1944 while serving in a Jewish labour brigade.

Street sculpture
Operetta Thetare
Miklós Radnóti statue

Further up Andrassy út is the House of Terror, once the dreaded headquarters of the secret police under both the Fascist Arrow Cross in World War 2 and the Communists. The exhibits here were horrific, particularly the reconstructed torture chamber in the basement. It’s hard to believe what people can do to each other: the veneer of civilisation is very thin. Outside is a monument to the fall of the Iron Curtain.

House of Terror
Iron Curtain memorial
Iron Curtain memorial
Iron Curtain memorial

Andrassy út ends at Hósök tere (Heroes’ Square), a ceremonial plaza centred on the 36m high Millenary Monument. The gilded building pictured is the Museum of Fine Arts.

Palace of Art
Heroes’ Square
Heroes’ Square
Heroes’ Square
Heroes’ Square

Beyond Heroes’ Square is Városliget (City Park) with its fairy tale castle and pseud-Romanesque Chapel.

Vajdahunyad Castle
Chapel at Vajdahunyad Castle

Also in the park are the Széchenyi Baths which have their own thermal spring. We didn’t bathe but went inside to admire the décor. It could be a palace not a swimming pool!

Széchenyi Baths
Széchenyi Baths
Széchenyi Baths

Nearby are three monuments which measure Hungary’s progress since the fall of communism. The Timewheel is the world’s largest hourglass which, on the last day of each year, rotates 180º to symbolise becoming part of the European Union in 2004. Where a statue to Stalin once stood is the Monument to the Uprising, a forest of oxidised columns and a Hungarian flag with a hole in the centre to recall the cutting out of the Soviet symbol in 1956. Beyond this, a crucifix rises over the foundations of the Virgin Mary Church that the Communists demolished in 1951.

Monument to the Uprising
Monument to the Uprising
Timewheel
Timewheel
Virgin Mary Church

I fear this has not been a very uplifting post: too many links to death and destruction, even though I’ve tried not to dwell on them. Next time, I’ll try to do better – I have an island and a cave for you.

Hungary

49 Comments »

  1. I’m more familiar with this area. We too saw the Mai Manó House and the statue of Miklós Radnóti. We didn’t see an opera but we went on the opera English tour and the Terror House and the baths, but we did go inside to bathe. It was cold outside and the baths were warm but not as hot as I’d have liked! We didn’t see the Timewheel. It’s hard when talking about Hungary not to talk about death and destruction. That country has suffered a lot over the centuries.

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  2. I opted not to do the House Of Terror and went to the Art Gallery instead. Monsieur went and found it a horrifying and sobering experience (I have visited a concentration camp before in Germany as I feel it’s important).

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  3. Not every post can be uplifting and always showing the beautiful side although it does show the beauty of the architecture and the sculpture. That first sculpture is weird with the workman’ feet but the man’s head. Some Men …and women do like torture which is disgusting and it still happens envy day.

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  7. How well I remember this. I was there about 20 years ago and couldn’t believe how cheap the entertainment was. Opera, ballet, light music concerts, we indulged ourselves the whole week and didn’t spend more than £60 I think.

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  8. The House of Terror was one of the few attractions I managed to see when I was in Budapest, and I agree, it is horrifying (but nonetheless very interesting). That statue that appears to have extra limbs looks cheery enough though, for all that he seems to be giving everyone the finger!

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    • Not so cheery – there are two figures. The woman’s hat is next to the lamp post and her head is a skull. Looked at from the other side, you can see that she is holding the man’s detached head in her hand. Gruesome! We had other pictures from different angles but none makes it very clear and for space I just included one – should have put them all in!

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  10. Hi Anabel – wonderful architecture and sculptural craft – I’d love to visit one day. You referenced Patrick Leigh Fermor .. I don’t remember that aspect – but he writes wonderfully well. Someone was telling me about their trip to Budapest and started telling me about things and I asked them to stop – did they no … I think people should listen! So I know what you’re talking about here … just appalling and there are worse happening all the time – man is cruel. So glad you had a happy time though … Hilary

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  11. I liked the Iron Curtain sculpture- more obvious to understand than Berlin’s no man’s land expanse of concrete blocks which I found slightly baffling as a concept of what it was supposed to represent. Wonder if the UK will get a time-wheel marking any significant changes after we leave the EU?

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  12. It IS hard to believe what people can do to each other. I look forward to seeing pics of your island and cave!

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  18. oh but all the art was uplifting – – I thought balanced out the death and destruction. Think it is good that they remember their horrors . . .and think we should do the same as should the USA! I agree though too much can be overwhelming.

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  19. Well, I was just thinking that at least someone is celebrating being part of Europe, Anabel. And the Opera House looks a wonderful venue. 🙂 I’m currently reading The Puppet Boy of Warsaw by Eva Weaver. Promises to be another harrowing story. I ration myself to the occasional one but I can’t cope with related museums.

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    • The House of Terror was certainly harrowing – there’s only so much I can take at one time though, so we brought away a lot of handouts to read later. I still have them – so far, unread.

      Lots of EU flags proudly flying all over the city.

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    • It was so beautiful, Claudia. And I didn’t get at all impatient at all the lens-changing involved in getting these pictures. Well, maybe only a teensy bit …….

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  22. It would be very difficult to tell the difference between the Budapest Opera House and the Vienna Opera House without the cabs. Maybe the Vienna one is bigger, but the styles and the surrounds are very similar.
    I had no idea of the history of the city… it sounds horrifying, as you say, but good to appreciate to prevent it happening again.

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    • Vienna is still on my list – maybe next year? It’s good that they are open about the past as hopefully, as you say the more likely that is to prevent such things happening again. Though the sate of the world today is not promising.

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