Today we visited the Buda side of the river. This is an old Soviet era statue commemorating WWII, and facing Moscow. After the fall of the U.S.S.R., most of these statues, rather than being destroyed, were moved to a statue park. Hungary was "liberated" by the Soviets, but their occupation is not remembered well by the Hungarians. Remember my story about statues and Hungary. Hungarians kept this particular statue, but changed the wording to turn it into a memorial for those who died in the war. Maybe the U.S. could learn something from the Hungarians and put some of our Civil War memorials into a better contextual framework.
All the bridges crossing the Danube were destroyed by the retreating Germans at the end of WWII. They were later rebuilt, sometimes using scrap material from the remains. This is the Liberty Bridge, which we walked across to reach Buda. It was an easy ride up the funicular to reach Buda Castle on the hill you see in the distance.
In the background you can see the beautiful Matthias Church. Hungary has had a very turbulent history throughout its 1000+ year history. In modern times, it reached it's peak at the end of the 1800's as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There was an incredible building boom, especially as part of the 1896 World Expo celebrating Hungary's 1000 year anniversary as a country. This church and surrounding area was part of that massive restoration. It went again through major reconstruction following WWII.
Probably not original, but impressive nonetheless.
Our tour guide gave us a special treat where we got to climb down to see some of the original structures sandwiched in between modern buildings.
The views looking back at the Pest side of the river are phenomenal!
Most of the structures are not original or even old by European standards, but the trip up the hill to visit the castle and Matthias Church area are well worth it.
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