The Danube Bend upstream
from Budapest has long been a favourite summer
retreat from the heat and humidity of the capital. Three historic
towns draw most visitors. A few miles further up river, Szentendre
is an old market town originally inhabited by Serbian refugees fleeing
from the Turks. Churches had to face east regardless of their position
on the streets, producing unusual layouts, and the Serbian house
styles added greatly to the charm. Due to trade restrictions and
floods, the town was abandoned, only to be rediscovered and settled
by Hungarian artists during the 1920s.
The Margit Kovács Museum has a remarkable
display of the work of Hungary’s greatest ceramicist. The
Béla Czóbel Museum shows paintings from the
1890s and the Károly Ferenczy Museum contains
historical, archaeological and ethnographic collections as well
as many paintings. The Serbian Museum for Ecclesiastical
History contains many fine examples of ecclesiastical art
from the 14th to the 18th centuries. The Ethnographic Museum
(skanzen) is a large open-air addition from the 1960s, still being
added to, of reconstructed folk villages from all over Hungary.
Visegrad
A few miles further upriver, Visegrád was
once a royal stronghold, but is now a rather sleepy tourist town
with spectacular views over the Danube. The 15th-century
summer palace has been excavated and restored, and the Mátyás
Museum in the Salamon Tower displays many archaeological
discoveries.
Esztergom
Originally a Roman outpost, Esztergom later became
the country’s capital from the 11th to the 14th centuries
and remains at the heart of the country’s Catholicism. Hungary’s
largest Basilica, the Palace ruins, the Museum of the Stronghold
of Esztergom and the Christian Museum of Esztergom,
containing some of Hungary’s finest art collections, are all
important tourist attractions. |
