VIENNA TO BUDAPEST
Following the course of the river onward, there is not much to remark
on after leaving Vienna until we reach the boundary of Hungary. The
first Hungarian town is Dévény, otherwise known as Theben, and at the
mouth of the river March the spurs of the North-West Carpathians can be
seen.
[Illustration: THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT AND MARGIT BRIDGE, BUDAPEST]
It is tiring to repeat the same things about castle after castle,
but the situations chosen for these ancient relics are, in almost
all cases, so remarkably fine that it is impossible to pass them by
without comment. Even among such a profusion of rocky heights crowned
with keeps that at Dévény stands out as something exceptional. The
marvel is how the workmen, with no steam to help them, contrived to
get the mighty stones planted so enduringly on the great boss of rock,
which falls precipitously to the water below. Even in its extreme ruin
Dévény is strong, and strong it had need to be as a border fortress
always in the thick of a continuous struggle between two nations.
It withstood the Turks, but was ruined by the French in 1809. The most
conspicuous object about it now is the Millenary column, planted there
to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the Hungarian Kingdom. These
columns have been scattered broadcast over Hungary and are met with at
every turn.
Next is reached Pressburg, the Pozsony of the Hungarians and at one
time their capital.
The first impression of Pressburg is dominated by the square fortress
on the top of the hill and the spire of the cathedral. The fortress
is in ruins, but the cathedral has been restored. Part of its tower,
however, is said to date from the time of the Romans, and some of the
building of the thirteenth century survives. There are one or two
splendid private dwellings, such as those of the Archduke Frederick and
Count Esterhazy, while the fine tower of the town-hall stands so high
that it dwarfs the houses near. In the cathedral the kings of the House
of Hapsburg from Ferdinand I. to V. were crowned. It is a fine town
with exceptionally fine environs, and those who have time would do well
to visit it. One of the new universities founded in Hungary in 1912 is
at Pressburg and the other at Debreczen.
It was at Pressburg the touching scene took place when the young
Queen Maria Teresa appeared with her baby boy in her arms to appeal
to the various orders of the State for their support against those
neighbouring sovereigns who wished to tear it from her.
In the new constitution of 1848 the coronation place of the kings was
removed to Budapest with the Houses of Parliament, and henceforth this
city became the capital.
The splendid equestrian statue of Maria Teresa at Pressburg is most
fittingly placed near the old Coronation Hill.
Not far below Pressburg the Danube is split by a long island called
Schütt or Csallókoz, sixty miles long by thirty broad, with about a
hundred villages on it. It is very fertile, and has a great future in
agriculture. At the village of Csúny another arm of the Danube branches
off.
When we come to Komárom (Komorn), the first stream rejoins the main
river, and the current is difficult and unruly, continually changing
its bed. It will be remembered that Maurus Jókai, the great Hungarian
novelist, was born at Komorn. The town is partly hidden from view by
Elizabeth Island, but its neighbour, Ujszöny, on the right bank, now
united to it by a long iron bridge, is well seen. Here the other branch
of the Danube, reinforced by the Vág, comes in again.
Before reaching Esztergom or Gran the scenery is rather flat, but
thence it becomes fine, as the river once more winds round among
hills, past several interesting places, one of which is Viségrad
crowned by the ruins of the ancient castle, and on by another of the
numerous islands to Vácz (Waitzen). Before Vácz it makes a curious
right-angled turn, flowing due south to Budapest. Old Buda is the part
of the town first reached, and we see the shipbuilding yards of the
Steam Navigation Company, and also Margaret Island, with its beautiful
grounds, before landing at the wharf.
Budapest is one of the most wonderful cities in Europe, and the third
in point of size, ranking after London and Vienna. It is formed from
the combination of three towns, O-Buda, Buda, and Pest, which were
united under the present name in 1873. The first of these is the oldest.
Its magnificent situation on the Danube gives it a majesty which
could be attained in no other way. The best approach is by steamer,
when outlined against the sky the Castle Hill, Mt. Gellért, and the
Royal Palace on the heights can be seen on one side and the domes and
pinnacles of the Houses of Parliament, the gables and roofs of all the
remaining fine buildings on the other. If the first view of it is in
the evening, then the whole city seems alive with points of fire, and
jewels and diadems of lights are flung along the Esplanade and the
outlines of the principal streets.
The river varies greatly in breadth, being 700 yards wide a little
above the town and less than half that distance opposite Mt. Gellért.
It is now spanned by five bridges. The oldest of these is the chain
bridge, built in 1849 by Count Stephen Széchenyi, one of the national
heroes, to replace an ancient bridge of boats. The others include the
Francis Joseph and the Elizabeth Bridges, named out of compliment to
the present ruler and his late consort. The highest point on the Buda
side is St. John’s Mount, about 1300 feet, but most noticeable are the
bare and craggy outlines of Mt. Gellért, rather more than half as high.
There are innumerable ferry-boats, steamers, and barges of all kinds
on the water, which presents a lively scene. On the Buda side are the
oldest remains and the quaintest street vistas. Here is the Church
of St. Matthias, which, though so much restored as to be practically
rebuilt, dates from the thirteenth century. It is here the kings of
Hungary are crowned.
In Buda also is the Royal Palace, used far too seldom by the king,
according to Hungarian ideas, for the people would rejoice to have
their sovereign among them more frequently. There is nothing old about
it, for it was ruthlessly razed to the ground during the Turkish
occupation. The Throne Room, St. Stephen’s Room, the Hapsburg Room,
and the Chapel Royal are all worth seeing. In the last is the embalmed
hand of St. Stephen, one of the nation’s greatest treasures. It must
be remembered that the State religion is Roman Catholic; the reigning
monarch must adhere to that faith, and the people in the capital of
Hungary are almost overwhelmingly of the same creed. The coronation
insignia, strongly guarded, are also in the Royal Palace. There are
several very fine groups of sculpture in the vicinity of the building.
What will interest visitors most, however, are the splendid hanging
gardens overlooking the river.
Buda stands on the site of the Roman settlement which was the capital
of the province of Lower Pannonia. At O-Buda, on the same side, which,
by the way, is the right bank of the river, are found Roman remains,
including a Roman amphitheatre, aqueduct, baths, and dwelling-houses,
and excavation is still going on. In O-Buda there are numbers of
one-story houses, built irregularly, and at certain places it is
possible to get quaint peeps. One might linger long here before passing
over to the more modern side.
In great contrast is the town of Pest, which, though in its origin
almost as old as Buda, has nothing left to carry back its date. It is
in all ways a large and splendid town, with wide streets enlivened
by beautiful sculpture, fountains, and trees; it has magnificent
buildings, and the streets show splendid vistas, especially where they
lead down to the bridges. Everywhere run electric trams, and there
are electric railways underground. The principal street is that of
Andrassy, a name honoured in Hungary’s political life. Here is the
National Opera House, subsidised, as are also the theatres. The public
buildings will bear comparison with the most up-to-date of modern
cities. Among them is the National Academy of Science, founded by the
same Count Stephen Széchenyi who is mentioned above. His statue stands
in front. The building is designed to encourage science and literature.
There is in it a room devoted to Goethe. Another most interesting
building is the Museum of Fine Arts at the entrance to the Town Park.
Here specimens of architecture and sculpture are found, as well as
paintings. One of the best known of present-day artists outside his own
country is Philip Laszlo, lately ennobled as De Lombos, a rare honour
for the exclusive Austrian ruler to give to one who has made his name
by work!
A museum, quite peculiar to Hungary, and very appropriate, as many of
her sons live by agriculture, is the Agricultural Museum. This stands
by a lake in the Town Park and is built in imitation of a Transylvanian
fortress of the Middle Ages.
We have not yet mentioned the Academy of Music, a very important place
to such a music-loving people. It was opened in 1875, and the first
director was Franz Liszt.
Liszt was born in 1811 at Raiding in Hungary. His father was a steward
of the Esterhazy estates and had himself considerable musical talent.
Young Liszt played in public at the age of nine, and attracted so much
attention that his musical education in Vienna was paid for by patrons.
He soon visited France and England and Switzerland, and everywhere his
playing was well received. When he was only sixteen his father died.
It was the young man’s great admiration for the violinist Paganini
which fired him with the ambition to do for the piano what Paganini had
done for the violin. At the age of twenty-four he formed a connection
with Mme la Comtesse d’Agoult, friend of George Sand, and herself a
literary woman, who wrote under the pseudonym of Daniel Stern. Of the
three children resulting from this association, one became the wife of
Von Bülow and afterwards married Richard Wagner.
Liszt is equally well known as a performer, conductor, and composer,
but in the latter rôle he takes a lower place than the Austrian
musicians of the Mighty Quartette. As will be seen by comparison of
dates, he was contemporary with Beethoven and Schubert. Liszt died in
1886, leaving behind him an immense mass of work, songs, cantatas,
oratorios, pianoforte pieces, etc., which are of unequal merit.
The Opera House at Budapest has been mentioned. There are also the
concerts of the Philharmonic Society every second week from November to
March.
There are numbers of theatres, besides the National one, and the
collective life of the people is gay and bright.
The town is particularly rich in libraries, chief among them is that in
the Hungarian National Museum, already mentioned. This contains over
a million and a quarter volumes, and among them many Corvin codexes
from the library of King Matthias Corvinus, which was rifled by the
Turks and the contents carried away to Constantinople. It is to the
credit of Turkey that a good many have been restored as a graceful act
of courtesy to the nation from time to time. The University library, a
splendid building in Franciscan Square, owns 300,000 volumes, and the
library of the Academy of Sciences, 200,000.
The University has departments for theology, law, political science,
medicine, and philosophy.
On the Embankment, which forms a favourite promenade, is a statue of
Petöfi, the Hungarian poet best known to the world at large.
Everywhere in Hungary excellent groups and figures of statuary are to
be met with, many of them full of spirit and life, and none so bad as
many constantly found in England.
The Houses of Parliament include the two chambers and each is in
horseshoe shape.
Budapest is very much up to date in every way. There are the three
large termini of the main railways, the eastern, western, and southern,
besides smaller stations. There is also a “Strangers’ Enquiry Office
and Travel Bureau,” which is an invaluable help to any one entering
the country for the first time, comparing with the offices of the
celebrated Messrs. Cook elsewhere. The most original feature of the
town is a talking newspaper, which distributes news by means of the
telephone verbally!
Among pleasure-grounds, the Town Park, which is well kept and beautiful
with flower-beds, smooth green lawns, and plenty of trees, is a
favourite resort, but in spite of its “zoo” it is rivalled by Margaret
Island, already mentioned, lying about two miles up the river. The
island is now connected by an outstretched arm with Margaret Bridge,
itself crossed by electric trams, so that it is very accessible. It is
traversed by a horse-tram, and has on it hotels, restaurants, baths,
and every kind of attraction. Birches and willows grow freely, and in
summer the flowers are really beautiful. It was formerly Crown property
and belonged for a long time to the late Archduke Joseph, but since
1908 it has been taken over by the city. The baths on the island are
extensive and well built, and are naturally warm. Indeed, Budapest
is pre-eminent among cities in the number and variety of her healing
springs; those on the Buda side were known to the Romans and much
appreciated by the Turks, by whom the two finest, the Imperial and the
Rudas, were built. Besides sulphur and hot baths, there are bitter
salt baths and, on the Pest side, artesian baths. The water in some of
these is of too high a temperature to be used in a natural state and
must be cooled. In summer temporary sheds and rafts appear all along
the river-side, and the water-loving population resorts to wholesale
swimming and bathing. Besides the baths, the healing waters of
Budapest are renowned all over the world, chief among them the Hunyadi
Janos, so named after one of the greatest Hungarians--a rather doubtful
compliment!
The river, which is such an asset to the city in its milder moods,
shows sometimes another side. The ice, which accumulates in the winter,
is often the cause of much damage, for when it breaks up it comes
down in huge blocks, which grind and crash against the piers of the
bridges and do an infinity of mischief. Not less terrible are the
floods, which in the past have caused inundations, the most fearful
of which spelt ruin to the city of Pest. In March of 1838 the river,
which was frozen solid to three feet in thickness, began to groan and
crack and heave, so that a dyke was thrown up to guard against it.
Count Stephen Széchenyi, who was alive at that time, built a barge
or sort of little ark, for which he suffered much ridicule. However,
during the thirteenth day every citizen was at work strengthening and
piling up the dyke, until, at eight in the evening, the river broke
forth and, carrying masses of ice on its surface, beat down the dyke
and overwhelmed the crowd. The crashing of the ice, the screams of
the women and children, the rush of the waters, made up an appalling
orchestra, more especially as the whole scene was plunged in darkness.
It was a time of horror as awful as the judgment day to those concerned
in it! The whole of the next day the river continued to rise,
carrying away on its broad flood hundreds of drowned human beings.
Those who survived had fled to the highest ground, and as the water
reached the foundations of the streets and sapped them, they saw whole
rows of buildings totter and reel and fall. The heavy barges and other
things carried along by the water dashed into the streets and smashed
up what remained standing. There was nothing to eat and many of the
miserable wretches were thinly clad and in extreme cold; the fifteenth
day was the worst of all, for many died of hunger and exposure, and
corpses lay about on what remained of the land as well as floating on
the water. The city had literally crumbled to pieces! Those who were in
Buda were better off, for they had the hills to climb up, and the flood
did not reach them to the same extent; but to convey help across that
raging torrent was not a task to be lightly attempted. Count Széchenyi
was among the foremost to help others with his ark, and another hero
was Baron Nicholas Wesselenyi, who performed prodigies of valour.
Those who visit Pest must go to see the bas-relief on the wall of the
Franciscan Church commemorating this disastrous epoch. The city rose
again on the ruins of its former self, and to-day numbers four or five
times as large as it was then.
[Illustration: COTTAGES IN THE ALFÖLD]