Gellért Hill

Gellért Hill (Hungarian: Gellért-hegy; German: Blocksberg; Latin: Mons Sancti Gerhardi; Turkish: Gürz Elyas bayiri) is a 235 m (771 ft) high hill overlooking the Danube in Budapest, Hungary. It is part of the 1st and 11th Districts. Gellért Hill was named after Saint Gerard who was thrown to death from the hill. The famous Hotel Gellért and the Gellért Baths can be found in Gellért Square at the foot of the hill, next to Liberty Bridge. The Gellért Hill Cave is located within the hill, facing toward Hotel Gellért and the Danube River.

At the top of the hill is the Citadella (Citadel), from which a view is available down both directions of the Danube.

The first recorded names of the hill in the Middle Ages were Kelen-hegy, Pesti-hegy and Blocksberg. It was called Szent Gellért hegye (lit. the hill of St. Gerard) from the 15th century onwards, referring to the legend about the death of St. Gerard. The saintly bishop was killed by the pagans during the great pagan rebellion in 1046. He was put in a barrel and rolled down into the deep from the top of the hill.

The former name, Pesti-hegy (Latin: Mons Pestiensis) referred the large cave (now Gellért Hill Cave) in the hillside. The word is of Slavic origin and means oven or cave.

The Ottoman Turks called the hill Gürz Elyas bayiri. Gürz Elyas was a holy man from the Bektashi order whose shrine and grave on top of the hill was a place of pilgrimage in the 17th century.

In the 18th century the hillsides of Gellért Hill were covered with vineyards. The Tabán district at the foot of the hill was an important centre of wine-making in Buda. According to the 1789 land register vineyards covered 128 hectares (316 ac) on the hill (only 7.62 hectares or 18.8 ac were used as pastures).

There are a lot of tourist route nearby Gellert hill, but it is recommended to hire a Budapest tourist guide. These guides can offer you Budapest apartments too, but the most important thing is that, you can choose between a lots of tour type, for example audio guided tours.

Buda Castle

The Buda Castle (Hungarian: Budai Vár) is the historical castle of the Hungarian kings in Budapest, Hungary. In the past, it was also called Royal Palace (Hungarian: Királyi-palota) and Royal Castle (Hungarian: Királyi Vár) .

The Buda Castle was built on the southern tip of Castle Hill, next to the old Castle District, (Hun: Várnegyed), which is famous about its medieval, Baroque and 19th century houses and public buildings. It is linked to Adam Clark Square and the Széchenyi Chain Bridge by the Castle Hill Funicular.

The Buda Castle is part of the Budapest World Heritage Site, declared in 1987.

The first royal residence on the Castle Hill was built by King Béla IV of Hungary between 1247 and 1265. There is no archeological evidence about this residence so it remained unsettled whether it was situated on the southern tip of the hill or on the northern elevation near the Kammerhof.

The oldest part of the present-day palace was built in the 14th century by Prince Stephen, Duke of Slavonia, the younger brother of King Louis I of Hungary. Only the foundations remained of that Stephen's Tower (Hungarian: István-torony). The Gothic palace of King Louis I was arranged around a narrow courtyard next to the Stephen's Tower.

King Sigismund Luxemburg of Hungary (Hun: Luxemburgi Zsigmond,) greatly enlarged the palace. Sigismund, as a Holy Roman Emperor, needed a magnificent royal residence to express his primacy among the rulers of Europe. Buda Castle was the main residence of the Emperor, so during his long reign it became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages. Buda was also an important artistic centre of the International Gothic style.

The construction works began in the 1410s and were largely finished in 1420s although some minor works continued until the death of the king.

The most important part of Sigismund's palace was the northern wing, called Fresh Palace (Hun: Friss-palota). On the top floor of it there was one huge hall (70 m x 20 m) with a carved wooden ceiling and great windows and balconies looking to the city of Buda. It was called the Roman Hall. The façade of the palace was decorated with statues and coat-of-arms. The palace was first mentioned in 1437 under the name "fricz palotha".

Sigismund also strengthened the fortifications around the palace. The southern part of the royal residency was surrounded with narrow zwingers. Two parallel walls, the so-called cortina walls run down from the palace to the River Danube across the steep hillside. The most imposing structure, the famous Broken Tower (Hun: Csonka-torony), on the western side of the cour d'honneur remained unfinished. The basement of the tower was used as a prison, the top floors were probably the treasury of the royal jewels.

In front of the palace stood the bronze equestrian statue of Sigismund, later repaired by King Matthias Corvinus.

The last phase of grand-scale building activity happened under King Matthias Corvinus). During the first decades of his reign the king carried on and finished the works on the Gothic palace. The Royal Chapel - with the surviving Lower Church - was probably built that time.

After the marriage of Matthias and Beatrix of Aragon, the daughter of the king of Naples in 1476, Italian humanists, artists and craftsmen arrived at Buda. The Hungarian capital became the first centre of Renaissance north of the Alps. The king rebuilt the palace in early Renaissance style. The cour d'honneur was modernized and an Italian loggia was added. Inside the palace there were two rooms with a golden ceiling, the famous Corvina library and a passage with the frescoes of the 12 signs of the Zodiac. The façade of the palace was decorated with the statues of John Hunyadi, László Hunyadi and King Matthias. In the middle of the court there was a fountain with the statue of Pallas Athene.

Only fragments remained of this Renaissance palace: red marble balustrads, lintels, decorative glazed tiles of stoves and floors.

In the last years of his reign Matthias Corvinus began to build a new Renaissance palace on the eastern side of the Sigismund Courtyard, next to the Fresh Palace. The Matthias Palace remained unfinished because of the early death of the king. From written sources we know that it had a monumental red marble stairway in front of the façade. The bronze gates were decorated with panels depicting the deeds of Hercules. Matthias Corvinus was usually identified with Hercules by the humanists of his court. A great bronze statue of the Greek hero welcomed the guests in the forecourt of the palace complex where jousts were held.

The walled gardens of the palace were laid out on the western slopes of the Castle Hill. In the middle of the enclosure a Renaissance villa was built by Matthias. Only one column survived of this so-called Aula Marmorea.

After the death of Matthias Corvinus his successor, King Ulászló II carried on the works of the Matthias Palace, especially after his marriage with Anna of Foix-Candale in 1502.

Bridges of Budapest

Budapest is known as the Capital of bridges: in fact the city is crossed by 6 bridges that connect the two part of the city: Buda and Pest.

- Chain Bridge: It was the first bridge connecting Buda and pest. It was built on the project of the english architect William T. Clark. The length of the bridge is 380 meters. During the second world war it was destroyed and then rebuilt.

- Elisabeth Bridge: this bridge in liberty style was built at the beginning of 1900 and dedicated to the murdered Queen in 1898. Until 1926 it was the biggest bridge without pillars in Europe. Destroyed by the German during the war it was rebuilt in 1964.

- Margaret Bridge: This is the bridge that connect Margaret Island to Budapest. It was built in 1901 and destroyed during the war by an explosion. It was rebuilt in 1948.

- Liberty Bridge: in Art nouveau style, it is one of the most beautiful bridges in Europe. It was built in the occasion of the millenary of

Hungary.

- Árpád Bridge: It was built in 1950 at the north of margaret island, its length is 2 km.

- Petőfi Bridge: It was built during the ‘30. destroyed during the war and then rebuilt in 1952. It is 514 meters long!