Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #8 - Hungarian National Bank

Some will argue - is the National Bank really Art nouveau style? Hmm, yes and no. There are some parts which definitely bear the mark and anyway, it was high time we talked about this important building! 

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #7 - Erzsébet Town Community House

Ever raised your head in Wesselényi street while strolling from one ruin bar to the other? It is really worth it, shoemaker's ghosts inhabit the area around this yellow red Art Nouveau wonder...

For the inexperienced visitor, the sign saying "Capital City Shoemakers’s Guild" may be misleading. Yet, in these parts one had better get used to signs hiding not quite what they read.


 

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #6 - Róth Miksa Memorial House

 The Róth Miksa Memorial Building was closed for August but now it is open again. Oddly, more foreigners are visiting it than Hungarian - Róth Miksa's glassworks and mosaics are world-famous and the memorial house reveals a lot about this artist and his life.

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #5 - Lokál Ruin bar, ex-Mumus

This week's Art Nouveau Wonder leads us into the Jewish district, the disctrict with th ruin bars...Lokál does not seem amazing at first view, but it has a story full with legends and apart from having a nice beer there, you will feel the need to discover more and more...

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #4 - Hotel Gellért

We love Art Nouveau - this is why we reveal you regularly a story behind a famous building. 

photo: Prof. Ryan james

Hotel Gellért has always been  a pioneer... Long time a back, a monk living in the cave advised virgins on sexual and moral questions... Later it became a benchmark for Hungarian hotel business with its services,,, And would you have thought it had pioneering antiracist ideas? A 'black' noble man entered the spa and the 'white' guests were shocked and wanted him to leave. The spa's response was this: 'everyone can enjoy Gellért Spa's curing effects, regardless to skin colour!'

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #3- Art Nouveau House

In this house, from the decoration of the facade, the arrangement of the interior, through the forms of the furniture, the colours of the stained glass to the graceful female figures on the lamps, Art Nouveau fills everything.

Emil Vidor, a student of Ybl, inspired by Belgian Art Nouveau and German Jugendstil, designed mansions villas and houses for the elite. He combined the craft of European masters with Hungarian, historicist elements. As many other architects of the time, he liked to apply Zsonay majolicas for decoration.

Hungarians do not smile but have nice Basilicas - by expat Amrit Chima

The Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Assumed Into Heaven and St Adalbert

Daniel took me away from the city to Esztergom.

The city is 28 miles northwest of Budapest where the Danube snakes west toward Austria, forming a natural border between Hungary and Slovakia. From the tenth to mid-thirteenth centuries, Esztergom was the country’s capital and is now the center for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese. Not much of a shock, then, that the highlight of our trip was a visit to the city’s church, which is also the tallest building in Hungary—The Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed Into Heaven and St. Adalbert.

I prefer to simply call it The Basilica.