Of symphonies and history

A recollection of a cloudy first day in Budapest, discovering symphonies not meant to be heard and pieces of Budapest’s storied past.

When we arrived in Budapest, the weather was the first shock of the trip. It was cold. Well we couldn’t expect much really, as Athens where we came from was unseasonably warm, but it was still a shock to the system, after getting used to 20 degrees days and down to 5 degrees days at best. We arrived late at night as we made full use of the day to explore more of Athens on our last day there, so there was not much that we could do after we arrived but to grab a quick bite near the hotel and rest to prepare ourselves for a full day of exploration tomorrow.

We were up rather early the next day, what greeted us was a grey and overcast sky. It felt like being in London all over again. Undeterred, we bundled ourselves up in jackets and scarves and made our way to our first destination, The Hungarian Parliament House located by the Danube.

The Parliament House is open to public only through strict and limited guided tours. After doing my research beforehand I thought that since we were there it would be a waste not to take that opportunity. So although I thought the ticket was a bit expensive at HUF 5200 (15 GBP) for a non EU citizen, I have read reviews that said it was one of the best things to do in Budapest. Booking in advance is highly recommended especially if you are going in the high season. Even though February is definitely not high season, we wanted to secure the timings in the early morning so we had the tickets booked in advance, for the sake of convenience and our ease of thought.

When we arrived at the subway station outside the Parliament Building, as we stepped out, the sight of the building stopped us in our tracks. It was gorgeous. Even set against a grey and overcast sky, the building still looked incredible, with its’ dome and gothic spires reaching out to the sky. If I were being overly poetic about it I’d describe the whole picture as a symphony of white, grey and earth colour tones which we thought was beautiful. It reminded me of the paintings by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, where he would paint a subject with similar tones of a single colour and titled that painting a symphony of that particular colour. As it turned out, this would be the first of two symphonies (as I described them) that we would encounter that morning. A bit dazed from the sight, we slowly circled the building taking pictures and finally stumbled upon the entrance for the tour located on one of the sides of the building, in a sunken gallery of sorts.

Presenting out tickets, we soon heard the guide calling over to the group, and after passing through some security checks and the regular spiel from the guide of the dos and don’ts inside the building, we began our tour. Our guide was a lovely middle aged lady who after introducing herself went straight to sweep us into Hungary’s history by giving us a brief overview of the history and facts about the building.

Our first stop was the great ornamental stairs of the building. The stairs were the main entrance hall of the Parliament Building and it is sumptuously decorated with bronze statues, frescoes and other ornamental details. The building is mainly done in a Gothic Revival style, but it was in the staircase that we started noticing a medley of other architectural styles aside from gothic. Motifs and details from other styles such as Romanesque, Renaissance and Baroque began to make themselves evident throughout the building. It was fun to play a game of “spot the architectural style” as we moved room to room in the building. We were told that the medley was inspired by Hungary’s own rich history from the details and styles used in the palaces and courts of Hungary’s past kingdoms. If the sight outside of the building was a symphony of grey and earth colours, inside it was a symphony of gold and architectural styles, each harmonizing with each other, forming a beautiful song for the eyes.

From the staircase we went on to witness the changing of the guards guarding the crown of St. Stephen or the Holy Crown of Hungary, done in the formal stiffness, precision and the solemn air of authority we come to expect from such occasion. The crown was the coronation crown used by the kingdom of Hungary for most of its existence. It is Hungary's national symbol and appears in the country's coat of arms. It is now placed in the domed hall in the Parliament Building, at the heart of the building itself. Unfortunately pictures are not allowed inside the domed hall. But some googling would show you how beautiful the domed hall is, with its mighty chandelier on top and Hungary’s most sacred relics on display in the center. Stepping into the hall was like stepping into the beating heart and soul of the country itself, with statues of Hungary’s previous kings and rules standing tall and solemnly watching us from their ornate niches on the wall, encircling the hall.

That experience would provide the backdrop to the rest of the tour, from admiring the beautiful break rooms for the Members of the Parliaments and the largest carpet ever weaved in Europe, to the jaw-dropping-beautiful assembly hall. Done mostly in wood, the assembly hall displayed an incredible medley of architectural style, with gothic arches meeting baroque styled pillars, supporting an incredibly ornate Renaissance styled ceiling. The whole room was done in the colours of wood, red, green and gold, with motifs inspired by nature, adorning almost every inch of the room. Though made out of a medley of architectural styles, the different elements seem to still come together as a coherent whole and gave an air of harmony. And so the symphony that began with the great ornamental staircase continued, winding its way through the beautiful rooms and halls of the building.

As we were passing the hallways of the building towards the end of the tour, some of the visitors, including us, started noticing these weird metal grooves with numbers on them perched on the window ledges. The guide, noticing our interest, told us that those were cigar holders, from back in the days when it was still common for Members of the Parliament (MPs) to smoke cigars during breaks between parliamentary sessions. When they are called in to vote in another session and have yet to finish their cigars, they will leave the still smoldering cigars in one of the cigar holders on a specific numbered groove so they'll know which cigar belonged to which MP. However, sometimes when someone delivers a particularly compelling speech, instead of returning to their cigars, the MPs would sit in session and let the cigars burn away. There was a saying then, if someone delivered a very good speech some of the MPs would exclaim: "That speech was worth a Havana!"

After about 1 hour we finally came to the end of the tour. It was not a particularly long tour, but in that short period of time, we felt that we had somehow gotten ourselves closer to the spirit and ideas of Hungary’s history. Our visions were still shimmering with the golden sheen of the countless of rooms and ornaments we saw and my mind was a jumble with the beauty of the architectural medley and the stories behind the hallowed hallways of the Parliament building. For me personally, the experience of stepping into the domed hall, with the eyes of history cast down upon us, was the highlight of the tour and something that I felt was quite moving and beautiful altogether.

At the end, we were brought by the guide to a small museum, near the sunken gallery where we entered the building. After a warm applause for the guide, we all went our separate ways. For us, it was back once again into the cold gloomy day, ready to explore more of Budapest’s storied past, with pieces of history still floating amongst the two symphonies in our heads.