Only in Budapest by Duncan J.D. Smith

Contents Contents Introduction 8 BUDA (Districts I–II, XI–XII, XXII) 1 The Legend of the Turul Bird 11 2 Buda by Funicular 14 3 Scars of the Second World War 16 4 History under the Hill 19 5 Of Mummies and Alchemists 22 6 The Oldest Coffee House in Town 24 7 Treasures of the Painted Church 27 8 The Historical Hilton 30 9 Gothic Glimpses on Castle Hill 32 10 The Saviour of Mothers 35 11 A Much Loved Empress 38 12 The Ottomans’ Bathing Legacy 42 13 The Budapest Bastille 44 14 The Chapel in the Rock 46 15 Baths of the Belle Époque 48 16 Floating History on the Danube 51 17 The Park of the Toppled Statues 53 18 The Budafok Calvary and the Champagne Castle 56 19 Runic Gravestones and the Ribcage Mortuary 58 20 Gizi Bajor’s Museum of the Theatre 60 21 The Children’s Railway 62 22 A Belvedere Tower in the Buda Hills 65 23 A Hidden Medieval Monastery 67 24 From Bauhaus to Buda 71 25 An Unusual Park for the Millennium 73 26 A Baroque Odyssey 75 27 Staircases, Stoves and the Art of Forging 78 28 The Tomb of the Father of the Roses 80 29 Subterranean Buda 83 5