BUDAPEST SITES

                                           A Couple Must-See Sites
Dohany Synagogue

       The Dohany Synagogue, with seating capacity for 3000, is a striking Byzantine structure, and is Europe’s largest, and the world’s second largest, synagogue. Built in 1859, it is still used by Budapest’s conservative Jewish community. With its two 140-foot-high onion domes, it is a fine example of Moorish-Revival architecture. The synagogue has recently been restored. Next door is the Jewish Museum.

       The Holocaust Memorial, designed by a contemporary Hungarian sculptor, is in the form of a weeping willow tree. Thin metal leaves, purchased by survivors and descendants of relatives fall from the branches. It is a moving memorial.

      Budapest had one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe. Centuries ago Jews had to live outside the walled city. When the city expanded those areas beyond the walls were included into the city. During the Nazi occupation of Hungary over 20,000 Jews took refuge in the synagogue. However, 7000 did not survive the bleak winter of 1944-45. The original brick wall of the Jewish Ghetto can still be seen.

       Auschwitz swallowed 600,000 Jews. During WW II, Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, saved many Jews by supplying them with false passports.

Open Air Museum

      One day with a pleasant ride through the countryside, up around the Danube Bend we stopped at the Hungarian Museum, an open air eco-museum. Established in 1967, it opened in 1974. It is a reconstructed village from the last century.

     Stopping by an old cemetery a docent explained the wooden grave markers. “The blue marker means the person was a child. The black marker, an adult. The marker for a male is pointed, the marker for females is rounded. If a female married more than once she had another rounded mound. The markers are carved of wood, and were used to tell a story before people could read or write.”

      I found this interesting as I’d never heard nor seen such markers before.

      We learned that eventually there will be 300 buildings in 10 units. During my visit, there were 80 houses, 3 churches, a chapel, 7 mills, an inn, school, and workshops. The museum explains history and also illustrates social differences.

      In passing she said, “Feudalism was eliminated in the 18^th century. In the 19^th century one in 20 was titled noble, but was not necessarily rich.”

      Walking around the complex we spotted several different fruits ripening on trees.  It was a very interesting visit.

Parliament Tour

      The top of my priority list on my  third or fourth trip to Budapest was to tour the inside of the Parliament Building. It is a magnificent building and you might like to check post 4-2-14

KRAKOW (Cracow), POLAND

                                    City With a Long History
           Krakow, in the southern part of the country, is Poland’s third largest city. Founded as a fortress in 700 AD, it became the capitol in the 12^th century and remained so until 1596. Today a city of 800,000 it houses a university and ten colleges with a total student enrollment of 120,000. This cultural, educational, and industrial city, located on the Wisla  (Vistula) River, is an architecturally and historically rich city compact within an area of Old Town that is only 800 by 1200 meters in size.  

 Old        Old Town, or the inner city, was surrounded by a wall in medieval times, as were most European cities. The Barbican built in the 15^th century protected the walled city, and is one of the largest and oldest left in Europe.  Only one of the original seven gates remains. Originally the wall had 47 towers. The moat was twenty meters wide and seven meters deep.

 The 13^th century market square is literally square measuring 200 meters on each side, and is the largest such square in Europe. St. Andrews, an 11^th century church, is the oldest in the square. There are 130 churches in Krakow, 75 of them are in Old Town.

  On one corner of the square stands St. Mary’s gothic church, 1359, the common people’s church. Its two towers are uneven. The tallest tower served as a lookout tower. Today every hour, on the hour, one can hear a trumpet call from the tower recalling the 13^th century trumpeter who was killed by a Tarter arrow in the middle of sounding a warning. To maintain tradition, a live person, not a modern day recording, plays the trumpet call. The main altar of St Mary’s consists of five panels, 350 carvings, and measures eleven by seven meters. This 1489 altarpiece is the finest and largest sculptural work of Gothic art in Poland.

Canon Street is the oldest in the city and is where the church clergy lived. Jagiellonian University, the first university in Poland founded in 1364, was the alma mater of the astronomer, Copernicus.   The building where he studied is still in use, and has a rather pretty inner courtyard.

A brief history includes:  In 1241 Tater invaders sacked the city. The city was revived later by German colonists. In 1795 Austria seized the city. Napoleon incorporated the city into the duchy of Warsaw. 1815 saw Krakow as the capitol of an independent republic of Krakow, which was incorporated, into Austria 1846. During WW I the city was the scene of fighting between Austro-German and Russian forces. After the war Krakow was once again a Polish city. Germans occupied the city from 1939-1945 until it was taken by Soviet troops.

The royal cathedral and castle sit on Wawel Hill. For centuries, since the first king crowned in 1320, Wawel Cathedral has been the site for coronations and burials of Polish royalty. A hundred kings are interred in the crypt. Wawel Castle, most famous now for its collection of Flemish tapestries is located behind the cathedral; 136 of the original 156 are preserved, and it is the largest such collection in the world. During WWII the tapestries were sent to Canada for safekeeping and were returned in 1961. The work is so fine that it would take a worker one year to complete a square meter! They were specially ordered, and reach from floor to ceiling.

Little furniture is in the castle; the ceilings are beautiful, as are the wall frescos.

The courtyard of the castle had recently been refurbished. The first floor of the castle served as servants’ quarters, the second floor as reception rooms, and the third floor was royal living quarters. Originally built as a fortress, it then became a summer home, and now is a museum.

Warsaw is the political capitol of Poland, Krakow, the cultural capitol, and Czestochowa the religious capitol.

      In Krakow we visited the Jewish District, Kazimierz, which before the 1820s was an independent town.  In the late 15^th century Jews, after being expelled from Krakow, migrated to the northeast area of the town. A wall separated the Jewish sector from the Christian sector. The Jewish Quarter grew rapidly as Jews fled from all over Europe.

       At the outbreak of WWII 70,000 Jews lived there. In 2000 the Jewish population was about 100. There were six synagogues in the area. The 15^th century Old Synagogue is the oldest Jewish religious building in Poland, and today is a museum. Two other synagogues remain today, but only one is functional.

      In 1993 the Center for Jewish Culture and History, opened in the area, and is run by non-Jews. Because it cannot be state run, it is run by a private foundation.

      Kazimierz is one of the best preserved pre WWII areas of Jewish religious, learning, and culture, a life no longer possible in Poland because of the lack of facilities.  

       Prior to the opening of the Center, there was no research or books to teach Jewish culture. In 1986 the US Congress sent two million dollars to help create the project, which paid for 90% of it with the remaining 10% coming from local contributions. The project is on going.

       About 160 Jews live in Krakow, but only three Jews currently live in Kazimierz, and only 5-12,000 in all of Poland. The count is difficult to establish as most of the children orphaned by the war were raised by and as gentiles.

      The area was again coming alive with many of the apartments occupied and stores and restaurants opening.