96 Tears

According to legend, the Magyars, as the Hungarians call themselves in their language, entered the Hungarian plain in 896 AD. They were pagan invaders from the east at the time, and they terrified the settled Christian inhabitants of eastern Europe until they began to settle down and convert to Christianity in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, a process that culminated with the reign of King Stephen I, canonized as St. Stephen after his death.

Among the early Magyar settlements was one on the west bank of the Danube at the site of the ancient Roman city of Aquincum. This was at first merely a provincial town, but in the late middle ages the kings of Hungary noticed that one of the hills to the south of it had an excellent strategic position right by the river, and they decided to fortify it. A town called Buda grew up around the fortifications, and the older settlement at Aquincum became known as Óbuda (”Old Buda”). Buda soon became the capital of Hungary, and under King Matthias in the late fifteenth century it flourished as a wealthy, cosmopolitan city, with a diverse population. Many minority groups, including Jews, lived in the city under the tolerant regime of Matthias, and each had its own street. This happy situation didn’t last long, however, for soon after the death of Matthias Buda was conquered by the Ottoman Turks along with much of the rest of the Hungarian kingdom. This was not actually much of a problem for the minority groups, who flourished under the tolerant rule of the Ottomans much as they had under Matthias, but for the Hungarian kings and nobility it was a devastating loss of power. The city was finally reconquered by a combined force of Christians in 1686 with the support of Pope Innocent XI, and the victors immediately expelled the minority groups and took possession of what was left of the city, which had been greatly damaged in the fighting.

Buda was rebuilt and recovered some of its prosperity, but it never regained its prominent position within the kingdom, as political and economic power was shifting to the newer city of Pest across the river. Under the Habsburgs, especially, Pest became the capital of Hungary and a bustling, wealthy city with some of the finest architecture in Europe. Then, in 1873, Pest was combined with Buda (along with the oft-overlooked Óbuda) to form a new capital city, Budapest.

And what a city it is.  Buda, composed these days largely of residential neighborhoods and tourist attractions, forms a pretty (though not actually very old) counterpoint to the modern excitement of Pest, with its broad boulevards and grand buildings, including the Parliament building and the Basilica of St. Stephen, both of which culminate in domes exactly 96 meters high in commemoration of the date of the entrance of the Magyars into what would become their country.

And, indeed, they consider it very much their country, and are extremely nationalistic.  Reading a Hungarian account of the history of Hungary is like seeing a montage of the great humiliations visited upon the Hungarian people by various oppressors, starting with the Turks and the Habsburgs and culminating with the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, which, from the Hungarian perspective, robbed Hungary of a massive portion of the territory it had held under the Double Monarchy and reduced it to its present size.  They’re still incredibly bitter about this; I saw many maps of pre-Trianon Hungary in bookstores, and I even saw a holographic one where you could see the loss of territory just by moving your head.  I suspect the residents of the areas that were taken away from Hungary, including all of Slovakia and Croatia and a substantial part of Romania, have a different perspective on this event.

Still, it’s an interesting country, and Budapest is a fantastic city.  I took a lot of pictures, but they really don’t do it justice.  I highly recommend a trip there for anyone, though it would probably help to either learn some Hungarian first or know someone there who can guide you around a bit.