My first day back in Budapest..
A quiet day to rest my operated foot; now a little swollen.. I decided to take Metro 1, the line under Andrassy Avenue, to the City Park. This park was originally outside the confines of the city but became a key public space of the new 19th century Budapest, made the joint capital city of the Austrian Hungarian Empire, with Vienna.
Walking out of station Szechenyi furdo, right in the centre of the park, I walked towards a 19C classical building.. seemingly scaled to the park...
An entrance to the thermal led up the stairs and then through the window I saw this...
An enormous open air lido... The facade I walked to is only the side facade. The main building is scaled like this....
The main reception entrance.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sz%C3%A9chenyi_thermal_bath
To see more, you need to buy access into the main building.. let's see about this tomorrow.
I wonder in 2000 years will someone re-discover ruins of these baths, that match those of Caracalla.....
Close by is the Vajdahunyad Castle. Initial impressions that it may be original but the picturest composition gives it away.
It was constructed as part of the Hungarian Millennial Exhibition to represent 1000 years of Hungarian architectural history.
The exhibition was laid in the new park, connected to the recently constructed metro under Andrassy Avenue.
While the main exhibition buildings were removed at the close, this group of buildings, built on a empty island in the lake of a former tributary of the Danube, was left; the main neo-baroque building becoming the Hungarian agricultural museum,
Due to cost reasons and the temporary nature of the complex, the main load bearing frame was built from timber and then clad with brick and rendered. A couple of years later the whole collection of buildings was demolished and re-built to the same design replacing the rotting timber frames with stone..
While there was some criticism of the literal use of past architectural styles, the public loved it and it became one of the cities most popular destinations..no doubt helped by having the thermal baths close by....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajdahunyad_Castle
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| In the first construction the arced gatehouse was timber clad; this change to stone was one of the few amendments to the original construction |
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| The 'Romanesque' church.. |
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| The agricultural museum |
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| Inside the museum entrance hall.. |
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| Anonymous |
There is also a statute of Bela Lugosi in the castle..... Bauhaus again....
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