Our Little Corner of the World...visiting Buda Castle District...

Did you know that Budapest was originally two cities?

Buda and Pest!

In the late 1800's the two cities merged and Budapest became the largest city in Hungary, 

and one of the largest cities in Europe.

There are different versions of how the names came about...

Buda may have been named for a person, Bleda...brother of Attila...

or it was named after "voda", meaning water.

There are also two versions of Pest...from the Roman times, Pession, a fortress of the region...

...or...from the Slavic word for cave...pesterian or pest...(with a whole lot of squiggly marks

around the 's' and 't'!)

At any rate...in the late 1800's, the two cities merged and became Budapest.

Buda is the more hilly western region, and Pest is the flatter eastern region.

Our hotel was in the lovely section of Buda, in the Buda Castle District,

up on the hill with a lovely view of the rest of the city.

Which was a good thing because the hotel building itself was rather boring!!!  

iPhone pic!

This was our view...the Danube...the Cinderella tower...

There was a story behind the tower...something about fish!!!

Actually, it is called the Fisherman's Bastion.

Apparently in the Middle Ages a guild of fishermen defended this stretch of the city.

It's really just a viewing terrace with wonderful views of the Danube and the Pest part of the city!

 Very close to our hotel was this beautiful church...

St. Mathias.

Truly one of the most beautiful churches inside, that I've ever seen.

Every inch of the interior was painted in incredible detail...

The original church was built in 1015, but was destroyed in 1241 by the Mongols.

The current building was built in the 13th Century.

In the 1600's someone thought it should be re-designed in the Baroque style...

which was not particularly satisfactory.

So...in the late 1800's it was restored to it's original design.

The church was significantly damaged during WWII, but was beautifully restored in 

the mid 1900's...(That sounds so historic...) 

Then even more restoration in 2006-2013.

Throughout the Centuries the church has been used for numerous coronations and 

royal weddings.

We decided that the next family member to get married should have a destination wedding here!!!

 

So are you starting to get the picture of why I think Budapest is one of the most beautiful 

cities in the world?

To visit more little corners of the world...click on the image below!