On this trip, we’ll be traveling to Budapest and Prague, the capitals and primary cities of Hungary and Czechia, respectively. Why are we going there? Pretty simple: In early 2019 WOW Airlines was on the brink of collapse, so they offered a crazy good deal where customers could book certain trans-Atlantic flights for just $49. Holy shit! That was such a good deal you had to take advantage of it, even with the risk that the company would go belly-up in the middle of your trip. With a ticket to Frankfurt and all of one week to do your planning, you decided to hit some secondary European countries. Don’t worry, they still have plenty of novelty to offer. (BTW, WOW totally did go tits-up a few weeks later: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/28/icelandic-airline-wow-air-collapses-and-cancels-all-flights.html )

After a short layover in Frankfurt and a cheap hour-long flight, you hop off at your first stop, Budapest.

https://i.imgur.com/9QKTgiM.jpg

For a thousand years, Budapest was two cities, Buda and Pest. The names are Slavic in origin, as the towns were both founded by Bulgarians during their rule here. But in the 9th century AD, an Asiatic tribe named the Magyars descended onto the Carpathian basin and made their home here. They’ve inhabited it ever since, speaking a bizarre language and carrying a SERIOUS chip on their shoulder. Buda became the capital of Hungary in the 1200s, and in the 1800s it was merged with neighboring Pest to become the world’s biggest Magyar metropolis.

But we’ll have plenty of time to talk about all THAT later. Let’s get started on our tour.

Your rental loft is located in one of Budapest’s trendiest neighborhoods, the Jewish Quarter. As the name implies, it was once the heart of one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities. Due to Bad Things that happened 75 years ago, the Jewish presence has been much reduced. However, it still holds the Dohany Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in all of Europe:

https://i.imgur.com/q6D2Boc.jpg

The building’s design and sheer size make it unusual for a synagogue. More than once it has been mocked as the “world’s finest Catholic synagogue,” though it also draws a lot on Moorish themes to reflect the Jews’ Middle Eastern origins. Unsurprisingly, throughout history it has been associated with relatively liberal, assimilated strains of Judaism.

The interior, which can seat 2,000 people, clearly resembles a cathedral:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Budapest_Zsinagoga.png

The courtyard of the synagogue has a small Jewish cemetery, which contains thousands of Jews who died in the Pest ghetto during World War 2. It’s undergoing some renovations.

https://i.imgur.com/UCRuXdA.jpg

At the rear of the synagogue is a small park honoring Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg was a Swedish envoy posted to Budapest who used diplomatic documents to save thousands of Budapest Jews from the Holocaust. When Budapest fell to the Red Army, he was arrested as a suspected spy and vanished from history. While Wallenberg is known for saving Jews, the main feature of the park is a metal weeping willow, whose leaves are inscribed with the names of Holocaust victims.

https://i.imgur.com/ZkC4ARe.jpg

Despite the Holocaust and the creation of Israel, Hungary still has a few thousand Jews. And now, they have an app:

https://i.imgur.com/qxtlpsn.jpg

As you wander through the Jewish quarter, you see a lot of wall murals. One commemorates Hungary’s national soccer team from the 1950s. Dubbed the Golden Team, they went 42-1-7 over a seven year span and are considered one of the greatest teams in soccer history. The mural commemorates the 1953 “Match of the Century,” where they ruthlessly bitchslapped England.

https://i.imgur.com/V6emZ2k.jpg

Another mural shows a Rubik’s Cube, invented by Hungarian Erno Rubik.

https://i.imgur.com/QebqCGA.jpg

The funky design of this mural may leave you thinking it’s some oddball Spanish artist, but it’s not. This is Angel Saint Briz. After helping XO Franco win the Spanish Civil War, Briz was posted to Budapest as a diplomat, where he also helped safe Jews during the Holocaust by claiming that Spain had granted citizenship to all descendants of Sephardim expelled in 1492.

https://i.imgur.com/OfR6sez.jpg

After a short walk, you depart the Jewish quarter. Our goal for this morning is to see Buda Castle on the far side of the Danube, but it’s still early morning and nothing is opened, so you have some time to simply wander the streets.

The maniacs in this cafe are selling 70 different types of coffee.

https://i.imgur.com/q58J4PT.jpg

That’s pretty tempting, but why go to a local place when you can go to…McDonald’s!

https://i.imgur.com/dyC02cb.jpg

This McD’s looks entirely generic, but it’s historically notable. It was the first McDonald’s behind the Iron Curtain, opening in 1988.

https://i.imgur.com/dyC02cb.jpg

Like other European McD’s, it has the “McToast,” an inverted hamburger bun that basically serves as a small grilled cheese.

https://i.imgur.com/zfKFiJZ.jpg

Also, their McMuffin is literally just a normal burger but inside an English muffin.

https://i.imgur.com/WuP6Q8z.jpg

Oh shit! We fucked up. We could have been getting food from these guys:

https://i.imgur.com/NyOGyIz.jpg

You briefly stroll along the Danube. Across the River you can see the highest point of central Budapest, the Citadel, as well as the morning’s main destination, Buda Castle.

https://i.imgur.com/vFUTItc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ndAYrSw.jpg

This sad concrete building, probably built by communists, is now a Starbucks enlivened with a statue honoring Shakespeare.

https://i.imgur.com/C8flKaI.jpg

This medium-sized Baroque church is the oldest church site in Budapest. When Franz Josef and Empress Elizabeth were crowned king and queen of Hungary, Franz Josef took his coronation oath right next to this church.

https://i.imgur.com/I0Hcs61.jpg

Hungary’s main religion is Catholicism, with Protestant and Jewish minorities, but central Pest also has a small Orthodox church. One of its steeples was blown off in World War 2 and never replaced, so there’s a fake wooden one there to preserve symmetry.

https://i.imgur.com/vMeoTs4.jpg

Unlike some countries, Hungary still allows public commemoration of men and women who lived prior to 1995. This statue honor Hungarian poet Sandor Petofi.

https://i.imgur.com/7sjdkYP.jpg

Petofi was a pivotal figure at the beginning of the 1848 Revolution. According to legend, he provoked the people of Pest into an uprising with a rousing read of his poem, the National Song. Like a lot of Hungarian stories, it doesn’t end well: The 1848 revolution was crushed through Russian intervention, and Petofi died fighting on the front lines. Today, he’s a super-duper national hero, with 11 streets and 4 squares named for him JUST in Budapest. Like most Hungarian poets, his work is not widely read outside Hungary (it doesn’t translate terribly well). Franz Liszt did set several of his poems to music, though.

A few blocks up from Petofi’s statue is an even bigger statue honoring novelist and public intellectual Joseph Eotvos. He was also a writer around the Revolutionary period, but unlike Petofi, he survived by sitting out the war in Munich (smart move!). People don’t seem to hold it against him.

https://i.imgur.com/MmMfrKs.jpg

There aren’t many pets to be seen on the streets of Budapest, but there is a statue of a girl with a puppydood. There also aren’t many children (Hungary’s birthrate is gruesome) but there is a statue of a young girl chilling on the river walk. Dubbed the “Little Princess,” it’s popular with tourists.

https://i.imgur.com/As8bhm7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DtgkyIl.jpg

All right, that’s enough strolling around for now. It’s time to head for our first major destination. In the next post, we’ll cross the famous chain bridge and explore Budapest’s oldest district, Buda Castle.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4246935&forum_id=2#38127658)

It does help that on these "vacations" I walk an average of about 15 miles a day.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4246935&forum_id=2#38127867)

https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/f141aa4a1f3a2b2f473c7bc0886e68b77de02db4/c=258-0-5365-3840/local/-/media/2018/05/21/Cincinnati/Cincinnati/636625112250954616-WOW3.jpg?width=540&height=405&fit=crop

Also, upon landing in Reykjavik, the plane made a hard landing on the runway and had to abort, launching back into the air and making a second attempt. Never seen that before and a lot of people clearly thought we might die.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4246935&forum_id=2#38127699)

come on charles. we dont give a fuck about some tripadvisor DBG shit. i wanna see some fine ass local hunnies you have fucked. when i was in oslo i gave a livestream of the cute norwegian girls i was fucking. this is some TTT shit

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4246935&forum_id=2#38127685)

but you are literally surrounded by fine euro hotties who are dtf. i enjoy your presence here but you not going on a complete fuckfest while youre in those cities is just plain dumb

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4246935&forum_id=2#38127761)

For a long time, the Danube was unbridged, providing a sharp division between Buda and Pest. In fact, until the 1800s, there wasn’t a single permanent Danube bridge in all of Hungary. That changed in 1849, when the Chain Bridge finally opened. Like a lot of things in Budapest, it’s named after great Hungarian statesman Istvan Szechenyi, who sponsored its construction and dedicated his entire life to modernizing Hungary. Like a lot of great Hungarians, his story ends badly (he shot himself from depression), but his bridge still stands today.

https://i.imgur.com/P13H6KS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2Lzojz4.jpg

The bridge leads right up to the base of Buda Castle, but how are you getting to the top? Sure, you could just walk, like a PROLE. But there’s better option: You can ride a funicular to the top!

https://i.imgur.com/bHyi8q7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RfHavYp.jpg

Running a whopping 312 feet from end to end, the Buda Castle funicular is the second-oldest one in Europe, after the one in Lyon. It looks very old-timey, but this is flame; the entire funicular was destroyed by bombs in WW2, and the current version is a reconstruction opened in the 1980s. You’re gonna want to get used to that sort of thing. You can ride the funicular all the way to the top of the castle hill for just 1200 Hungarian forint. That’s just over $4, or about $1.33 for every hundred feet it carries you. That’s an even worse deal than Budapest’s famously sketchy cab drivers, but c’mon, you’re not gonna miss out on riding a funicular, are you?

And just like that, you’re at the top of Buda Castle!

https://i.imgur.com/11lMNlZ.jpg

There’s a lot to see up here. Buda Castle is probably best compared to the National Mall in Washington; there’s a mix of museums, historic structures, tourist traps, and genuine government buildings all clumped up on the hill. We’re currently close to Buda Castle, but it’s not open yet, so let’s walk to the northern part of the hill to our first destination, Matthias Church.

https://i.imgur.com/dQGZNwR.jpg

Dating to the 14th century, Matthias Church is one of the largest and most iconic churches of medieval Hungary, although it is only a parish church and not a basilica or cathedral. The name honors Hungary’s greatest king, Matthias Corvinus, who didn’t build it, but did spruce it up and get married here twice. Hungary’s last two kings were both crowned here, and another king is buried here. Like most Budapest buildings, it’s been badly-damaged several times over; the version you see today is the product of a late-1800s restoration, which itself was restored following World War 2. One nice addition from that restoration was Hungary’s now-distinctive patterned ceramic roof tiles.

https://i.imgur.com/lHsIF4v.jpg

In the corner of the church there’s a raven with a ring in its mouth, the symbol of King Matthias (“Corvinus” means “raven” in Latin).

https://i.imgur.com/cT3JMWR.jpg

The main statue outside the church doesn’t honor Matthias though, as he isn’t a saint. Instead, there is a statue of St. Stephen, Hungary’s first authentically Christian king. Carvings around the base show Stephen being crowned, building churches, and owning the fuck out of Hungarians who don’t want to become Christian.

https://i.imgur.com/B4Tmhpc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/wVDdm3G.jpg

The church’s interior aggressively mixes religious motifs with Hungarian history, presenting the medieval kingdom as a great bastion of Christianity. In one corner, you can find the coat of arms of Matthias Corvinus, flanked by two members of his mercenary Black Army.

https://i.imgur.com/qTnvjvw.jpg

In another, one of Hungary’s several saint-kings, Saint Laszlo, rescues a Christian maiden from a marauding Cuman.

https://i.imgur.com/QayZZw6.jpg

A statue of Mary stands atop the tabernacle at the front. In an unusual twist, she is crowned with a replica of Hungary’s royal Crown of St. Stephen. According to legend, St. Stephen dedicated Hungary to the Virgin Mary before his death. Until the 1920s, Mary was officially the queen of Hungary during all interregnums; this law was repealed in the 1920s when Hungary’s kingless monarchy was ruled by the Protestant Miklos Horthy, to avoid the impression a Protestant was acting on behalf of the Virgin Mary.

https://i.imgur.com/uNAHtcK.jpg

The most famous religious object of the interior is a statue of the Virgin and Christ-child, held inside the Loreto Chapel.

https://i.imgur.com/FDqYmDg.jpg

When Buda was conquered by the Turks in the 1500s, Matthias Church was converted into the city’s main mosque. Since the statue couldn’t be evacuated, locals bricked up the niche it sat in to keep the Turks from destroying it. According to legend, during the retaking of Budapest a century later, a cannon blast knocked away the bricks hiding the statue, and Turkish defenders were terrified by the sudden appearance of the Virgin staring at them. Supposedly, this caused them to surrender without a fight.

Most of Matthias Church dates to the Renaissance or later; the oldest remnant of the old Gothic structure is this column capital, an authentic medieval piece.

https://i.imgur.com/fb1ZSFi.jpg

A triptych in the rear of the church honors one of the last great crusader victories. The Franciscan Saint John Capistrano raised a crusader army, which was led by Hungarian general John Hunyadi to the defense of Belgrade. The victory there stalled the Turks’ advance into central Europe for another sixty years. It also inaugurated the tradition of ringing church bells at noon.

https://i.imgur.com/lqrNzdf.jpg

The description of that triptych would make libs absolutely mad as FUKKKK if it existed in America.

https://i.imgur.com/qWLhgUv.jpg

In one of the side chapels there is an altar to St. Imre. He was the son of St. Stephen, and basically nothing is known of his life except that he was killed hunting a board. Despite that, he got a legacy sainthood slot. Lucky guy!

https://i.imgur.com/40z6O13.jpg

All of Hungary’s greatest medieval kings were buried in the nearby city of Székesfehérvár. You can’t visit their graves, because they were all ransacked and defiled by the Turks when they conquered central Hungary in the 1500s. The exception is Bela III, whose remains survived and were relocated to this church.

https://i.imgur.com/GcYsIMM.jpg

The last ever Hapsburg coronation, of Charles IV and Queen Zita, was held here in the midst of World War I. Their coronation chairs are still here, along with a variety of related items. Charles IV is absurdly popular with trad Catholics btw:

https://i.imgur.com/SGTANzT.jpg

Back outside the church, we can take a moment to stop at one of Hungary’s most ridiculous tourist stops, the Fisherman’s Bastion:

https://i.imgur.com/iayAG8O.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/02wi1hs.jpg

This area is so named because, in the Middle Ages, this section of Buda’s walls was supposedly manned by the men of the fisherman’s guild. It has seven towers representing the seven ancient Magyar tribes. The whole thing looks like a Disney-style fantasy castle wall, because that’s exactly what it is. The whole thing was built for Budapest’s millennium celebration in 1896. Shit’s flame! That does nothing to stop mountains of girls from posing for Instagram photos here.

On the plus side, there is a genuinely sweet view of Hungary’s awesome parliament building.

https://i.imgur.com/SlSPZwd.jpg

We’ll be seeing the parliament in just a few hours. But first, there’s still a lot more to see here on castle hill, and we’ll be seeing all of it in the next post.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4246935&forum_id=2#38133111)

https://i.imgur.com/csmxQ2U.jpg

Right next to the statue and the Matthias Church is the first Hilton hotel opened in the Eastern bloc, opened all the way back in 1976. Since it’s right in the middle of such a historic district, the building actually incorporates the ruins of a 13th-century wall, as well as an old Dominican church and a monument to King Matthias.

https://i.imgur.com/iq05axa.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/I2ZBaLZ.jpg

At the far north end of castle hill is an unassuming gateway known as the Vienna Gate. The road leading out from here went straight to Vienna, the Hapsburg capital. The gate dates all the way to the Middle Ages, but you guessed it, the current structure is a restoration from less than 100 years ago.

https://i.imgur.com/sGC0s28.jpg

Near the gate are the ruins of what was once Buda Castle’s second church, the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. It was badly damaged in World War 2, but instead of being restored like Matthias Church, Hungary’s Communist regime demolished it and left only the bell tower standing. The division between original and restored pieces is stark:

https://i.imgur.com/5M6iavI.jpg

The ruined church sits in an area called Capistrano Square, named in honor of the John Capistrano who mobilized Hunyadi’s crusaders. Capistrano himself has a statue just outside Hungary’s military history museum. Sadly, it’s closed today for a military event (there are armed guards everywhere), but we’ll be back soon enough.

https://i.imgur.com/UGxrujr.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AGeDyv3.jpg

Intriguingly, there are a bunch of candles left at the base of Capistrano’s statue.

https://i.imgur.com/ffmQxQt.jpg

“Festung Budapest” means “fortress Budapest” in German, and was Hitler’s designation for the city in the final days of WW2. Some Googling indicates that Festung Budapest is probably a neo-fascist group that honored Capistrano as a defender of European civilization.

The square also has a giant bronze replica of Hungary’s coronation mantle. The artist created it to thank God for sending St. Stephen to Hungary. Libs MAF!

https://i.imgur.com/KwJOpZH.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/g4eNwP3.jpg

Andras Hadik was a great Hungarian general in the Austrian army. His accomplishments are mostly forgotten, but his statue is still notable because people like rubbing the horse’s immense testicles for good luck. While most of the statue has turned green, they continue to gleam brightly:

https://i.imgur.com/LJS1KnF.jpg

https://media2.trover.com/T/554e0b17e9ae423190018e3a/fixedw_large_4x.jpg

Buda’s Castle Hill sits on top of a vast honeycomb of caves. Today, they’re either empty or, better yet, filled with cheesy tourist trap attractions whose ads are scattered all over the district.

https://i.imgur.com/ddaKsVT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lpI7eQf.jpg

The center of the castle district are two large buildings, which were gutted in World War 2 and only recently fixed up. The white one is the Sandor Palace, currently the home of Hungary’s (ceremonial) president. The yellow building is a former Carmelite cloister and theater, and now after a costly restoration it houses Viktor Orban’s offices. Hungarian libs are deeply MAF about this, alleging that Orban’s move to the old seat of the Hungarian kings reflects his monarchical intentions.

https://i.imgur.com/azffRct.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/j8d7HZG.jpg

Finally, it’s time for the Buda Castle complex itself.

https://cache-graphicslib.viator.com/graphicslib/page-images/742x525/114608_Viator_Budapest_Hungary_royal-palace-of-buda_1338141-770tall.jpg

Despite the name, it’s really more of a palace, as the original medieval castle was (shocker) totally destroyed during the Christian recapture of Buda in 1686. The current palace complex was built for Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. One problem: Maria Theresa was rarely actually in Buda and had no use for such an immense royal residence there. So instead, it briefly served as a nunnery, then a university, and finally the palace of the Hungarian palatine. But then the palace was burned down in the 1848 revolution. Despite still having no major use for it, the Hungarians rebuilt it at great expense to ensure they would have a super-palace equal to those of other European capitals (especially Vienna). The palace was occupied by Miklos Horthy during his dictatorship and then (surprise surprise) it was totally destroyed yet again during World War 2. Instead of restoring the 1800s palace, Hungary’s communist government destroyed it, and then rebuilt the building yet again in a similar but more austere style, while also reconstructing several long-lost medieval elements. Even the iconic green dome is substantially modified from its pre-war state. That’s right: Buda Castle is a gigantic piece of Frankenstein’s monster flame. But hey, it’s still pretty to look at.

Most of the appeal is at a distance, though. Get up close, and it feels very austere and empty, a byproduct of the Communists’ design choices.

https://i.imgur.com/s4xnqnJ.jpg

At the corner of the castle complex, right by the funicular, is a giant statue of the Turul bird. According to Hungarian legend, this falcon is the mythical guardian of the Hungarian people, and led them to the Carpathian basin by dropping a sword on the site of Budapest.

https://i.imgur.com/YXarY1W.jpg

Another big statue out front honors Eugene of Savoy. An Austrian general born in France, Eugene was a pan-European hero in the 1600s for his victories over the Turks. His triumphs resulted in the permanent expulsion of the Turks from all Hungarian lands.

https://i.imgur.com/Bj9XTs5.jpg

A courtyard of the palace features a big fountain whose statues tell a classic Hungarian tale. The great king Matthias Corvinus is hunting incognito when he meets the peasant maiden Ilonka. The two immediately fall in love, but Matthias doesn’t reveal his identity. Illonka secretly follows Matthias back to his palace, where she learns his true identity. Realizing they can never be together, Illonka either kills herself or dies of a broken heart, depending on what version you hear. This is a very representative Hungarian story.

https://i.imgur.com/zRUYfCX.jpg

Today, the interior of the castle holds the national library, a Budapest history museum, and the Hungarian National Gallery. We only have time for the Gallery, which we’ll visit in our next post.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4246935&forum_id=2#38138649)

Budapest has two major art galleries in it. The Museum of Fine Arts in Pest is Hungary’s main International art museum. The National Gallery, on the other hand, is focused exclusively on Hungarian art. Whatever it loses in international renown, it makes up for in cultural distinctiveness.

The tone is set immediately upon entry, as the central staircase is dominated by a gigantic painting of the recapture of Buda from the Turks.

https://i.imgur.com/LgwNfWm.jpg

One of the most distinctive features of the collection is a huge collection of wooden statues and winged altar-pieces from the Middle Ages. A sign as you enter points out that these are mostly from heavily-wooded “Upper Hungary,” or as everyone outside Hungary knows it today, Slovakia.

https://i.imgur.com/HC5PhzK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mthGUur.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/uZNpHcv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/edYKrAN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IbxvHck.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Lccqbvw.jpg

Some of the medieval saint portraits suffer from serious derp-face:

https://i.imgur.com/0kgJRJI.jpg

Oh no, looks like a dude is about to get martyred!

https://i.imgur.com/F1CctwE.jpg

Besides the altarpieces, the other interesting part of the gallery is the area dedicated to paintings in the decades after the failed 1848 revolution. With Hungary’s modern political ambitions crushed, nationalist artists turned to the deeper past. But rather than simply extolling the glories of St. Stephen or Matthias Corvinus, artists often dwelled upon gloomier themes, portraying tragic moments or gruesome legends from the Hungarian past.’

A classic example are these two paintings, Laszlo Hunyadi’s Farewell and The Mourning of Laszlo Hunyadi:

https://i.imgur.com/i6oNcyK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VDnvVWK.jpg

Laszlo was the son of John Hunyadi and older brother to Matthias Corvinus. He was murdered by the Hungarian king Laszlo V, who feared his power. Laszlo V was a Hapsburg ruler, so four hundred years later, Hungarians used Hunyadi’s death as a means to comment on the destruction brought by elevating an unjust foreign ruler.

Another grim painting shows King Louis II’s body being discovered after the disastrous Battle of Mohacs, where the Hungarian army was destroyed, paving the way for almost two centuries of Turkish domination.

https://i.imgur.com/xtIBszl.jpg (this painting is flame btw; Louis actually drowned while trying to flee the battle)

And speaking of Mohacs, another grim historical theme is that of Mihaly Dobozi and his wife. Dobozi survived the battle as well, and fled the Turks accompanied by his wife. But he could not outrun them, so to save his wife from rape at the hands of the Turks, he stabbed her to death, at her insistence. Not one but TWO paintings in the museum cover this story.

https://i.imgur.com/IAPv0SL.jpg

http://tilted-windmill.com/photos/var/albums/Hungary/Budapest/Buda-Castle/National-Gallery/Madar%C3%A1sz%20-%20Mih%C3%A1ly%20Dobozi%20and%20His%20Wife.jpg?m=1479499559

It’s hard to tell what exactly is happening in this painting, but the title is “The warrior Dezso sacrifices himself protecting King Charles Robert.” While the subjects all wear 1700s clothes, this painting commemorates the Battle of Posada in the 1300s, where the Wallachians crushed an incursion by the Hungarian army:

https://i.imgur.com/8EFgSD9.jpg

This painting is of some great Hungarian rebel, Imre Thokoly, having a Mufasa-style dream of his dad or an ancestor or something.

https://i.imgur.com/r78Cy0E.jpg

In this painting, anti-nobility rebels from the 1500s take down the bodies of executed comrades for proper burial:

https://i.imgur.com/Nvgw30y.jpg

By the way, read the Wiki page for George Dozsa sometime. He led those rebels, and his form of execution was REALLY grim.

One of the most memorable paintings in the collection is the Ordeal of the Bier, based on a classic Hungarian poem rather than a historical event. In pre-modern times, it was believed that blood would flow out of a murder victim’s wounds if they were approached by the murderer. Ordeal of the Bier shows one such scene. A young man’s body is found stabbed to death in the woods. One by one, every member of the village is brought near the body, without effect. Finally, only one person remains: The man’s “darling bride, Abigail.” She is brought forward as a mere formality, when to the horror of all, blood flows from the body!

https://i.imgur.com/ELE2zwB.jpg

Soon, the truth comes out: The man had begged Abigail to say she loved him, and otherwise he would kill himself. Intending to be playful, and fearing that “declaring her love would mean losing the game – and losing herself,” she refused, and instead placed the dagger in his hands. Now with horror she sees the result of her actions.

https://i.imgur.com/SCumco1.jpg

Not every painting is grim. One honors Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, one of the most famous royal saints in history. Married at 14 and widowed at 20, following her husband’s death Elizabeth took a vow of celibacy, gave up her children to others, and dedicated the rest of her short life to caring for the poor.

https://i.imgur.com/pHMUmLJ.jpg

In 1552, a massive Turkish army laid siege to the city of Eger. Against overwhelming odds, the defenders prevailed. This siege is among the most famous battles in Hungarian history, and a young adult novel about it (Eclipse of the Crescent Moon) is a fixture in Hungarian schools. Famously, the women of the city helped in the defense, so naturally the museum has a “women of Eger” painting:

https://i.imgur.com/ICixyoF.jpg

Yet another battle painting shows a climactic moment from the 1456 Siege of Belgrade. According to legend, a Turkish soldier managed to plant the Ottoman banner atop the city’s walls, but the soldier Titus Dugovic grabbed him and dived off the wall, killing both of them but preventing an Ottoman breakthrough.

https://i.imgur.com/UuYltwf.jpg

In 1867, following the Austro-Prussian War, Hungary regained internal sovereignty through the Augsleich, which created the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy. Shortly after that event, Gyula Benczur painted the Baptism of St. Stephen. One subtle message of the painting is that Hungary, as proud as it is, is also joined with the rest of Christendom through the Catholic faith:

https://i.imgur.com/S0paJFe.jpg

This painting is titled “Gabor Bethlen Among the Scholars.”

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Bethlen-tudos.jpg

In the days before Tinder and Instagram, rich noble shrews still got together to ridicule men for being short:

https://i.imgur.com/OLc2YwS.jpg

There are paintings from more recent times and on more varied themes elsewhere in the museum. Before heading out, you quickly get a look at a few of them:

https://i.imgur.com/xZwIzZ7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QusRMQ2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/wzPK8K1.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tzOwcQq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2QosltZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PD6NN1m.jpg (this one is intended to be John Milton, apparently dreaming up Paradise Lost while surrounded by his proto-shrew dotters)

https://i.imgur.com/zeqpfAQ.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4246935&forum_id=2#38168296)