SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 1999
St. Stephen's Basilica


We finally made it to St. Stephen's Basilica! The Basilica was constructed in 1851 and the ground plan of it is shaped like a Greek cross. The Basilica is the largest church in Budapest and the second largest in Hungary.

When we first got there a wedding was just coming out and in the five minutes it took us to get around to the side to come in another wedding had started. Then as we were leaving, a third wedding was entering. It's faster than Vegas!


This is the mummified hand of St. Stephen!

Szent István (his name in Hungarian) is the founder of the Hungarian State and was Hungary's first king. August 20 is St. István day and according to tradition, the dead king's right hand is brought out of St Stephen's Basilica and carried through Budapest in a procession of Catholic clergy and lay people. Yech.

If you click on the picture on the right you can see his fist looking straight on. That's it, the brown blob in the center!


We left the Basilica and passed through Vaci Utca and Vörösmarty Square on the way to the Vígadó (Redoute) the building on the left. The Redoute is the first elegant music hall of Pest. It was built as a dance and concert hall in 1859-64.

This statue of József Nádor is the oldest standing non-religious statue in Budapest.

Next we went in search of the oldest tree of the capital. It's an acadia that was planted in the 1840's.

We followed the guide book to the Academy of Sciences where, across in the square, we would hopefully find the tree. We were looking for a statue of Count István Szécheny the "Greatest Hungarian" who would be standing on a granite post facing (his greatest achievement) the Chain Bridge. The tree would be 10 meters away! So we found the statue on the left first and the guy (Ferenc Deak) WAS facing the Chain Bridge, but he was sitting. So we took of across the grass to find another statue, and found this one not too far away. The picture on the right is the Count.

So now we were between two statues and a patch of trees in the middle, we knew we were close!




Well, here it is! It was on the other side of the bunch of trees that we walked by. I guess we were thinking "bigger", you know Sequoia type trees!




We were done, so we headed back to the car and went the way the guidebook suggested to see some cool buildings and we passed this bank and building.

We still have Sunday! Continue on to the Hungarian National Museum