A Not-So-Little Piece of History

The Hungarian Parliament building from across the Danube.

Well, it’s officially our last week in Budapest.  Time flies when you’re having fun!  It truly has been a great experience and we’ve done so much since we’ve been here.   We can certainly call Budapest our “home away from home”.  Even though we have seen so much and have been gearing up for our final, we still have a couple things to check off of our list of sights to see.  On our first day here, our tour guide took us past the Hungarian Parliament building.  Its massive size and beautiful exterior left us wanting to see more.  After three weeks, we finally got a chance to tour it today!

The Upper House of Parliament.

The Hungarian Parliament is the third largest parliament building in the world; only Romania and Argentina boast bigger buildings.  Walking into the building was somewhat intimidating, as we had to go through security measures very similar to that at an airport.  They were incredibly thorough in their inspection, as Professor Hanson learned after being searched a few times.  After passing our security test, we were led to the main entrance of the building, where our guide brought our attention to a scale model of parliament.  Apparently, some Hungarian family has way too much time on their hands, as they built it from over 100,000 match sticks.  Following that, we climbed 96 stairs to the dome.  Those 96 steps symbolize the year 896, in which Hungary first became a nation.  The dome boasted a beautiful display of architecture and design, but the central focus was a small case in the center of the room.  On the other side of the glass were the three crown jewels of Hungary and the Holy Crown.  The crown was first worn by St. Stephen, the first Christian king of Hungary, whose reign began in the year 1000.  It is amazing to see that after 1000 years the crown is still in one piece, though it took a lot to keep it that way.  During WWII, the crown was smuggled out of Hungary and hidden in Fort Knox, USA in an attempt to keep this important piece of history away from the Nazis.  At the end of the war, it was returned to Hungary, and finally took its place in parliament in the year 2000, on the 1000-year anniversary of the crowning of St. Stephen.  Our tour ended in the Upper House of parliament.  This chamber is no longer used in politics, but rather it is rented out for private events.  How much does it cost to rent a chamber in parliament?  Only $6,000 per hour!  Needless to say, we won’t be holding class there anytime soon!  We were also intrigued to learn that not only is the Hungarian Parliament the third largest in the world, but its marble pillars and gold adornments make it the most expensive parliament building ever built!  Today, it is worth enough to build an entire city!  

There are tons of amazing sights to see in Hungary, and we feel so lucky to have seen so much of their history.  We hope to see more of it before we leave on Saturday!  Szia!

~ Jordan and Lauren.