110 - Hungary

Győr [Győr (Hungarian), Raab (German), Ráb (older Czech, older Slovak), Dyor - Дьёр (Russian)] is the most important city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron county and lies on one of the important roads of Central Europe, halfway between Budapest and Vienna. The city is the sixth largest in Hungary and one of the seven main regional centres of the country.

109 - Hungary

It was founded as the first Hungarian Benedictine monastery in 996 by Prince Géza, who designated this as a place for the monks to settle, and then it soon became the centre of the Benedictine order. The monastery was built in honour of Saint Martin of Tours. Géza's son, King Stephen I donated estates and privilege to the monastery. Astrik (Anastasius) served as its first abbot.
The oldest surviving document to use Hungarian language, the Charter of the Tihany Benedictine Abbey, dating back to 1055, is still preserved in the library. The first buildings of the community were destroyed, then rebuilt in 1137. The Basilica's pillars and the early Gothic vault were built in the early XIII century, using the walls of the former church. In 1486 it was reconstructed under King Matthias in Gothic style.
The monastery became an archabbey in 1541 and as a result of Ottoman incursions into Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was turned into a fortification. During one and a half centuries of the Turkish Occupation, the monks, however, had to abandon the abbey for shorter or longer periods of time. Only later were they able to start the reconstruction of the damaged buildings. During the time of Archabbot Benedek Sajghó, a major baroque construction was in progress in the monastery.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, rich Baroque adornments and extensions were added to the complex and much of its current facade dates from this time. It received its present form in 1832, with the library and the tower, which was built in classicistic style. The 18th century, the era of the Enlightenment also influenced the life of the monasteries. The state and the monarchs judged the operation of the communities according to immediate utility, by and large tolerating only those orders which practised nursing and education. In the 1860s, Ferenc Storno organised major renovations, mostly in the basilica.
After 1945 the properties of the Order and the schools run by the Benedictines were confiscated by the communist state from 1950 until the end of communism in Hungary. In 1995, one year before the millennium, the complex was entirely reconstructed and renovated. In 1996, "the Millenary Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma and its Natural Environment" was elected among the World Heritage sites.
Pannonhalma was visited, among others, by Alexius II, Patriarch of Moscow in 1994, Pope John Paul II in 1996 and Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople and the Dalai Lama in 2000. In 2005, a film was made about the archabbot, Asztrik Várszegi, titled A közvetítő ("The mediator").

108 - Hungary

The library was finished in the first third of the 19th century. The longitudinal part of the building was planned and built by Ferenc Engel in the 1820´s. Later János Packh was commissioned with extending the edifice, and the oval hall is his work. Joseph Klieber, a Vienna master was asked to ornament the interior of the building.
On the four sides of the oval hall's ceiling the allegories of the four medieval university faculties can be seen: Law, Theology, Medicine and the Arts. The holdings of the library have been increasing ever since. Manuscripts from the time of Saint László have been catalogued in Pannonhalma. As of today, 400.000 volumes are kept in the collection.

107 - Hungary

Pannonhalma's most notable landmark, the Benedictine Pannonhalma Archabbey, one of the oldest historical monuments in Hungary, can be found next to the town, on top of a hill (282 m). Saint Martin of Tours is believed to have been born at the foot of this hill, hence its former name, Mount of Saint Martin (Márton-hegy in Hungarian), from which the monastery occasionally took the alternative name of Márton-hegyi Apátság. This is the second largest territorial (ie., approx. sovereign) abbey in the world, after the one in Monte Cassino.

106 - Hungary

Pannonhalma is a small town in western Hungary, in Győr-Moson-Sopron county with approx. 4.000 inhabitants. It is about 20 km from Győr; it is accessible by car, bus or train.
The town, known as Győrszentmárton until 1965, is dominated by its most famous landmarks: the thousand-year-old Pannonhalma Archabbey and the Benedictine Secondary School, which are situated above the village, on Szent Marton Hill. The hill itself is still known by this ancient name and the name "Pannonhalma" was introduced as part of the Hungarian language reforms in the nineteenth century. The association with Saint Martin ("Szent Márton" in Hungarian) derives from a belief that Martin of Tours was born here, though others believe he was born in nearby Szombathely.
There is a small statue in the town at the crossroads under the abbey which shows the saint as a Roman soldier, cutting his cloak according to the legend associated with him. The wall behind this is part of the original fortifications which were built in 1569 as a result of incursions into Western Hungary by the Ottoman Turks. The area remained a moving frontier between the Islamic Ottoman empire and the Christian west for the following 140 years and the town suffered considerable damage during this time.
From at least the nineteenth century, Szent Marton had a significant Jewish community. They played an important role in the commerce of village, as it was then, until the latter years of World War II. In 1944 the remaining Jewish families were rounded up and sent to extermination camps. A small synagogue, built in the late 1800´s, remains on the main street, though it is no longer in use. The building is in the process of being restored and a monument has been constructed on the street in front of it. Some dozens of Jews were protected in the abbey when it was taken under control of the International Red Cross in October 1944, along with 3.000 other refugees, many of them children, thanks to the efforts of a Swiss national, Eduard Benedek Brunschweiler. The IRC was expelled from Pannonhalma by the Red Army in April 1945.
In 1996 parts of the town were included in UNESCO's demarcation of the Abbey as a World Heritage Site. Four years later, the village of Pannonhalma was officially granted "town" status.

105 - Hungary

Winemaking started in the Pannonhalma-Sokoróalja region when Benedictine monks founded the monastery of Pannonhalma in 996. Social and political turmoil following World War II made it impossible to continue the centuries-old traditions, since both the properties and the winery were taken over by the Communist state. In the ensuing decades, monks living in Pannonhalma did not give up hope of resuscitating their wine-making traditions. Since the fall of Communism, the monks have revived the viticultural traditions and the wineries. In 2000, the abbey repurchased vineyards that had been confiscated by the Communists and began replanting grape vines in the same year. The winery is situated on a 2000 m² plot with a capacity of 3000 hls. The main grape varieties are Rhine Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Welchriesling, Ezerjó and Sárfehér. In addition, they have planted the more international Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. They currently have 37 hectares under newly planted vines and the first harvest took place in autumn 2003.

104 - Hungary

The name Esztergom was first mentioned in 1079. Some think the name comes from Isztergam (Iszter meaning Danube and Gam referring to the nearby river Garam). The town is the seat of Etzel/Attila in the Niebelungenlied as Gran. In Croatian Ostrogon, in Polish Ostrzyhom, in Slovak Ostrihom, in Latin Strigonium, in Turkish Estergon.

103 - Hungary

The Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed Into Heaven and St Adalbert is an ecclesiastic basilica in Esztergom, Hungary, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest, and the seat of the Catholic Church in Hungary. It is dedicated to the Saint Mary of the Assumption and Saint Adalbert.The building of the present church took place on the foundation of several earlier churches. The first was built by Stephen I of Hungary between 1001–1010 (as the original Saint Adalbert church), the first cathedral in Hungary, which was burned down at the end of XII century. It was rebuilt, and even survived the Mongol invasion of Hungary. However, in 1304, Wenceslaus III, a probable candidate for the Hungarian throne, sacked the castle and the church. It was repaired in the the following years. The archbishops of the XIV and XV century ornated the church more, made some altering and a huge library was also added, the second most significant one in the country. It was ruined again under Turkish rule, in 1543. In 1820, the Archdiocese was restored and archbishop Sándor Rudnay decided to restore Esztergom's status as mother church of the country.
The architect was Pál Kühnel and the lead contractor was János Packh. The foundation-stone was laid and work began in 1822. The Bakócz chapel was carefully disassembled (into about 1,600 pieces) and was moved 20 metres away from its original location and attached to the new basilica. In 1838 Packh was murdered, so József Hild was placed in charge of construction. He completed it in Classicistic style. Under the next archbishop, János Scitovszky, the upper church was completed and dedicated on August 31, 1856. The 1856 consecration ceremonies featured the premiere of the Missa solennis zur Einweihung der Basilika in Gran (Gran Mass), composed and conducted by Franz Liszt. The final completion of the cathedral took place twelve years later in 1869.

102 - Hungary

Esztergom (known by alternative names) is a city in northern Hungary, about 50 km north-west of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there.
Esztergom was the capital of Hungary from the 10th till the mid-13th century and it was the Royal Seat until King Béla IV of Hungary moved to Visegrád and later to Buda.
Esztergom still is the seat of the prímás (Primate) of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. The city has the Keresztény Múzeum, the largest ecclesiastical collection in Hungary. Its cathedral, Esztergom Basilica is the largest church in Hungary.
One of the newest sights of Esztergom is the Mária Valéria bridge, connecting Esztergom with the city of Štúrovo in Slovakia. Originally it was inaugurated in 1895, but the retreating German troops destroyed it in 1944. It was rebuilt in 2001 with the support of the European Union.

101 - Hungary

In the Pannonhalma Archives of the Benedictine Archabbey we can find one of the richest and most valuable collections of documents from the first centuries of the Hungarian statehood. It includes the monastery's interpolated charter (1001-1002) from Saint Stephen, the founding charter of the Tihany Abbey (1055), the first known written text to include Hungarian words and phrases. The records of the medieval Pannonhalma, a monastery with the rights to issue official documents (locus authenticus), and the records of the Bakonybél, the Tihany and the Dömölk abbeys constitute separate entities. The archive collects documents from the archabbot's office, the Theological School and the former Teacher Training School of the order, the former and current secondary schools, the dependent Benedictine houses, the finance offices of the Archabbey, and from the documentation of the parishes that belong to the so called Territorial Abbey: a quasi-diocese under the authority of the Archabbey. Partially as deposit, partially as inheritance, the archives of the Guary, the Somogyi, the Chernel, the Kende, the Erdődy and the Lónyay families came into our collection. The amount of the archive's holdings is 192 running metres.

100 - Hungary

The Danube Bend (Dunakanyar in Hungarian), marks a point in the Danube where the river literally makes a sharp bend (the direction of the current does not change direction though). The Danube Bend is not a town, but a region or certain length of the Danube which is dotted by a string of small riverside towns north of Budapest. Both Hungarians and foreign tourists find this a popular excursion destination. Just after Esztergom, about 40km (25 miles) north of Budapest, the Danube swings abruptly south. This marks the beginning of the Danube Bend region if approaching from the north. The river then swings sharply north again just before Visegrád, and then heads south once more before reaching Vác. Vác typically marks the end of the Danube Bend. The charming towns along the meandering Danube Bend - particularly Szentendre, Visegrád, and Esztergom - can easily be vistied on day trips from Budapest since they are all close to Budapest.

099 - Hungary

The Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed Into Heaven and St. Adalbert is an ecclesiastic basilica in Esztergom, Hungary, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest, and the seat of the Catholic Church in Hungary. It is dedicated to the Saint Mary of the Assumption and Saint Adalbert.
It is the tallest building in Hungary and the 18th biggest church in the world. Its inner area is 56,000 m². It is 118 m long and 49 m wide. It has a reverberation time of more than 9 seconds. Its dome, forming a semi-sphere, is situated in the middle, and it has 12 windows. It is 71,5 m high inside, with a diameter of 33,5 metres, and is 100 m high from outside, counted from the crypt.
The altarpiece (13,5×6,6 metres, depicting the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by Michelangelo Grigoletti) is the largest painting in the world painted on a single piece of canvas.
The basilica is also known for Bakócz Chapel (named after Tamás Bakócz), built by Italian masters between 1506-1507 out of red marble of Süttő, its walls adorned with Tuscan Renaissance motifs. It is the most precious remaining example of Renaissance art in Hungary.
The huge crypt, built in Old Egyptian style in 1831, is today the resting place of late archbishops, among others, József Mindszenty.

098 - Hungary

The building of the Hungarian Culture Foundation is located in the heart of the Buda Castle, near the Matthias Church and the Fishermen's Bastion. The house of the Foundation is an impressive palace of new gothic style, built in the early 20th century.
In the frameworks of its activities focusing on Hungarians living outside the country's borders, the Foundation fosters the broadening of cultural relationships among prominent Hungarian personalities and public living all over the world.
The central concept of the initiatives of the Foundation is the "meeting of regions". In this spirit we organize the Day of Hungarian Culture, the Cartoon Festival, the Smile-days of Buda, the Day of Poetry, the Days of Carpathian Basin, the Honey-days of Buda, and other events all year round.
The Hungarian Culture Foundation produces the financial sources for its mission through entrepreneurial work. Our magnificent setting is available to those who look for an ideal scene for a ball, a reception, a party, a conference, a training course, a concert, or a performance. In the ornate hall of our building, the Foundation arranges fine arts, business and trade exhibitions. This facility of great traditions also offers offices to let. Furthermore, the Foundation runs a 16-room two-star hotel with a family atmosphere. In the rooms of the Hotel Kulturinnov there are private showers, telephones and mini-bars. Room prices include buffet breakfast.
In the building of the Hungarian Culture Foundation are housed several restaurants, such as the Jankó Contemporary Hungarian Restaurant, the Matthias Restaurant, and Fortuna Restaurant; drink bars are also at our guests' service. In the Fortuna Passage, which belongs to the house of the Foundation, one can browse special shops such as Judit Józsa's Pure Source Gallery offering hand-made ceramics and sculptures, the Fortuna Antique Shop, as well as a Fashion Store. In the cellar of the building you can visit the House of Hungarian Wines, where you can taste the most famous wines of all 22 Hungarian wine-regions.

097 - Hungary

Pannonhalma's most notable landmark, the Benedictine Pannonhalma Archabbey, one of the oldest historical monuments in Hungary, can be found next to the town, on top of a hill (282 m). Saint Martin of Tours is believed to have been born at the foot of this hill, hence its former name, Mount of Saint Martin (Márton-hegy in Hungarian), from which the monastery occasionally took the alternative name of Márton-hegyi Apátság. This is the second largest territorial (ie., approx. sovereign) abbey in the world, after the one in Monte Cassino.

The library was finished in the first third of the 19th century. The longitudinal part of the building was planned and built by Ferenc Engel in the 1820s. Later János Packh was commissioned with extending the edifice, and the oval hall is his work. Joseph Klieber, a Vienna master was asked to ornament the interior of the building.
On the four sides of the oval hall's ceiling the allegories of the four medieval university faculties can be seen: Law, Theology, Medicine and the Arts. The holdings of the library have been increasing ever since. Manuscripts from the time of Saint László have been catalogued in Pannonhalma. As of today, 450.000 volumes are kept in the collection.

096 - Hungary

The Citadel (Fellegvár) and the Lower Castle The Visegrád double castle system is one of the castles built by Béla IV recognizing the consequences of the Mongol invasion. The fortress preserved its significance until the Turkish invasions.
The Citadel had a multifunctional role: it was protecting the valley of the Danube, it was controlling the main commerical route between Buda and Esztergom, and also served as a custom’s house. The fortress consisted of two parts.
The construction of the Lower Castle started under the reign of Béla IV around 1247. It was unique, as the fortress was not located next to the road differing from the common traditions, but the road was crossing the territory of the castle. The most interesting part of the Lower Castle is the so called Solomon Tower. The Tower was named after a false story, stating that Solomon was guarded in this Tower after loosing in the battle for the throne against King Saint László and Géza.
This unique Hungarian building was constructed based on a southern-German design. Under the reign of Louis the Great King of Hungary, the famous bell-founder Konrád Gaal was operating in the fortress. Today the Tower is hosting a five-storey museum, introducing the history of Visegrád to its visitors.
In 1246 Béla IV started the construction of the Citadel on an area with outstanding geographical characteristics, by the using the money from the family jewels of his wife, Mária Lascaris to build a refugee for the Dominican Order nuns living on the ’Rabbits Island’ (today’s Margaret Island).
At that time the plan of the fortress was triangle-shaped, with two towers.
The Old Tower was erected at a location most at risk, and the Gate Tower protected the southern entrance. The significance of the fortress considerably improved during the Anjou era. Once Charles Robert obtained the fortress from Máté Csák, he moved the royal court here in 1323.
The Visegrád Citadel hosted the famous Royal Summit of Kings, and the first Anjou King died in the castle in 1370. The Saint Crown of Hungary was guarded here. When Louis the Great became the King of Poland in 1370, the Polish crown was also stored in the castle. The palace wings and a new external wall was erected during the Anjou reign. Sigismund of Luxemburg extended the fortification with a third set of walls and carried out several lavish constructions.
Following the Turkish reign, after the liberation of Buda in 1686 the Habsburgs conquered the fortress after a 5-day siege. Due to the dissolution of the border castle system the fortification became unwanted and was left to ruin.
The excavation and reconstruction activities started in 1871 and are still underway today.

095 - Hungary

Lake Balaton affects the local area precipitation per annum. The area receives approximately two to three inches (5-7 cm) more precipitation than most of Hungary, resulting in more cloudy days, and less extreme temperatures. The lake's surface freezes during colder winters. Lake Balaton region's climate has also made it ideal for growing grapes to make wine. Secondary radiation is emitted from the lake doubling the amount of sunlight that the grapes vines of the region receive. The Mediterranean climate combined with the soil (containing volcanic rock) has made the region notable for its production of wines since the Roman period two thousand years ago.

094 - Hungary

Tihany is a village on the northern shore of Lake Balaton on the Tihany Peninsula (Hungary, Veszprém County). The whole peninsula is a historical district.
The center of the district is the Benedictine Abbey, which was founded in 1055 AD by András (Andrew) I, who is buried in the crypt. (The founding charter of this abbey is the first extant record of Hungarian language, preserved in Pannonhalma Benedictine Archabbey.) The church itself was rebuilt in baroque style in 1754. The still functioning abbey is a popular tourist attraction due to its historical and artistic significance. It also has the best view of Lake Balaton.
The abbey also features as a footnote in Habsburg history - the last Habsburg Emperor of Austria, Charles I was briefly held prisoner here following his second attempt to regain the throne of Hungary.

093 - Hungary

Lake Balaton, located in Hungary, is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the foremost regional tourist destinations. Due to Hungary being landlocked, it is often affectionately called the "Hungarian Sea". The Zala River provides the largest inflow of water to the lake, and the canalized Sió is the only outflow. With a surface area of 592 km² has a length of 77 km and a width ranging from 4 to 14 km. The lake's surface is 104 m above sea level, and its depth varies up to 12,2 m (mean depth is 3,2 m).

In Hungarian, the lake is known as Balaton (nicknamed Balcsi, and sometimes "The Hungarian Sea"); in Latin as Lacus Pelso, in German as Plattensee, in Slovak as Blatenské jazero and in Croatian and Serbian as Blatno jezero.
Its name means approximately "muddy lake" in Slavic ("blato" means "mud" in South-Slavic from earlier Pan-Slavic "bolto"). The Hungarian name Balaton, is also derived from the original Slavic name (Slavic neutrum adjective "boltьno(-je ezero)" = "muddy (lake)"), but it has no concrete meaning today in Hungarian.
The Romans called the lake Lacus Pelso ("Lake Pelso"). Pelso derives from a local name for the lake, perhaps from the Illyrian language, the Illyrians having once populated the region. Paleolinguists surmise that "Pelso" meant "shallow" in Illyrian, this deduction being based on its probable Proto-Indo-European root *pels-, and on examples such as Plattensee ("shallow sea"), a name given to the lake by the Germanic people in the area through the centuries.

033 - Hungary

"Himnusz" (in English: Hymn) - the song beginning with the words Isten, áldd meg a magyart (God, bless the Hungarians) - is the official national anthem of Hungary. It was adopted in 1844 and the first stanza is sung at official ceremonies. The words were written by Ferenc Kölcsey, a nationally renowned poet in 1823, and the now-official music was composed by romantic composer Ferenc Erkel, although other less-known musical versions exist. The poem had the subtitle "A magyar nép zivataros századaiból" ("From the rough centuries of the Hungarian people"); it is often argued that this subtitle was only added so that the poem passes Habsburg censorship, by emphasizing past rather than present national grievances.
The poem and song titled "Szózat", which starts with the words Hazádnak rendületlenül légy híve, óh magyar (To your homeland be faithful steadfastly, O Hungarian) enjoys a social status nearly equal to that of "Himnusz", even though only "Himnusz" is mentioned in the Constitution of Hungary. Traditionally, Himnusz is sung at the beginning of ceremonies, and Szózat at the end.
Recognition is also given to the Rákóczi March, a short wordless piece (composer unknown, but sometimes attributed to János Bihari) which is often used on state military occasions; and the poem Nemzeti dal written by Sándor Petőfi.
The official radio station Kossuth Rádió plays Himnusz every day at ten past midnight when broadcast on AM bands ends, and so do the state TV channels at the end of the daily broadcast. Himnusz is also traditionally played on Hungarian television at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve. Even in private homes, people will stand and sing along at that time.
The words of the Hungarian anthem are unusual for the genre in expressing a direct plea to God rather than proclaiming national pride. Because of the mention of God, the anthem was played but the words were not sung during the period of the strongest Communist rule in Hungary (1949–1956). (Party Secretary Mátyás Rákosi even asked composer Zoltán Kodály to write a new, Communist-themed national anthem, but Kodály refused, and Rákosi didn't press the matter.) After the fall of the Hungarian Revolution, János Kádár attempted to replace the Himnusz with Szózat as the national anthem, but failed.

* O, my God, the Magyar bless
With Thy plenty and good cheer!
With Thine aid his just cause press,
Where his foes to fight appear.
Fate, who for so long did’st frown,
Bring him happy times and ways;
Atoning sorrow hath weighed down
Sins of past and future days.

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032 - Hungary

The Szózat (in English: Appeal or Summons) is considered as a second national anthem of Hungary, beside the Himnusz. Usually only its first two stanzas are sung at national celebrations. The official anthem is sung at the beginning of ceremonies, and Szózat is sung at the end. It was written in 1836 by Mihály Vörösmarty, and was set to music in 1840 by Béni Egressy.

* Oh, Magyar, keep immovably
your native country's trust,
for it has borne you, and at death
will consecrate your dust!

No other spot in all the world
can touch your heart as home—
let fortune bless or fortune curse,
from hence you shall not roam!

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