3223 HUNGARY (Budapest) - Buda Castle - part of Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue (UNESCO WHS)

Located on the south tip of Castle Hill, Buda Castle is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian kings. It was first completed in 1265, during the reign of King Béla IV of Hungary, but the massive Baroque palace today occupying most of the site was built between 1749 and 1769. The oldest part of the present-day palace was built in the 14th century by Stephen, Duke of Slavonia, who was the younger brother of King Louis I of Hungary. King Sigismund significantly enlarged the palace and strengthened its fortifications.

3106, 3110 HUNGARY - The map and the flag of the country

3106 The map of Hungary

Posted on 05.07.2017, 16.07.2017
Located in Central Europe, in the Carpathian Basin, between Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, and Ukraine, Hungary covers an area of 93,030 square kilometres and has 10 million inhabitants. Its capital is Budapest, officially created in 1873 by the merger of the neighboring cities of Pest, Buda and Óbuda. Originally a Celtic settlement, then the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia, it was from around 1300 to 1873 the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary for five periods of less than a century each, and after that, until 1918, became the co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

3110 The flag of Hungary, with its map and coat of arms
(from the series Flags of the World)

Following centuries of successive habitation by Celts, Romans, Slavs, Gepids and Avars, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late 9th century by the Hungarian grand prince Árpád in the conquest of the Carpathian Basin. The year 972 marked the date when the ruling prince Géza officially started to integrate Hungary into the Christian Western Europe. His first-born son, Saint Stephen I, became the first King of Hungary, and turned Hungary in a Catholic Apostolic Kingdom.

0373, 0818, 1535, 3103 HUNGARY (Budapest) - Hungarian Parliament Building - part of Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue (UNESCO WHS)

3103 Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest (3)

Posted on 09.01.2013, 23.04.2015, 30.06.2017
It has 268 m length, 123 m wide, and 96 m height, being one of the two tallest buildings in Budapest, along with Saint Stephen's Basilica. The number 96 refers to the 1000th anniversary of the country in 1896, when it was inaugurated (even if was completed only in 1904). Its interior includes 10 courtyards, 13 passenger and freight elevators, 27 gates, 29 staircases and 691 rooms. Its architect, Imre Steindl, went blind before its completion.

0373 Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest (1)

It's about Országház (which literally means "House of the Country"), the Hungarian Parliament Building, located on Lajos Kossuth Square, on the bank of the Danube. Budapest was united from three cities in 1873 and seven years later the Diet resolved to establish a new, representative Parliament Building, expressing the sovereignty of the nation. An international competition was held, and Imre Steindl emerged as the victor. Construction was started in 1885 and the building was inaugurated on the 1000th anniversary of the country in 1896, and completed in 1904.

0818 Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest (2)

Similar to the Palace of Westminster, it was built in the Gothic Revival style, and it has a symmetrical facade (where are displayed statues of Hungarian rulers, Transylvanian leaders and military commanders) and a central dome in Renaissance Revival style. The main façade overlooks the River Danube, but the official main entrance is from the square on the east side of the building. About 100,000 people were involved in construction, during which 40 million bricks, half a million precious stones and 40 kilograms of gold were used.

1535 Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest by night

In interior are other statues, including those of Árpád, Stephen I and John Hunyadi. The Holy Crown of Hungary, which is also depicted in the coat of arms of Hungary, is also displayed since 2000 in the hexadecagonal (sixteen-sided) central hall, one of the famous parts of the building. Further features include the stained glass and glass mosaics by Miksa Róth. Some of the best views of the Parliament are from the Danube (take a Danube cruise) or from across the river, especially from Batthyány Square, which is only one stop by subway from Kossuth square on the M2 line.

3086 HUNGARY (Bács-Kiskun) - The traditional costume of Kalocsa region

The Kalocsa is a marshy but highly productive district, on the left bank of the Danube River, in south central Hungary, and forms part of the cultural area known as the Great Hungarian Plain. Although is not very large, it has developed a beautiful form of very colorful embroidery which is often considered to be representative of Hungary. This handicraft was born in the second half of the 19th century, and originally the needlework was only white and the embroidery patterns were merely made up by holes.

2794 HUNGARY - Vineyards

The Romans brought vines to Pannonia, and by the 5th century AD, there are records of extensive vineyards in what is now Hungary. Following the Magyar invasion of 896, Árpád rewarded his followers with vineyards in Tokaj. Over the following centuries, new grape varieties were brought in from Italy and France. Most of the production was of white wine. During the Ottoman invasion in the early 16th century, displaced Serbs brought the red Kadarka grape to Eger.

2779 HUNGARY - The locomotive no. 376.631, class 376

During the last two decades of the 19th century the number of branchlines in Hungary increased quickly, almost all of them as private initiatives. The builders made use of the state grants and real estate speculations, but when getting ready, they left the operation for the State Railway, MÁV. This happened usually using the "Standard Contract", which foresaw all parts of the railroad to be built according MÁV standards. The most branchline companies built on the cheapest way that was allowed by the "Standard Contract", resulting light rails capable only for axle loads as light as 10 metric tons.

2756 HUNGARY - Siemens Taurus electric locomotive No. 470 007

At the beginning of the 1990's, Deutsche Bahn AG wanted to replace the aged Einheits-Elektrolokomotiven (standard electric locomotive) with a more modern and efficient model. So appeared the EuroSprinter family of electric locomotives, a modular concept of locomotives for the European market built by Siemens. The internal Siemens product name is ES 64, with ES for EuroSprinter and the number 64 indicating the 6,400 kW power at rail. Additional information is given in the name on the usage (U as universal, P as prototype and F as freight).

HUNGARY (Budapest) - Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue (UNESCO WHS)

The history of what will became Budapest began with Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement that became, in the beginning of the Christian era, the capital of the Roman province Pannonia Inferior. The Huns, Lombards, Avars and Slavs passed through there, and in 829 Pannonia was annexed by the First Bulgarian Empire, which built two military frontier fortresses, Buda and Pest, situated on the two banks of Danube. At the end of the 9th century, the Magyar clan of Árpád arrived in the territory. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241-1242.

0454 HUNGARY (Budapest) - Heroes' Square - part of Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue (UNESCO WHS)

0454  Heroes' Square in Budapest

Located at the end of Andrássy Avenue, next to City Park, Heroes' Square (Hősök tere) is one of the major squares of Budapest, rich with historic and political connotations. The central site of the square is the Millennium Memorial, with statues of the leaders of the seven tribes that founded Hungary in the 9th century (Árpád, Előd, Ond, Kond, Tas, Huba, and Töhötöm) and other outstanding figures of Hungarian history (on the left colonnade - Stephen I, Ladislaus I, Coloman, Andrew II, Béla IV, Charles I, Louis I; on the right colonnade - John Hunyadi, Matthias Corvinus, István Bocskay, Gabriel Bethlen, Imre Thököly, Francis II Rákóczi, Lajos Kossuth).

0657 HUNGARY (Komárom-Esztergom) - The Basilica of Esztergom

Esztergom, one of the oldest towns in Hungary, was a long time a frontier town, as also its name say it (the Old Slavonic name, Strěgom, means guard post). Erected by Celts, then conquered by Romans, who turned it into an important frontier point on the boundary of the province of Pannonia, the town was mastered successively by Germans and Avars. At about 500 AD, Slavic peoples settled there, in the 9th century, the region being part of Great Moravia. After the arrival of the Magyars, Géza chose Esztergom as his residence in 960, and his son, future Stephen I, was born in his palace built on the Roman castrum on the Várhegy (Castle Hill). Here, in Esztergom, he was baptised and later crowned. For almost 300 years it was the center of the country's political and economic life, and it has retained its importance even after moving the capital to Buda. Only the Ottoman conquest in 1526 brought a decline of the city.

0610 HUNGARY (Veszprém) - A horse-drawn wagon in Ajka

As said Bernadett, this postcard is part of a series published in 2009, when the city Ajka, situated in the hills of Bakony, in western Hungary, celebrated 50 years of existence. At first glance it seems a bit strange the presence of a postcard showing a horse-drawn wagon in such a series devoted to a mining town founded in 1960, even if the Hungarians are passionate about horses and have a long tradition in their breeding, but things are not so, because the settlement, named after the Ajka clan, was first mentioned in 1214, to the age of the Árpád dynasty, when it was already about a hundred years old.

0491 HUNGARY - A hussar and his wife

The first mention of the Hussarones (in latin) was in documents dating from 1432 in Southern Hungary. According to Webster's, the word hussar stems from the Hungarian huszár, which originates from the Serbian and Croatian husar (pirate), from the Medieval Latin cursarius. According to another theory, the word is derived from the Hungarian húsz (twenty), signifying that 'one in twenty' was selected for service. The hussars originated in bands of mostly Serbian warriors crossing into southern Hungary after the Turkish invasion of Serbia at the end of the 14th century. The Governor of Hungary, the Walachian Iancu de Hunedoara, created mounted units inspired by the Ottomans. His son, Matthias Corvinus, later king of Hungary, is unanimously accepted as the creator of these troops, the first Hussar regiments being the light cavalry of the Black Army of Hungary.

0448 HUNGARY (Budapest) - The Fishermen's Bastion - part of Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue (UNESCO WHS)

0448 The Fishermen's Bastion in Budapest

Located in Budapest, on the Castle hill, behind the sanctuary of the Matthias Church, on the Buda bank of the Danube, the Fishermen's Bastion (Halászbástya) is a terrace which offers a splendid view of the Danube and Pest. It was named after the guild of fishermen, which lived nearby in Watertown (Vízívaros), at the foot of the hill, and was responsible for defending this stretch of the city walls in the Middle Ages. An old fish market also sat at this location during medieval times.

0405 HUNGARY - A chief herdsman in Dévaványa, in 1940

Puszta of the Pannonian Plain, an exclave of the steppes of Asia, is the only region in central Europe which can provide the grazing for a large numbers of horses. It was therefore natural to be preferred by nomadic peoples coming from the steppes of Asia, be they Huns, Gepids, Avars, Magyars or Tartars, whose armies were based almost entirely on cavalry. Probably that, for example, the hordes of Batu Khan would have had to withdraw in the Russian steppe in late 1241, after they have devastated Eastern and Central Europe, had it not been Puszta. In addition, its geographic position was perfect as the basis for raids into Western Europe and Balkans.

0081 HUNGARY (Budapest) - Saint Stephen's Basilica - part of Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue - Saint Stephen's Basilica (UNESCO WHS)

0081 Saint Stephen's Basilica in Budapest
in nowadays and at the beginning of the 20th century

Saint Stephen's Basilica (Szent István bazilika) is the most important church not only from Budapest, but from the entire Hungary. Completed in 1905 after 54 years of construction, according to the plans of Miklós Ybl, one of Europe's leading architects in the mid to late 19th century, basilica is and will remain the tallest building in Budapest, with 96m (as also Hungarian Parliament Building, the equality symbolizing that worldly and spiritual thinking have the same importance). I said that "is and will remain" the tallest, because the current regulations simply don't allow construction of buildings tallest than that.