Tripped

Preservationists, Take Heart

Don't let my two previous posts mislead you into thinking this whole place is falling down - there are some beautifully restored and maintained architectural gems in Budapest. On Friday we saw a couple of them during a self-guided walking tour of some highlights from the Secession movement here. The first was the spectacular restoration job done by the Four Seasons on the Gresham Palace, originally built by a UK insurance company and now (obviously) a luxury hotel. This is an interior door to the staircase, under the imposing and completely rebuilt glass roofed lobby atrium:

 

Another highlight was the Uj Szinhaz or New Theater, built originally as a nightclub in 1907 and twenty years ahead of its time - Art Deco before Deco was even a movement:

Some of the up-close details are gorgeous, like the angels and lettered tilework on the roof facade:

Bullets Over Budapest

The guidebook hype turns out to be true: wander around the Pest side and you'll see plenty of buildings like these, still scarred by Kalashnikov and heavier weapons fire from the 1956 uprising.

It also offers some perspective on the state of the economy here and its effect on the pace of building renovations.

Old Europe

Hungary is supposed to be one of those countries in "New Europe," but it looks and feels older than anyplace in the EU we've yet visited; with its crumbling facades and frayed edges on many of its historic structures, especially here on the Buda side of the river, its streetscape overwhelms you with echoes of faded glory. What "new" you do see - rehabs, street improvements, fresh construction - comes off as haphazard and small in comparison. It reminds me more of several of the South American cities we've visited than anything in the West, as if Communism here ended yesterday rather than twenty years ago.