Jul 21 2008
Budapest - The Palace of Parliament
The Palace of Parliament in Budapest has a building in a grandiose neo-gothic style, now without the red star in the top, designed by Imre Steindl, and built between 1885 and 1904. The building is situated on the right side of the Danube, that is in Pesta. The entrance in the richly decorated building is guarded by two imposing lions, made of stone. In the Doom Room there are the most elegant balls in Budapest and the most sophisticated diplomatic receptions. Although the palace remains the place where the nation law givers work, the building can also be visited by tourists in the company of a guide, when the Parliament is in session. The visit offers an opportunity to admire the gold ceilings, the frescoes on the walls, the elaborate glass windows and the majestic and imposing stairs (which have a total of 22 km inside the building). The central dome’s height reaches 96 m.
The main attraction is the Saint Crown of the nation, made for the first king of Hungary, St. Stephen, in the year 1000. The Crown is the national symbol of Hungary. It was moved from the National Museum and is now resting on a pad of velvet, guarded by two guards in uniform and bearing a sword under, the high dome of Parliament. In addition to its political-administrative importance, you must know that the Parliament is the second largest in Europe, and the third largest Parliament in the world. Today it seems too big for such a small country, but at the time of its construction Hungary formed part of the Habsburg Empire, that stretched from the Tatra Mountains to the Adriatic.
Using the British Parliament as a model for building it, the Palace is made of limestone, a rock easily to erode, which is why you always see a portion of the building surrounded by scaffolds. This means that the old stones are replaced by new ones… all of limestone. At the time it was built, the building needed so much money, that the same amount could be used for building a town for 60,000 people!
Expensive to maintain or not, the Parliament building represents a real architectural jewel or even more than that. Perhaps thanks to the Divinity, during the Second World War, a bomb which fell in the dome of the building has not exploded, while everywhere around Budapest was destroyed everywhere you looked.
Organized Tours in Budapest Parliament…
In English, the tours start at 10 am, 12 am, 13 pm, 14 pm every day
The tour lasts about 50 minutes.For visitors of non-EU countries the tickets cost 2.640 HUF for adults, 1.320 HUF for students. You can pay in cash (in Hungarian forint) on the premises or with credit card.
Citizens of the European Union can visit the parliament free of charge. You have to prove your citizenship with an official document (passport).
The entrance is at gate X. You can collect your ticket here 15 minutes before the tour starts.