Hungary and Budapest: Danube Bend (6.12.25)

The Danube River stretches from its headwaters in western Germany to its outlet in Bulgaria, where it pours into the Black Sea.  The Danube bends sharply south just north of Budapest.  That area is known as the Danube Bend.  It is a prime spot for tourists on Danube river trips, as well as tourists from Budapest.  On June 12, 2025, Dave and I explored the Danube Bend. 

Our first stop was the artsy town of Szentendren, filled with cafes, cobblestone streets, and galleries.

We lingered at the Margit Kovacs Ceramics Gallery, showing the works of an artist whose sculptures mainly featured women of all ages and stages of happiness. This is a statue of Kovacs with her aging mother. At one time, during the Communist era, Kovacs was so popular that visiting foreign dignitaries were shepherded to her museum and given one of her sculptures as a state gift.  Kovacs died in 1977.

We followed the Danube to Visegrad and its Royal Palace.  King Matthais ruled Hungary in the late 1400s, and was the first to introduce Italian Renaissance architecture north of Italy.  In 1335, the kings of Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland met in Visegrad to discuss how to counter the increasing power of the Hapsburgs from Vienna.

We also drove to Visegrad's Citadel, high on the mountain.  The Citadel controlled Danube River traffic during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

After visiting the Royal Palace and Citadel, we relaxed at a nearby cafe, watching schoolchildren joust as if they were medieval kings themselves.

Pottery is a favorite craft in the Danube Bend.  We watched potters work, and we window shopped their finished art.

Estergrom was the third city we visited in the Danube Bend.  Like Visegrad, it is a royal city.  Hungary's first king, St. Stephen, was crowned here in 1000, and Estergrom was Hungary's capital from the late 900s to mid 1200s.  Estergrom was also the center of Hungarian Catholicism for 1000 years.  The Basilica crowning the cliff above Estergrom is Hungary's biggest church and was consecrated in 1856 with a mass composed by the famous Hungarian pianist, Franz Liszt.  

I found myself surprised, again and again, that Hungary is so European, and so tightly connected to European composers, art, architecture, and culture.  As I was growing up, Hungary was walled off behind the Iron Curtain, one of the drab, lifeless vassal states that we heard or saw little of.

In addition to its Basilica, the town of Estergrom includes an outstanding museum of Christian art.  I spent a happy hour wandering among the gold altarpieces and early Renaissance paintings.