Budapest Pebbles

I was totally blown away by this very special technicolor film about Budapest before WW2 and well before the big traffic jams we sadly know so well regarding bigger cities.

The American born documentary film director, James A. FitzPatrick made a very nice series of his travels entitled FitzPatrick’s Traveltalk (commisioned by MGM). One of the FitzPatrick’s Traveltalk episodes is a real treasure. It features Budapest, the capital of Hungary in its height, just before Europe started to feel the destructive powers of another world war.

In many ways, FitzPatrick’s Traveltalk ‘Beautiful Budapest‘ is still very informative for those who want to have a quick intro in Budapest (as well as for technicolor travel fans of course).

Some highlights from the travel film script:

• Budapest is a combination of what was formerly two cities, Buda on the left bank of the Danube, and Pest on the right
• “Hungary was formerly part of the great Austro-Hungarian empire, which was disintegrated as a result of the last war” (floral decoration on Liberty square is no longer painfully comparing what Hungary looked like before the first World War and after the Treaty of Trianon)
• Hungarian Archives – thousands of precious manuscripts (the building of the Archives is in the Buda Castle, the Castle District up on the Castle Hill)
• shopping districts – you can purchase the products of Hungary as well as the world at large (true, although Budapest seems to lag behind regarding luxury stores and products lately, even though there are several beautiful luxury hotels in Budapest)
• 1849 – of historic importance, “the year in which the famous Chain Bridge was completed, the first of its kind in Europe” (true, and it was the very first permanent bridge crossing the Danube in Hungary, and successfully joining the then separate cities of Buda and Pest). It is so funny to see the steam boats having their smoke stacks leaning back to be able to go under the bridge – “ingenious method was discovered” as Fitzpatrick puts it
• Royal Palace built in the latter part of the 18th century, during the reign of Mary Theresa (Maria Teresia) – well, the foundations were a lot older, as it was a thriving Royal palace in the 15th century too and taken by the Turkish in the 16th century, but Fitzpatrick is right to simplify in a sense that the present structure of the Royal Palace was developed during the 18th century queen’s reign. You can see the Fisherman’s Bastion too.
• about a thousand years ago, the first king of the Hungarians, St Stephen (born by the name Vajk), was crowned by the Roman pope Gregory VII thus formally bringing a nation formerly under eastern influence into the fold of western civilization (coronation took place in 1000 AD)
• Budapest baths – that is indeed reality, there are several nice spa baths with healing capacities you can pick from right in Budapest (Széchenyi Baths, Gellért Baths, Király bath as well as other Turkish baths) – baths were long discovered back in the Turkish occupation of the 16-17th centuries, re-discovered for modern day tourism around the 1900s. The outdoor swimming pool on Margaret Island is the one called Palatinus (swimming complex of several different kinds of pools – only one of them is spa here). Then the film shows St Gellert baths with the wave bath (Gellért fürdő) on the Buda side. Oh those old-school decent swimming costumes.

Anachronism, changes since 1938

• before 1938 Budapest had 1 million inhabitants, in 2009, Budapest’s population is roughly 2 million
• Matthias Church (Matyas templom) is the terms FitzPatrick mentions as Coronation Church – at least most of the Hungarians use simply Mátyás templom for the Gothic church in the Royal Palace (now under construction)
• I was surprised to hear that the Vajdahunyad castle (Vajdahunyad vár) hosting the Museum of Agriculture would be the best constructed building in Europe – even back in 1938… But it is truly a unique construction in a sense that it’s a mixture of all the various architectural styles and most characteristic buildings in the style in Hungary
• The restaurant with the gypsy musicians is not seen like this any more. There are quite a few touristy restaurants where the main attraction is simplified to goulash and gypsy music and pricey bills, but it is not so easy to find decent gypsy music – unless you like jazz. :)

Music score by Jack Shilkret