Mark Meek's Ideas: Hungary

This country is absolutely fascinating.

The ancestors of today's Magyars, or Hungarians, are believed to have originated in what is now eastern European Russia and arrived in the Carpathian Basin of Eastern Europe. Seven chiefs of Magyar tribes founded the new country. The Arpads were the first Hungarian dynasty of kings.

This means that there might be "Eastern Hungarians" living today in wherever their original homeland was. Despite the name, some doubt how close the relationship is between the Huns, led by their famous king Attila who menaced the Roman Empire in it's latter days, and the modern Hungarians. Attila the Hun was based for a time in what is now Hungary but that was centuries before the Magyars arrived in the area from the east.

But yet the medieval "Illuminated Chronicle", which was much closer in time perspective than we are today, depicts Attila as King of the Hungarians. There is also the legend of two brothers, Hunor and Magor, one the descent of the Huns and the other of the Magyars, who later returned from the east to reclaim their ancestral homeland.

This is why the Hungarian language is not related to the Slavic or Romance languages of any of the nearby countries. It may be related to Finnish, which is nothing like the languages of the other Scandinavian countries.

Many ethnic Hungarians live today near, but outside the borders of, Hungary. We saw in our visit to "The Former Czechoslovakia" that Bratislava and it's castle was once vital to Hungary. Hungarians in Timisoara were instrumental in initiating Romania's revolution of 1989.

Stephen I was the famous first king of Hungary. His reign came right around the end of the First Millennium, the year 1000. He was baptized and Christianized the country, and can be considered as the Hungarian version of Vladimir of the Kievan Rus or Mieszko of Poland.

Hungary was invaded by Mongols, who must have been their distant relatives. They later resisted the Ottomans, until finally being conquered by Sulieman. The Habsburgs began to rule in 1526 when a Hungarian dynasty died out.

We saw the Habsburgs in our recent visit to "Vienna And The Habsburgs".

One of the revolutions that swept Europe in 1848 was in Hungary against Habsburgs rule. While the revolution was not immediately successful, it did lead to the Austrian-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which made Vienna and Budapest co-capitals of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

Austria and Hungary were in a personal union. This means the two countries were ruled by the same emperor or king, but may not be completely united. A citizen would be either Austrian or Hungarian, but not both.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken up in 1918, after the First World War. The region of Transylvania was transferred to Romania. The cities of Buda and Pest had been united into Budapest, and the city built the first subway after London.

In Communist Hungary of 1956, protesters demanded, and got, Imre Nagy brought back as Prime Minister. He announced that Hungary was leaving the Warsaw Pact. But enough Communist troops moved in to end the revolution.

However the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was one of those things that appear quite differently when viewed in the long-term, as opposed to the short-term.

Restrictions on Hungary were loosened after that, allowing more private enterprise, and it turned into one of the success stories of the East Bloc. The reformist policies of Imre Nagy were reflected later in those of Mikhail Gorbachev. The mixed economy path of Hungary after the 1956 revolution, that made it such a success story, are reflected in the 1978 economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping.

In many ways the revolutions that swept Eastern Europe in 1989 began in Hungary in 1956. Has anyone noticed the irony that in the summer of 1989, just before the revolutions began, Zsa Zsa Gabor struck a Los Angeles police officer, and reminded everyone that she was Hungarian, and thus a descendent of Attila the Hun? This brought back the Hungarians defying the Communists in 1956, just before the 1989 revolutions began.

Eszstergom was where Stephen was born and he made it the first capital of Hungary. The following scenes begin in it's basilica. The first two scenes are from Google Street View.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking on the up arrow you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.7989369,18.7366847,2a,75y,142.66h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sSnbxIoIzaOe7Js5YCj0P_Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DSnbxIoIzaOe7Js5YCj0P_Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D152.8623%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Obuda is the original part of what is now the capital city of Budapest. There was a Roman settlement here nearly a thousand years before the ancestors of the Hungarians arrived. Budapest is known for it's hot springs.

Why do you suppose that there would be hot springs at Budapest and around Hungary?

My geology theory explains it, "The Story Of Planet Earth" on the geology blog. Section L 41) explains that the elongated Lake Balaton is one of the periodically spaced magma emergence centers across the world. Budapest is right along the long axis of that lake.

This is Obuda.

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.5414517,19.0451948,3a,75y,249h,102.27t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMv74bpYV689WDk-Agkn6g8kqxMh-q2UExf62gf!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMv74bpYV689WDk-Agkn6g8kqxMh-q2UExf62gf%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-12.26688-ya249.0032-ro0-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

The magnificent Parliament Building is the symbol of Budapest, located right on the Danube River. The crown in the glass case is the Holy Crown of Hungary. This is certainly one of the very few most valuable objects in the world. Hungary is now a republic and has not had a monarch since the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. The crown was used only for coronations.

The cross atop the crown has been famously knocked to one side since the 17th Century. This is the crown from Google Street View.

What was different about the Hungarian monarchy, and so important about the crown, is that it is the crown itself that is considered as reigning over the country. The king is just someone who is worthy to represent the crown.

The Parliament Building was begun on the presumed millennium of the founding of the country. These outside images are from Google Earth and Street View.

The Parliament building is absolutely awesome inside. Images from Google Street View.

You can come back to, and "walk", around the Parliament Building by holding the mouse pointer on a point up ahead, and clicking on it. Your perspective will then move to that point, and you can keep repeating the process.

Pressing the plus button, +, will zoom in on the crown and sword in the glass case.

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.5069348,19.0457264,2a,75y,275.03h,90.09t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3AZb5ZXNOxT54MqTDENgZA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Heroes Square has a monument dedicated to the Arpad Dynasty, Hungary's first dynasty of kings. Also a monument of the seven Magyar chiefs that founded Hungary. The first view is from Google Street View.