Given that Hungary has an adventurous and long history, you can always stumble upon interesting pieces from the past that you might not have heard about.
Bien has collected some fun facts about one of the most famous Hungarian paintings, a castle, Hungaroring and even the Hungarian Royal Crown.
The Arrival of the Hungarians
The Arrival of the Hungarians is a cyclorama painted by Árpád Feszty depicting the Hungarian Conquest of the Carpathian Basin. The painting is astonishingly detailed despite its size. Initially, Feszty wished to paint the Great Flood, but his wife, Róza Jókai, a fellow painter, tried to talk him out of this project, mostly as producing such a large artwork is costly.
The cyclorama is 15 metres in height and 120 metres in length – you can find it at the Ópusztaszer National Heritage Park.
source: WikiCommons
However, Róza’s father, Mór Jókai, eventually convinced the painter to depict the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin. During the production, the most famous violin artist of the time, Pista Dankó, made sure the painters would not get tired of the monotonous work.
The largest castle
The largest castle in Hungary is located in Gödöllő, but this is not the only reason why this piece of architecture is famous: the Hungarians’ favourite queen, Sissi lived here in the 18th century.
Sissi chose to retreat here during the summers from the strict protocol of the courts of Vienna. She loved spending her time at Gödöllő, as she could do whatever she found joy in here: she was allowed to read, ride, have guests and write poetry anytime she liked.
The castle was designed by Antal Grassalkovich and had 136 rooms at its prime. There was also a chapel, a bath, a theatre hall, a riding hall and a marble barn, a French-style garden and a safari park.
The second largest synagogue in the world
Bien writes that the Dohány Street Synagogue is the second largest synagogue in the world, the first one being the New York Synagogue. This means that the Dohány Street Synagogue is the largest in Europe, able to fit 6 thousand people.
Photo by Guavin Pictures
The synagogue built in the 19th century is one of the most important tourist sites in Budapest. However, you can only pray in it if there are at least 10 males inside.
Lake Balaton
Balaton stretches over 78 kilometres, and its average depth is at 3 metres. Thanks to this, the water gets warm easily in the summer and freezes over just as quick in the winter.
The name’s origin is Slavic: ‘blato’ means bog, swamp, mud. In Latin, it is called Lacus Pelso, which means ‘shallow lake’. Similarly, in German, it is called Plattensee, translating to ‘flat lake’.
Hungaroring
Hungaroring, the Hungarian phase of Formula 1, is organised every year in August, near Mogyoród in Pest county.
The track, opened in 1986, is often called flat plate, on the brim of which spectators can see 80% of the 4-kilometre-long track.
There are 14 curves, the smallest of which is 20 metres long, while the longest is 400 metres long. The home stretch is 700 metres in length and 15 metres in width; the maximum speed that can be reached here is 320 km/h.
The royal crown
You may think that the crown that was worn by the later rulers was worn by Saint Stephen, too, but in reality, only the upper, Latin part of the crown was worn by him. This was decorated with pearls and jewels.
The lower, Greek part was made 70 years after Stephen’s reign, while the cross was attached only 500 years later.
The cape embroidered with gold- and silk thread was meant to be a chasuble which was draped over kings’ shoulders while a sword was attached to their side.
featured image: Wikimedia Commons – Qorilla