EGER CULTURAL GUIDE : SUMMER IS SEASON FOR CHILDREN

EGER HUNGARY CULTURAL CITY GUIDE by NICK HARRISON : TELEGRAPH NEWSPAPER  link to full article here! From December 30, 2012.

IT BEGINS :

The Hapsburgs, the Nazis and the Soviets have all left their mark on Eger, but from the castle’s Gergely Bastion, it’s the minaret, the northernmost point of the former Ottoman Empire, that draws my eye. It looks out of place amid a vista of church steeples and Baroque buildings so impressive that even the drabness of the occasional communist building fails to diminish it. Before leaving the castle grounds I pay my respects to Dobó in the Heroes Hall, joining a queue of people shuffling around his sarcophagus with the same solemnity demanded of a visit to Lenin’s tomb on Red Square...

Good to read some European news about Hungary, a different perspective.  This article has travel insider information...  ready to pack?

BUKK NATIONAL PARK : CAVING, ARCHEOLOGY SITES, PRESERVED VILLAGES

BUKK NATIONAL PARK SITE (In English, Hungarian, and Slovak)  link here!

Readers, on Christmas evening I had that feeling that I was coming down with something.  Sure enough I spent the next week with an allergy-driven head cold from hell, two of them in bed, finally giving in to big doses of pain killer and antihistimine.  When I took my dog out for a walk I felt winded if I went more than a block, so of course, with all the news about a flu epidemic, I grew concerned that I was weak.  My doctor said "come in NOW!"  So I took a half day off to go in without an appointment and wait for a moment when I could take the flu shot.  I am recovering fully. It's so cold in Southern California that the leaves changed color and fell off the trees!

What does this have to do with BUKK NATIONAL PARK?  Well, I was researching to post about the park when I got sick. So, here is a dramatic video of winter at the park, and the link to the site!

ANCIENT LIZARD / SEA MONSTER FOUND IN HUNGARY

Pannoniasaurus inexpectatus, a freshwater carnivor that could unlock it's jaw to get it around it's prey!

EXCERPT 

The creature's fossils were uncovered beginning in 1999 from a mine in the Bakony Hills of western Hungary. The ages of the creatures at their time of death ranged from juveniles to adults 20 feet long.

ANCIENT SEA MONSTER DISCOVERED IN HUNGARY by STEPHANIE GRIMES  link to article and video showing some fossils.

CHURCH OF SAINT IVAN UNDER THE GELLERT HILLS IN BUDAPEST : Sziklakápolna (Chapel in the Rock)

    Let me try to give an accurate description of this site from reading!  Gellert Hill Cave is also known as Saint Ivan's Cave.  It is believed that Saint Ivan (some say Ivan is a version of Istvan or Stephen) was a healer  in the Middle Ages who used the waters that came bubbling up near his cave to heal people.  The word PEST in Hungarian means CAVE so it's as if the city was named Cave City long ago.  Eventually the Pauline Monks turned the Cave into a Church.  That was about 1924 and the grotto look they gave it was inspired by the church at the grotto at Lourdes, France, where there are also healing waters and miracles..  But in 1951 the Hungarian Secret Police came in and arrested and took the monks away.  Though long prison sentences and even a death sentence were expected, I'm not sure these were carried out. but the Paulines were out of business  For some reason I also do not understand, the police sealed up the cave church and it was used later as a store room.  All of these things may be attributed to "political changes."  In 1989 another one came.  This time the cave was reopened and in 1992 with a new consecration it began to be used as a church again and the Pauline Order was revived so that today there are a half a dozen or a dozen friars.  Whatever the decor, the point is that for hundreds of years this place had the reputation and vibe of a sacred space.

THE GELLERT BATHS

GELLERT BATHS BUDAPEST OFFICIAL SITE link here!  A cure for arthritis!

  Reading, there are indoor and outdoor pools.  The water is coming up from underneath as it has since Roman times been used for healthy bathing.

BUDAPEST : CITY OF CAVES : THE HISTORY CHANNEL FILM: CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD SERIES : MAGYAR-AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

History Channel's BUDAPEST CITY OF CAVES is about the subterranean beneath the capital city of Hungary and oh was it interesting! 

There are 20 million year old cave systems that 2 million people live above and most do not know it's secrets.  Though the ancients knew of caves, two of these systems were just rediscovered in more recent times, such as the world's oldest limestone cave system below the Castle Hill district, which was rediscovered in 1818 or the caves beneath the Buda side of Buda Pest (the hilly part) that were rediscovered in 1873.  In the early 1900's the Palvolgy Matyashegy cave system was found. Today there are 170 known caves, one up to 12 miles long, another up to 300 feet beneath the city. 

Millions of years ago the entire country of Hungary and then some was under Lake Pannon. As the waters receded the caves were formed.  Budapest and the hilly areas first appeared as islands.

We can go back to the time of the 13th century when the Mongols were riding over the country, and then the occupation by the Turks. Today most of the houses on Castle Hill have four sub cellars from the crude cave-like ones, to ones where they hid things from the Turks, to more recently built, and all these caves and cellars must be supporting the weight above them.

Over time 800 year old Matthias Church had to be retrofitted.  The caves below show pillars built of stone used to reinforce but it wasn't the weight of the Church or buildings in general, it was the 10 ton double decker tour buses that sent vibrations below.  The buses caused so much expensive damage that they are no longer allowed on Castle Hill.

Saint Ivan once healed people in a cave below Budapest.  That cave is believed to be below the famous Gellert Baths! 

Saint Istvan (Stephen's) church is also below ground in a cave. There are over 118 natural hot springs in Budapest.  In 89 AD when the Roman's occupied they called the city "Good Water."  So besides saints healing and Roman's bathing, citizens hiding their possessions from raiders and tax collectors, and so on, what else could be down there?!

Think World War II and then the Russian invasion!  Think about an underground hospital that follows the natural path of a cave system that goes on for a mile!  It was considered bomb proof but when the Russians came the 600 people who were down there were massacred.  In the 1960's fall out shelters with ventilators were installed and the machinery still works!

So I don't want to ruin all the surprises in wait for you when you watch this film!

At the time that I watched this film, I also watched one about Paris and Paris has at least 3 million skeletons beneath it.  I bring this up because oddly, it does not seem that the cave system in Budapest has been used for mass burials.

C 2013 Magyar- American BlogSpot  Film Review

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