VIDEO, PHOTOS: This is what Queen Elizabeth II did when she visited Hungary

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has died at the age of 96 on Thursday, 8 September. The Queen has only been to Hungary once during her reign. Despite that, she said she had always wanted to visit our country. In this article, we will tell you the story of Elizabeth’s visit to Hungary in 1993.

A tight four-day schedule

Queen Elizabeth II visited Hungary only once, in 1993, recalls 444.hu. The news programme of the public TV station at the time points out that the trip was special because she only undertook four such trips a year.

The Queen and her husband, Philip, had a tight four-day schedule. After being greeted by the then-Foreign Minister Géza Jeszenszky and then-President Árpád Göncz, they had the following programme:

• she received a military salute on Kossuth Square;
• they visited the Buda Castle and the National Gallery;
• then they visited the National Széchényi Library, where she was treated to a personal exhibition (she had a Hungarian ancestor: her great-grandmother was Countess Klaudia Rhédey, who lived in the early 19th century);
• she was given a dinner at the Parliament. There, she made two speeches during her stay: one at the banquet and the other the next day in the Chamber.

“I have always wanted to come to Hungary, so it is a special moment for me to be here in Budapest,” the Queen said at the dinner.

Her time spent in Bugac

The Queen was not bored before her second speech either. She went to Bugac, where she was hosted by the Bács-Kiskun County Municipality and Bugac Tours, who treated her to a white table wine and scones. There, she was also treated to a show “put together by the Kalocsa Children’s Troupe, based on old wedding customs”.

Then, still in Bugac, she received a “naive painting”, a canteen and a “folk carving”. Then she was given lunch: a starter of cold roast duck and goose, followed by goulash soup, roast ox, home-made cakes and fruit, and good Hungarian wines. These were spent with prominent representatives of Hungarian equestrian life. From there, they went by carriage to the wilderness, where they saw grey cattle and a horse parade. Philip was a great friend of Hungarian horsemen.