Events outside but near Budapest
Apart from the capital city itself, the agglomeration also offers numerous events and places to see, making it worthwhile to make a trip to Budapest in autumn.
ART, ETHNOGRAPHY, TRANSPORT
It is not by chance that Szentendre is one of the most well-known settlements in Budapest’s agglomeration. This settlement, inhabited since the Roman times, is a town with a cosy atmosphere. The sources of its atmosphere are the Danube, the rolling downtown and the Baroque settlement built on the slopes in the network of stairs, squares and cobbled streets.
Having acquired significance in the 17th and 18th centuries based on the work of its Serbian and Dalmatian population, Szentendre found new paths in the early 20th century as a town discovered by artists. The Ferenczys, Czóbel, Kmetty are major trail-blazing names in the history of modern Hungarian art, founding Szentendre’s still powerful cultural traditions. Their memory is preserved by eponymous museums in the vicinity of Szentendre’s main square.
But before arriving at Szentendre’s town centre, it is worth spending an hour in one of Hungary’s most interesting public transportation museums, the Urban Public Transport Museum of Szentendre. It offers time travel by tram, omnibus, bus, HÉV/suburban train and train. It is great fun for the entire family to visit this informative and interactive exhibition. And you can even find cool gifts in the souvenir shop.
After having lunch, coffee or ice cream in the town centre, it is worth visiting the Open-Air Museum of Ethnography of Szentendre, or, to use a shorter name, the Skanzen. This Swedish word is the name of an island in Stockholm, the correct spelling being Skansen, pronounced as ’Scahn-sen’. The good old ethnographers studied one of Europe’s first collections of this type to take it as a basis for designing and constructing Hungary’s first open-air ethnography museums. It offers a tour of nearly the entire country in one place, showcasing folk architecture and folk costumes, which you can learn about while taking a good walk in the fresh air. From Szentendre, you can return to Budapest by boat along the small branch of the Danube called in Hungarian “Kis-Dunaág.”
Gödöllő is another real popular settlement in Budapest’s agglomeration. This town is visited less for the sake of its city scape than to learn about the noble and royal traditions as well as splendour of the Habsburg times. The Royal Castle of Gödöllő started its career in the 18th century as a stately home to the Grassalkovich.
Under the reign of Franz Joseph and his wife, Sissi, it became the property of the state where the emperor and the empress, Hungary’s royal couple, spent time periodically, e.g., in the hunting season. Apart from the continuously developing Baroque and Belle Epoque interior design and historical collection, the castle has also served as the venue for the events of Hungary’s EU presidency in 2011.
A few kilometres away from the castle, Domonyvölgy is home to the horse farm of the carriage driving champion Lázár brothers, Lázár Horse Park, where before or after an excellent lunch you can applaud the impressive skills of horsemen and horse-back archers during a Traditional Horse Show. And by the way, Sissi was very skilled at riding and treating horses, as well.
Source: Budapest Info
