One of the most impressive buildings in Budapest is certainly the Hungarian Parliament house. It is perfectly located on the shore of the Danube river, and it is absolutely massive! I think I read it is one of the biggest parliament buildings in the world. I was already impressed during my last visits of Budapest, so this time I wanted to see the building inside… and… luckily, there are guided tours!
The building is from the end of the 19th century, so only a bit older than 100 years, and a perfect example of neo-gothic architecture. The main entrance is on Parliament square, with a huge Hungarian flag and some guards giving a very official character to it… (I miss these guards in Berlin in front of the Reichstag… haha!). There are 3 main areas: the 2 assembly chambers left and right and the Dome hall in the middle.
The guided tour was very informative and I really liked walking through the building.
Follow me in the neogothic world!
We started the tour walking up the gold staircase and through endless corridors…
We then continued with one of both Parliament chambers. As a little funny detail, the guide pointed at some cigar holders for the members of Parliament where they could leave their cigars while “working” in the chamber, in times when smoking was still allowed.
We passed through some salons…
…before entering the dome room (no pictures!). It is basically a huge decorated room with the pure symbolic function to house the Hungarian monarchy treasures: the holy crown of Hungary, used by all the Kings for their coronation (it’s about 1000 years old in its first version!), the royal sceptre, and the globus cruciger (I had to check that one on Wikipedia… but you know it… it’s the sphere with a cross on it that kings are holding in their hands on some portraits). These items are permanently guarded by 2 guards and every now and now there is a fun guard change ceremony with 2 fresh guards arriving and taking their duty. I thought it’s quite interesting for a parliament building to house monarchial symbols… An interesting detail about the Hungarian crown is that the cross at its top is not straight but crooked! I already noticed that while walking around since the crown symbol is visible everywhere in the city… I didn’t know it was an homage to the real crown! It was damaged in the 17th century and they just kept it that way. I love the idea of having a crooked cross as a national symbol! That makes Hungarian people’s self-irony sense very nice to me!
We ended up the tour walking down the beautiful official staircase.
It is interesting to notice that – since it’s a recent building – many modern features were implemented, like of course electrical lightning but also elevators, heating and ventilation systems, etc…
So if you ever visit Budapest, visit the Parliament… and don’t miss the building when it’s lighted up at night… Quite magic!
Free like a bear 