Megyeri Bridge

The Megyeri Bridge previously known as Northern M0 Danube Bridge is a cable stayed bridge that spans River Danube between Buda and Pest respectively west and east sides of Budapest, capital of Hungary. It is an important section of M0 ringroad around Budapest. The details of Megyeri Bridge are explained in world tour guides below.

The bridge cost 63 billion forints approximately US$ 300M to build and was officially opened on September 30, 2008 however National Transport Authority of Hungary has only issued temporary permits because of disagreement among suburban cities surrounding the bridge. A naming poll to determine new name of recently-built bridge caused controversy and received media attention when American comedians Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart won. The total length of bridge is 1862m. Structurally it is composed of five parts. They are Left quayside inundation area bridge 148m, Main Danube-branch bridge cable stayed 590m with a span of 300m, Szentendre island inundation area bridge 559m, Szentendre Danube-branch bridge 332m and Right quayside inundation area bridge 218m.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Transport of Hungary organized a public vote online to solicit possible names for new bridge. The three names with most votes as well as suggestions from local governments, cartographers, linguists and other experts were to be reviewed by government committee before a final name for bridge was chosen. New nominations were accepted until August 21, 2006, and voting ended on September 8, 2006, with Stephen Colbert winning with 93,163 votes, and Jon Stewart and Zrinyi close behind with 85,171 and 83,966 votes, respectively.

On August 1, 2006 Reuters reported that top candidate according to the online poll was the Chuck Norris hid named for American action star Chuck Norris. On August 11, 2006 American satirist Stephen Colbert discussed story on his comedy program The Colbert Report instructing his viewers to visit polling website and vote for him instead of Norris. The next day the number of votes for him had grown 230 times and he now asked his viewers to follow a link from his own Colbert Nation website to avoid all that illegible Hungarian. Colberts site also indirectly offered techniques for stuffing the ballot box as users of their forums created several automated scripts to cast multiple votes for Colbert.


On August 15, 2006 he repeated his call to be voted top of Hungarian poll and by August 22, 2006 Stephen Colbert hid was in first with 17 million votes about 14 million votes ahead of second-placed Zrinyi hid named after Croatian Hungarian national hero Miklos Zrinyi and about 7 million more than entire population of Hungary. The same day site announced a new round of voting which would require registration to participate and Colbert asked his viewers to call off dogs requesting on his website that fans stop using scripts to vote. Despite this Stephen Colbert hid remained in the top position on the website in the second round.

On September 14, 2006 Andras Simonyi the ambassador of Hungary to the United States announced on The Colbert Report that Stephen Colbert had won the vote. Unfortunately for Colbert Ambassador Simonyi declared that under Hungarian law Colbert would have to be fluent in Hungarian and would have to be deceased in order to have the bridge named for him. However after saying the rules could most likely be bent he invited Colbert to visit Hungary and view the construction in person and gave him a Hungarian passport and a 10,000 HUF Bill with an approximate value of as the ambassador put it fifty dollars, fifty good US dollars. Colbert promptly tried to bribe him with said money.

Matthias Church

Matthias Church is a church located in Budapest, Hungary at the heart of Budas Castle District. According to church tradition, it was originally built in Romanesque style in 1015. The current building was constructed in the florid late Gothic style in the second half of the 14th century and was extensively restored in the late 19th century. It was the second largest church of medieval Buda and the seventh largest church of medieval Hungarian Kingdom.

Officially named as the Church of Our Lady, it has been popularly named after king Matthias, who ordered the transformation of its original southern tower. In many respects, the 700 year history of the church serves as a symbol or perhaps a reminder for Hungarians of the cities rich yet often tragic history. Not only was the church the scene of several coronations including that of Charles IV in 1916 the last Habsburg king it was also the site for King Matthias two weddings the first to Catherine of Podiebrad and after her death to Beatrice of Aragon.

During the century and a half of Turkish occupation, the vast majority of its ecclesiastical treasures were shipped to Pressburg present day Bratislava and following the capture of Buda in 1541 the church became the city's main mosque. Ornate frescoes that previously adorned the walls of the building were whitewashed and interior furnishings stripped out.

The church was also a place of the so called Mary-wonder. In 1686 during the siege of Buda by the Holy League a wall of the church collapsed due to cannonfire. It turned out that an old votive Madonna statue was hidden behind the wall. As the sculpture of the Virgin Mary appeared before the praying Muslims, the morale of the garrison collapsed and the city fell on the same day.

Although following Turkish expulsion in 1686 an attempt was made to restore the church in the Baroque style historical evidence shows that the work was largely unsatisfactory. It was not until the great architectural boom towards the end of the 19th century that the building regained much of its former splendour. The architect responsible for this work was Frigyes Schulek.

Not only was the church restored to its original 13th century plan but a number of early original Gothic elements were uncovered. By also adding new motifs of his own such as the diamond pattern roof tiles and gargoyles laden spire Schulek ensured that the work when finished would be highly controversial. Today however Schuleks restoration provides visitors with one of the most prominent and characteristic features of Budapest's cityscape.

Inside, visitors tend to head straight for the Ecclesiastical Art museum which begins in the medieval crypt and leads up to the St. Stephen Chapel. The gallery contains a number of sacred relics and medieval stone carvings, along with replicas of the Hungarian royal crown and coronation jewels.

Buda Castle

Buda Castle is the historical castle complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest, Hungary first completed in 1265. In the past, it was also called Royal Palace and Royal Castle. Buda Castle was built on the southern tip of Castle Hill, next to the old Castle District, which is famous for its medieval, Baroque and 19th century houses and public buildings. It is a famous tourist destination linked to Adam Clark Square and the Szechenyi Chain Bridge by the Castle Hill Funicular. Buda Castle is part of the Budapest World Heritage Site, declared in 1987.

The lavishly decorated interiors of the palace were all destroyed during WW2 and the post-war reconstruction. There is very little data about the interiors of the medieval and Baroque era. The Hauszmann palace was meticulously recorded with detailed descriptions, photographic documentation and ground plans. The royal apartments created a 200 m long series of rooms, longer than any similar royal apartments in continental Europe except Versailles.

The most important rooms in Buda castle are given here. The Ballroom on the first floor of the Baroque wing had several layers of Baroque decoration from the second half of the 18th and the 19th century. St. Sigismund Chapel or Castle Church is the palace chapel in the western end of this wing had no facades, only a door opening onto Lions Court. The church was consecrated in 1769. The Palatinal Crypt under the former palace chapel is now the only surviving room of the whole Royal Castle. The Great Ballroom in the middle part of the Northern Wing took over the function of the smaller old Ballroom. The monumental main staircase of the Krisztinavaros Wing with three flights was leading up from to the first floor in an airy, glass-roofed hall. The Habsburg Room was situated right in the middle of the long palace complex, under Hauszmanns dome.

A series of rooms from the medieval palace of the Hungarian kings were unearthed and reconstructed during the postwar rebuilding of Buda Castle in 1958-62. They are now part of the permanent exhibition of the Budapest History Museum in "Building E" of Buda Castle. Only a fragment of the medieval palace survived the destruction of 1686-1715 and the surviving rooms were not the most important ones of the original building. They were only saved by the chances of destruction and their geographical position, situated on a lower level then the newly created Baroque terrace.

The rib vaulted Gothic Hall is one of the most important surviving example of secular Gothic architecture in Central Europe. It was built by King Sigismund Luxemburg of Hungary in the early 15th century. The three interconnected, barrel-vaulted rooms belong to the oldest part of the palace, the Stephen Castle. A great underground cistern under the - now disappeared - northern zwinger, the Cisterna Regia, survived the centuries of destruction as a cellar. The the 7 m high basement section of the eastern facade with the lower part of a fine Gothic balcony survived inside the later King's Cellar.

The Royal Palace and its gardens were decorated with statues. The spectacular fountain is decorating the western forecourt of the palace. The equestrian statue of Prince Eugene of Savoy is standing on the Danube terrace, in a prominent position, high above Budapest. The statue of the Hortobagy horse wrangler taming a wild horse originally stood in front of the Riding School in the former Ujvilag terrace. The mythological Turul, high above the Danube, was made by Gyula Donath in 1905. The plinth and the ornate Neo Baroque rail were damaged during the siege of Buda but they were restored in 1981.