Szentendre Is a Quiet Beauty

khaleej times Friday, April 22, 2011 TRAVEL 11 Hidden in Hungary Sitting on a bend on the bankS of the danube RiveR in hungaRy, pictuReSque SzentendRe iS a quiet beauty Eastern ambience. There are golden icons, paint- Kalpana Sunder ed religious scenes where the figures seem to be TRAVEL ESSENTIALS actually looking at you. Outside, the sun is up and getting there: Fly with Aeroflot via art pieces on old ochre walls invite the passersby Moscow, Austrian Airlines via Vienna, or skateboarder in a football jer- to spend some time browsing. choose your own route by visiting sky- sey whizzes past me. A man in Setting out in any direction is exciting. Nar- scanner.net, expedia.com or other flight a brown beret is lost in a book. row streets like tributaries lead to cul-de-sacs websites. There are no direct flights. It’s a Mediterranean ambience and photogenic alleys; staircases lead to pretty- currency: USD$1 = 187 Hungarian — with sprawling sun dappled as-a-picture churches. There are stout peasant forints cafés choc-a-bloc with tourists women with head scarves, handsome strapping best time to travel: May to September and hip students. Cool greens, Hungarian in folk dress, mingling with Western ochre and russets seem to compete with the tourists with digital cameras and helmet-toting Acolours of local art, the Bohemian setting trans- cyclists who have had an active morning, cycling town, and one of the oldest seats of the Catholic ports us to another world… We could be on the the twenty-five kilometres from Budapest. Lus- Church. It is a town that has been blessedly by- Adriatic coast or even Montmartre. cious desserts seem to be the trademark of every passed by mass tourism, we discover… Like many A tangle of cobblestone streets and tidy hous- café here. Creamy pastries with berries and fruits cities in the Middle Ages, the church was the rai- es with angels as window decorations, baroque and melt-in-your mouth cakes slow our progress son d’être of this town. Vac was one of the first churches, and Greek restaurants, all lie cheek by through the town. places to be settled by the Magyar tribes in 896. jowl. Picturesque Szentendre (named after St The main draw of Szentendre is that it’s an Legend goes that a monk hermit and a prince Andrew) lies on a Danube bend in Hungary, the artist’s colony. Artists from all over Europe came upon a wondrous sight in the forest — a deer region where this great river changes course, cre- started flocking here in the 1920s because of its with candles on its horns. On seeing this the prince ating a triangle. It’s a twenty-kilometre stretch exceptional beauty and light and views over the decided to build a church here and this was the where the river bends in an S-shape. There are Danube. There’s an array of galleries, exhibi- origin of Vac. We pass through a triumphal arch, clusters of towns in this picturesque area: Esz- tions, craft shops and souvenir shops. There’s a or stone gate, built to welcome the Empress Maria tergom, Visegrad and Szentendre are the more museum dedicated to Hungarian artists, another Theresa. This town has a chequered history and has popular ones; Vac is the lesser known beauty. to a world famous ceramicist Margit Kovacs who changed hands more than 40 times. Szentendre has been at the crossroads of civi- is known for the way she has converted every- The main square is hemmed in by grand Ba- lization for centuries: we see churches ranging day objects of peasant life into art. We see some roque and Rococo buildings painted in a shade from Serbian and Greek Orthodox to Catholic; it plaques on old houses that mark the high flood- that’s just short of gaudy, including the Town was inhabited by the Romans, who had a fortress waters that ravaged the town in 1838. Hall and a church. There is the White Friar’s and settlement in this area. When the Turks ad- There are some museums with signs outside, Church here, under which excavations revealed vanced on the Balkans many Serbian refugees ar- but the shopping totally distracts us! We walk a cache of mummies in a secret crypt. rived in this town. Its main square, Marx Ter, has down Bodganyi Utca, a street full of shops selling Children play on archaeological digs in the a central memorial square built as a token of grat- garlands of dried paprika, babushka dolls, ceram- centre and our guide swears that the local gelato itude when Black Plague spared the city. It was ics, porcelains, crocheted laces and old Hungar- is the best in Hungary. We admire the mammoth erected by the town’s wealthiest citizens who ian folk outfits. There’s a popular marzipan shop dimensions of Vac’s Cathedral of the Assump- owned local vineyards and had formed a guild. with a bewildering variety of almond and sugar tion, inspired by Parisian architecture with its Surrounding the main square is an amphithe- concoctions. It has a museum showcasing politi- Corinthian columns and statues and expanses of atre of medieval baroque and rococo buildings: cal figures, Walt Disney characters, busts of kings green all around. Vac’s promenade on the Dan- the houses of Serbian tradesmen, with wrought and queens, even the Hungarian Parliament ube and bike trail leading to other towns on the iron balcony railings, who used the material from House — all made out of marzipan. There is a river seems to be a favourite with locals and tour- medieval Roman buildings for the construction long line of people waiting outside a café selling ists. Herons and cormorants patrol the waters as of their homes. langos, a Hungarian deep fried version of a pizza the dying sun envelops the flatlands as though on Presiding over the main square is a Serbian with a sour cream and cheese topping. fire. It’s on a day like this that one falls under a church with an almost unpronounceable name: It’s a short drive to Vac (pronounced vahts) on country’s spell… the Blagovestenska church, which has a distinctly the left bank of the Danube, a stunning Baroque [email protected] STEPPING OUT: Hungarians enjoy the sunshine in traditional outfits.

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