AT BUDAPEST’S THE PUSKÁS BUDA’S TREASURE: CULINARY GATE: ARENA: IN THE THE TOMB OF TOURS FOR ZSÁMBÉK HOME STRETCH GÜL BABA VEGANS FREE PUBLICATION FREE THE FIVE STAR CITY WINTER | 2018/2019 GUIDE THE RESTORED ORGAN OF THE MUSIC ACADEMY INTRODUCTION Photo © Majtenyi Mihaly Photo © Csibi Szilvia DEAR GUESTS, DEAR READERS, Budapest is Hungary’s best-known tourism brand, for two- The Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre is proud to an- thirds of international visitors head to the Hungarian na - nounce that our five-star city magazine, which uniquely for the tion’s capital. According to surveys, the two most important market has the mission of presenting the finest of the city’s de- perspectives when choosing a destination are safety and a velopments, is now entering its fifth year. Our magazine pres- quest for new experiences. ents sporting, cultural and culinary events, along with novelties, touristic delights and infrastructural developments. We have Budapest is East-Central Europe’s most bustling and excit- covered the opening of new hotels such as the Hotel Clark, the ing major city with its unique cultural offerings. The city ibis Styles Budapest Airport, and the D8 Hotel in downtown, provides a vast amount of experiences to visitors and is also along with new restaurants such as Stand, Biang Bistro and La one of the continent’s safest metropolises. Budapest’s pop - Fabbrica. The Ybl Budai Kreatív House was renovated, as was ularity continues to grow, for tourism metrics have shown the Museum of Fine Arts, the National Dance Theatre will re - steep upward curves year after year, while the capital’s tour- open soon, and work on the Puskás Aréna, which will host mas- ism has developed dynamically; in the first eight months sive international events, is also in its final stages of completion. of 2018, the number of overnight stays continued to grow, All of these help explain the impressive visitor numbers that the approaching seven million. Hungarian capital received in 2018. Plans for 2019 reveal that Budapest will continue to take on a The city government’s aim is to show the world the larger role in growing Hungary’s GDP while providing many Hungarian capital’s most beautiful and famously hospitable with a livelihood not on an ad hoc basis, but as a result of a side through countless sporting, cultural and culinary thoroughly considered vision. As one of Europe’s most beautiful events. Our goal is for even more people to enjoy their time cities, Budapest must offer quality services. This is expected of in Budapest, to then spread the word about our wonderful Budapest, and such endeavours are supported by the Hungarian city on their return, and for them to then come back to visit Tourism Agency and the Budapest Festival and Tourism us again soon! Centre’s dynamic concepts. It is a pleasure to observe that in addition to the capital’s culinary successes, the city’s design offerings have also made their mark through the emergence of István Tarlós young fashion designers and creative teams that have achieved Mayor of Budapest international success. I am convinced that we look forward to months rich in expe- riences. Stay with us in 2019 and allow me to wish you a very happy and successful new year! Teodóra Bán Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre Director 1 2018 | Winter CONTENTS Kőbánya 4 Stone, clay and vines 6 15 Kôbánya’s new life 15 Kőbánya reborn: Finishing the Puskás Arena 19 a cultural quarter from industrial At Budapest’s Gate: Zsámbék 22 ruins A landscape rich with history 24 Cultural Quarter 28 The Music Academy’s new organ 30 24 Just JI 32 At Budapest’s Ákos Lustyik 34 Gate: Miranda Liu 36 Zsámbék City Guide 38 Buda’s hidden treasure 40 The Gellért turns 100 44 Corvinas in Buda 46 Storytelling with Danny 48 Bárkert bistro 50 Stand 52 Vegan tours in Budapest 54 40 Sinful sweets 56 The restored Christmas festival 58 In the holiday spirit 60 tomb of Programme corner 62 Gül Baba Cover photo: 46 The Music Academy’s restored organ Corvinas (Photo: © János Posztós) in Buda www.bsf.hu To see the location on the map, simply scan the QR code with your smartphone. Information: +36 1 555 3300 +36 1 269 0470 2 www.bsf.hu Information: +36 1 555 3300 +36 1 269 0470 Photo © hu.ikipedia.org © Photo 4 Industrial history surrounded by greenery: Kôbánya Dreher, Egis, Richter and the Hungarian State Railways. These internationally recognised firms illustrate what made Kôbánya one of Budapest and Hungary’s most important industrial centres at the turn of the 20th century. Seventy-seven larger factories, among them iron, machine and textile plants, along with countless smaller private enterprises operated in this area by the time of the First World War. Over 40 years its population had quadrupled, so that by 1910 more than 35,000 lived and worked here. In 1949, seven urban areas and 16 communities that had basically grown together with the capital were administratively attached to Budapest. With this Kôbánya was transformed from an outlying area to one of the inner districts, as the capital’s geometric centre is located here to this day at Martinovics Square. This underground reservoir is the oldest part of Budapest’s water network still in use today 5 STONE, CLAY AND VINES The foundations for life Text: András Oláh Kőbánya’s hidden treasures will hardly be discovered from a superficial glance, even though its rich architectural, cultural and industrial heritage contains many surprises. The area received its name after the former limestone quarry in the vicinity of Ó Hill, where the excavation of carveable rock was already underway by the Middle Ages. Photo © Nagy Gábor István The quarry lake at Stone extraction reached industrial quantities Ó Hill – the highest part of which is level with Újhegy Park during the 19th century, since the quarries Buda Castle – offering a beautiful panorama onto were an important source of raw materials for the surrounding plain. This wine region was a rebuilding Pest following the destruction of the popular area for hiking. Great Flood of 1838. The building materials for Industry soon became quite the competition for the gates that form the Chain Bridge’s towers, winemaking in the latter half of the 19th century. the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ building, Consequently, part of the area was parcelled out to the Citadella, the Margaret Bridge’s piers, the the industrialists who purchased land and settled Matthias Church and Opera were all sourced there. The phylloxera blight that reached Hungary from here. In addition to limestone quarrying, in 1875 destroyed the last remaining vineyards. the clay harvested from the site supplied the brick This vinicultural past is preserved today by a few manufacturing completed in the area. Due to street names and the romantic-style lookout tower the dangers it entailed, subterranean quarrying erected in 1844 that stands on Kôér Street. ceased in 1890, leaving a cellar tunnel system totalling 33 kilometres in length. Due to changed FROM THE LOCOMOTIVE’S construction industry needs in the latter 20th PERSPECTIVE century, the last quarry closed. The quarry lake th in Újhegy Park remains as a memento of the In the 19 century the area became an important former quarries and factories. railway hub. The country’s second railway line ran While stones were quarried deep below the sur- through here with the opening of the Budapest- face, vineyards covered Ó and Új Hills up to the Cegléd-Szolnok line in 1847. With the opening latter parts of the 19th century. Eighty percent of of the Railway Connection Bridge in 1877, the the grapes grown in Pest were from this area, with railway ring around Budapest was completed. 6 KÔBÁNYA Photo © Eszter Gordon Nearly 90% of the international passenger rail BLESSED WITH BREWERIES The Kőbánya Also traffic that touches Budapest goes through here. railway station It is also where the lines heading to Nyugati and Kôbánya’s name has become synonymous with Keleti stations cross each other, which has raised brewing beer, owing to the karst water that rises the possibility of building a central station in to the surface in the area. Of the first breweries Budapest, although no plans exist at the time for founded in the 1850s, the brewery launched by this type of development. Antal Dreher Sr. in 1862 soon distinguished itself Hungary’s largest railway workshop and repair from among the rest. His son, Antal Dreher Jr. facility, the Northern Railway Maintenance and and grandson Jenô Dreher steered it to become Engineering Works, operated on Kôbányai Road Hungary’s largest brewery, which controlled 70 between 1872 and 2009. A new cultural centre will percent of the market between the world wars. soon open on the space formerly occupied by this Nationalised after 1945, the brewery regained important railway and industrial history site, which the Dreher name after system change, and after will consist of the Eiffel Art Studios belonging to several ownership changes now belongs to Asahi the Hungarian State Opera, and the Hungarian Breweries of Japan. Museum of Science, Technology and Transport. Located on Jászberényi Road and built between Photo © Eszter Gordon 7 Photo © Eszter Gordon 1905-1910, the listed building complex can be visited with guided tours on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons through prior arrangement by those over the age of 18. On weekdays the Photo © Eszter Gordon Dreher Beer Museum located on site is open, which presents the history of brewing in Kôbánya. Few realise that the Dreher Brewery on Jászberényi Road only became the company’s headquarters in the 1930s, for the brewery was originally on Halom Street.