Exploring Budapest

This is my first trip outside of South Africa and I plan to make the most of it. So as soon as I slept off the jetlag I was out there snapping photos.

St Stephen's Cathedral

We left the apartment early to beat the tourist-rush to the best known sites and take some photos of the amazing architecture. One of the first stops we made this morning was at the St Stephen's Basillica, the first king of Hungary.  I was amazed by the grandeur of this building and its hard to believe that it still looks frozen in time from its completed 110 years ago. With renovation work constantly taking place on almost every street, I can see how much they value their history.

The 300 stairs to the roof was a network of stony corridors and metal walkways hidden behind the gilded interiors and painted frescos. At the top was a view of the skyline that gave us the waypoints for our next destinations. 

The only other building of equal height is the parliament buildIng and a law governs that no other construction may be higher than the Basillica. This allows for amazing views and left most of the buildings in its original design.

The top four architectural styles of this city were neo-classical (as seen here), art deco in some spaces but art nouveau and baroque in abundance.

There are also some remnants of the Soviet era's more masculine style of cubist concrete structures and statues to show off the might of their empire. 

One of the Basillica's gold crested bell towers high above the city.

A passing crowd showing the scale of the cathedral.

Fresco paintings on the interion of the massive dome roof.

One of the many golden arches spanning the ceiling.