PARLIAMENT (ORSZÁGHÁZ)

The entrance to the parliament is through the basement on the left side of the building where a visitor's area(látogatóközpont) has been set up. A small museum of the history of the parliament has also been opened there. The Hungarian Parliament building was the focal point of Budapest's rapid urban expansion at the turn of the 19th century and was the subject of a public competition between the best architects of the time. For the record, the neoclassical building proposed by a competitor, Alajos Hauszmann, was not selected, but the building was nevertheless built for the needs of the Royal Court of Cassation, at number 12 Kossuth Square (the Hungarian Supreme Court is expected to relocate there soon). Inspired by Westminster, the British Parliament, the Hungarian Országház - it still houses the parliamentarians today but only in the lower chamber, the upper chamber having been abolished - is a synthesis of baroque, neo-Renaissance and neo-Gothic, and is considered to be the most beautiful example of Budapest's eclecticism, with its pinnacles, bell-towers and spires... Entirely symmetrical (it has two mirrored wings, one reserved for members of parliament, the other for tourists), it was built between 1885 and 1902 according to the plans of Imre Steindl. The building has nearly 700 rooms, 20 km of stairs, 40 kg of gold. It remains the largest building in the country with its 265 m length and 96 m height, topped by a dome (the number is not insignificant, it refers to the key date of 896, corresponding to the supposed arrival of the Hungarian tribes in Hungary). Since the year 2000, it has housed all the royal emblems of Hungary: the crown, the sceptre, the apple of the kingdom and the sword. The interior of the Parliament is richly decorated and the guided tour is very instructive, it begins with the main staircase, decorated by Károly Lotz (who also did the frescoes of the Opera) with an Apotheosis of the Legislation this time. The dome room continues, where the venerated Holy Crown with the leaning cross, a state attribute, is kept. Its history is worthy of the best sagas! Given to St. Stephen by Pope Sylvester II, it was returned by the Americans in 1978, after an exile in Fort Knox, USA during the Second World War! The stained glass windows are signed Miksa Róth, a little prodigy of the Hungarian Art Nouveau. Really worth a visit. Further on, near the metro (line 2), the basement of Kossuth Square houses a small room dedicated to the 1956 revolution.