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Budapest - Buda Side - Old Town and Gellert Hill |
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Matyas Church
Old Town
Rebuilt after WWII, some original structures remain in the Old Town, located just north of the Royal Palace. The Neo-Gothic Matyas Church is its focal point.
Looking out over the Danube, Fishermen's Bastion, designed in 1895, was never used for defense and serves instead as a viewing terrace.
Gellert Hill
Towering over the city, Liberation Monument commemorates the liberation of Budapest by
the Russian army in 1945. The liberation was also the beginning of Communist rule which lasted until 1989, and a figure of a Russian soldier was removed at that time.
Gellert Monument is dedicated to the martyred Bishop Gellert, the patron saint of Budapest. It marks the spot where, according to legend,
he was sealed into a barrel and pushed into the Danube.
Established in a holy grotto in 1926, Cave Church was forced to close during the Communist reign, but reopened in 1989. The Gellert Hotel was built in the modernist Secession style early in the 20th
century to exploit the natural hot springs. Destroyed in 1945, it was rebuilt after WWII.
