The entire area around the Danube River near the Chain Bridge, which was also near our hotel, has been declared a World Heritage site. This made it very convenient.  The first half day, our entire group went on bus excursion of the area. We got off a few times to explore led by our fearless leaders. Our leader led a long line of tourist through the streets to the famous and spectacularly beautiful Mattias Church.

Although I enjoyed the walk immensely, I did have one complaint. It is the same complaint I have about every European city. That complaints centres around the unfortunate fact that each magnificent structure is located in the middle of a city. Other buildings encroach on territory which ideally would allow tourists, and others, to get a good look at the buildings.  It is very difficult to do that with most of the fantastic sites, even World Heritage Sites.  Every city permits commercial interests to encroach on this space that I would call sacred space. Sacred space for the appreciation of great art. That is what great architecture deserves but never gets. None of us gets to properly appreciate the art. Great art really deserves great space to be seen properly.

Using space like this would not be wasted space as some assert. It is necessary space that should be respected, and not encroached upon.  Secondly, hordes of tourists should not be allowed to mar this sacred space either. Instead, in every city, and Budapest was no exception, as was every city we visited, the great buildings were pinched in by other structures and hordes of disrespectful tourists, like us. Great art should be allowed to breathe and show us its glories. Usually, that is not allowed. The art is pinched in by pinched minds.

All of this is particularly annoying to someone like me who wants to photograph them. It is extremely difficult, and often, impossible. The AI “remove” feature on  photographic programs like Lightroom helps a lot. I did find out later when I had a chance to look at my photographs that at least this feature  helped to eliminate parts of other buildings in some cases, and people too. But space would be much better. On the above photograph I left some people in the photo to give a sense of scale. I wish cities could find a way to expand the sacred space instead.

The highlight of our short city tour was passing by Mattias Church and driving up the hillside to the Castle district on the Buda side of Budapest.  My photographing of the city was greatly hindered by the hordes of tourists. Wherever there are beautiful places, there are also tourists. How can I complain? After all, what was I doing here? The same thing they were doing here. I just wished they would leave me alone in the city to explore it without them. No such luck. That day will never come, so I must compromise or go home.

On the Buda side of the Danube River we saw the Mattias Church also known as the church of Our Lady or Nagyboldogasszony Templom. It is located in the Buda Castle District near to the Fisherman’s Bastion. It is a rare Catholic church that is not named after a saint. It was originally built in 1255 and named after King Matthias Corvinus who reigned from 1458-90 and was married here twice. The church underwent many renovations, additions and changes over the years with the changing trends in architecture.

In 1541, in the style of Europe and the Middle East, the church was turned into a mosque when the Turks occupied the city. Much of the original treasure and many of the frescoes were destroyed or removed. When the Turks were expelled in 1686 restoration began but only really took off in 1874 under the direction of Frigyes Schulek who redesigned the church in the Neo-Gothic style and restored much of the church’s former glory, as a Christian church. At least this was an improvement to the Christians. The Muslims probably disagreed.