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Győr is the main city in northwestern Hungary, and it is located close to the Danube in an area that has been inhabited for thousands of years. Many different peoples settled over time in the area, which grew into an important city. When the Muslim Ottomans conquered the region in the middle of the 16th century, the citizens burned down Győr, and after the Ottoman occupation, the city was rebuilt during the Renaissance and the following Baroque period.
Today you can experience a beautiful old town with a homogeneous building mass from the time after Győr’s reconstruction. Széchenyi tér is the central square and here are several sights. The square is surrounded by houses from the 1600s and 1700s, with townhouses on the north side and a monastery with a college on the south side. Here you can see the fine Benedictine church dedicated to St. Ignatius of Loyola, which was built in impressive baroque in the years 1634-1641. In front of the church stands a baroque column that was erected in 1686 to commemorate the victory over the Turks.
A little northwest of Széchenyi tér is the mouth of the river Rába in the Mosoni-Duna, and Győr’s history began here. Today, there are preserved fortress walls here, and it is the site of the city’s cathedral as well. The current appearance and elegant interior of the cathedral date mainly back to the 17th-century Baroque. At the church you can also see the bishops’ castle with its distinctive tower, from which there is a fine view of the city and the rivers. In the tower and the bishop’s residence, you can also see an exhibition about the place and the city.
Along Rába River is Győr’s Carmelite monastery with its church, Karmelita templom. The church was completed in 1725 with a fine interior design in grand Baroque. On the opposite side of the river is Győr’s Great Synagogue in the Újváros district. It was built 1868-1870 and is today open as a cultural center. In Győr, you can also see the castle-like Town Hall, built in the late 1800s, and the modern National Theater, which opened in 1978.
Budapest is one of the grand capitals along the Danube River, and its magnificent history dates back to Roman times and the military outpost Aquincum. There are still remains of excavated facilities to be seen from the Roman era, and since then, one of the most beautiful cities in Central Europe has grown on both sides of the river.
The hilly Buda district stands opposite the flat Pest, and the two boroughs are located on either side of the Danube, which wind through the Hungarian capital. The city is extremely rich in monuments from all periods over the last 2,000 years, and combined with its very beautiful location it offers ample opportunity for many great sights and interesting activities.
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and one of Central Europe’s magnificent and at the same time very interesting cultural cities, and you can clearly sense a certain resemblance to other capitals and metropolitan cities of the historic Habsburg Empire, of which Bratislava was a central part for many years.
Beautiful squares and an old town with many atmospheric streets invite you to take wonderful walks between countless buildings from, for example, the Baroque era, and at the same time it is a good idea to enjoy the elegant and quite diverse architecture that characterizes the cityscape.
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