St. Stephan's Basiclia

On our first attempt to see the inside of St. Stephen's Basilica, we were prevented from a full view inside by some activity that had most of the church roped off. On our second visit, it was fully open and I thought I'd update you with the full details. What a place this is!

The amount of gilt surfaces in this building is amazing. Everything it either stone, painted, or gilt.

With the pulpit built into the wall, it reminds me of Juliet's balcony. Well, just a little.

The marble in this building is unlike any I've seen elsewhere.

The organ in the rear loft is large but not massive. Since the basilica is large but not enormous, this seems a good fit and probably really fills the hall with music.

The main altar is a beautiful construction. While I cannot be sure since we were not allowed to get very close to the altar, I believe the statue in the ciborium is of St. Stephen, or as the Hungarians put it, Szt. Istvan. In white marble, illuminated by a white light, he stands out in the darkened church.

The top of the outer dome is 96 meters high. This is the same height as the top of the parliament building suggesting an equality of the sacred and profane in this country. Budapest has a current law prohibiting any buildings taller than this. It was slow in coming, as well. Wikipedia tells us:

It has a width of 55 metres (180 ft), and length of 87.4 metres (287 ft). It was completed in 1905 after 54 years of construction, according to the plans of Miklós Ybl, and was completed by József Kauser. Much of this delay can be attributed to the collapse of the dome in 1868 which required complete demolition of the completed works and rebuilding from the ground up.

It always seems odd that such structures are completed so recently. But, considering the tumultus history of Hungary in the last 100 years, it is remarkable that anything is here at all.

That a building has mostly survived is amazing. The roof structure, the towers and the exterior walls were all damaged in WWII and the wooden structure of the dome catches fire during the repair work in 1947.

The holy right hand of St. Stephen was placed in the reliquary in 1971.

As noted in the history of the church, "The plate cover of the large cupola is swept on to the street below by a storm, and the church building becomes hazardous to life". Not entirely sure what a "plate cover" is, but it must be significant. The full restoration of the building was only completed in August 2003. 

We see this sort of timeline on many of the important buildings in Budapest. It feels like we only came to visit here at the right time now that so many structures have been recently restored.

On the other hand, Britain took until the early '90's to really get back on their feet after WWII and they were on the winning side. That it is taking Hungary until the 21st century to complete the repairs on their many damaged buildings still seems quick considering the number of times the German and Russian armies marched through, followed by the Soviet occupation for so long. An amazing, resilient people.