Hungarian National Gallery

On an on-again, off-again rainy day, we decided to do what it is the second sensible thing to do on rainy day. (First is, of course, stay home.) We headed to a museum. The Hungarian National Gallery is located inside the Buda Castle just across the river on top of a hill.

We took the bus and a couple trams get to the bottom of the hill and then bought tickets to ride the funicular to get to the top. We are not into climbing hills.



We started near at the beginning and explored the oldest artifacts from the 15th century. Naturally, these were all religious.

The lighting on these stone carvings done in relief makes for great photos.

This wooden statue of Mary and Jesus (with Jesus being just a small man) came from in front of church in a small town in Hungary. It seems that most of what is on display here are things gathered from around the country for preservation.

This painting of Mary on wood shows some bright colors and is a style typical of the period.

From later times (I've forgotten now which), we get these neoclassical statues with fine lines and well executed carvings.

There was much else to see and we saw it, but the many paintings of the upper floors were less interesting to photograph, so I didn't.  After a snack in the cafe, we headed back outside where it had stopped raining for a spell.

In front of the castle is this statue of one of the Hungarian kings mounted on his horse.

This is part of the view that the mounted horseman stares at every day. In the distance, the large white building with the dark red roof is the parliament building.

Looking back a the front of the castle, we see the horseman and the dome of the building.

Before we once again embarked on the funicular to return ourselves back to river level (more or less), I took time to shoot a panorama. Here we see from the parliament building on the left, to the Széchenyi Chain Bridge and St. Stephen's Basilica in the center, to the Budapest Eye (you may have to zoom in to see that) just a bit farther to the right, and then on down river a bit.

Still a few splashes of fall color in the trees and the blue-ish sky reflecting in the river to make it look less gray that it seemed when standing near it.

From where this image is made, look in between St. Stephen's and the parliament about 5.5 mile into the distance and that is where we are house sitting. Just a little scale and perspective for those inquiring minds out there.