Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1956. Built in 1887 by the Wenckheim family - who enjoyed a near-monopoly on Hungary's
onion crop - the library has come through a thorough modernization in sparkling form. At
the main entrance on Reviczky utca, you can ask at the information desk about visiting the
fourth-floor reading rooms, reached by a lovely wooden staircase. Staff may ask you to re-
gister but will probably just wave you through. Otherwise, you could do worse than avail
yourself of a coffee in the delightful atrium café.
Fountain of Hungarian Truth
Outside the library stands one of the few surviving monuments marking the hated
Treaty of
1928, it honours the British press magnate Lord Rothermere, whose campaign against the
treaty inthe
Daily Mail
was soappreciated that hewas offered the Hungarian crown.OnJune
4, the anniversary of the treaty's signing, nationalist and neo-Nazi groups gather to pay their
respects.
To the Nagykörút and Keleti Station
Behind the library lies an atmospheric quarter of small squares and parochial schools;
formerly shabby, it's now buzzing with cafés and bars popular with students. Having given a
face-lift to
Mikszáth Kálmán tér
and much of Krúdy utca, the process of gentrification has
crossed the
József körút
- one of the sleazier arcs of the Nagykörút - to embrace
Rákóczi
tér
, the focus of street prostitution until it was outlawed in 1999. The square has one of Bud-
apest's finest market halls, and the opening of the fourth metro line has brightened up the
whole area.
The large square that lies up towards Keleti Station,
II János Pal pápa tér
(Pope John
Paul II Square), was formerly known as
Köztársaság tér
, long associated with lynchings
that were carried out in front of the Communist Party HQ here in 1956. The addition of a
new metro station, alongside the reopening of the
ErkelTheatre
, Budapest's “second” opera
house (named after the composer of the national anthem, Ferenc Erkel), has lent this square a
pleasant air of respectability. A couple of blocks away lies
Keleti Station
, where the grittier
side of life still prevails, though this is also much improved thanks to spruced-up Baross tér
and new underpasses.
The Police History Museum
Rendőrség-Történeti Múzeum • VIII, Mosonyi utca 7 • Tues-Sat 9am-5pm • Free • 1 477 2183,
police-
To check on dodgy arrivals, the
police
used to patrol Keleti Station in threes (“One can read,
one can write, and the third one keeps an eye on the two intellectuals”, as the old joke had it).
They are now trying to improve their public image in the
Police History Museum
, a couple
of blocks from the station, its entrance marked by a sentry box. As you go in, ask for the Eng-
lish translation of the main displays to enjoy how they handle such awkward matters as the
