Layers of history

This fall I have been learning about the layers of history in this region, not just in books, but in the physical presence of buildings, streets, museums, monuments, and parks. Just in the last century they have lived politically with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, two World Wars, Nazism, Communism, and now the European Union.

Today I went over to the Roosevelt Terrace on the east side of the Danube. I have discovered several streets and parks this fall named in honor of Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt for their role in ending those wars. "Roosevelt Ter." is on the street signs, but I could not find any plaques to explain the name. The square has plenty of statues, but none of American heroes. It's understandable that the Communists would not want to praise the Americans, and apparently, once Communism fell, this must have seemed like old history.

I tracked down one more Art Nouveau building by Lechner, this one for the Hungarian Institute of Geology on Stefánia út northeast of the tourist area. Lechner is the Hungarian architect who designed several buildings in Bratislava a century ago. The Slovaks and Hungarians have a very complicated history politically (more about that later), but his buildings are quite extraordinary.

The beautiful Hungarian Opera House was funded by the emperor Franz Joseph in the late 19th century. It is located on Andrássy út, an elegant tree-lined broad boulevard that looks like Park Avenue, with the classy shops, restaurants, and apartment buildings of Fifth Avenue. Today workmen were taking down those ridiculous red wrappings. I thought they were Christmas decorations, but apparently they were promoting the opera Elektra, which they just performed.

No ballets to see this week, and I missed the guided tour of the theater. But I did get a few pictures inside the intricately detailed lobby.

I also stopped at the Cafe Callas immediately adjacent to the Opera House and named after Maria you-know-who. I had a big green salad, cappuccino, and goulash -- what else. Authentic goulash is a very spicy soup, not the stew-like mix Americans call "goulash."

The interior of the cafe is beautiful, too. The dinner entrées are pricey, but it's very reasonable for lunch or early supper.

I had planned to stop for coffee at the Eckermann Cafe, just north of the Opera House in the Goethe Institute. It's recommended in the tourist books as an example of Bohemian atmosphere, but it apparently just closed down.

The most powerful history I visited today was just a few blocks north of the Opera House -- the House of Terror, location of the old secret police of the Nazis and then the Communists, but I'll do a separate entry on that.

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