Page 23 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Hungary

A POR TR AIT OF HUNGAR Y  21

found, most strikingly in the mosque
at Pécs, now recycled as a Christian
church, and in the towering minaret
at Eger, as well as in the handful of
wonderfully preserved 16th-century
thermal bath houses in Budapest.
Hungary also once had a thriving
Jewish population, but it was deci-
mated during World War II, when
most Jews were sent to concen tration
camps. Neglected synagogues still
found in many of Hungary’s cities
and towns are a testament to the
numbers who died.
An indoor pool at the Gellért Hotel and Baths complex Most Hungarians who profess any
religion at all say they are Roman
that turn a sometimes difficult society, it Catholic (52 per cent). But religion in
can be interpreted as aloofness, a desire Hungary has often been a question
to keep “outsiders” (foreigners and other of expediency. Under King Stephen I
Hungarians) at a distance. This is not Catholicism, as opposed to Orthodoxy,
really the case; Hungarians simply need was introduced to the country and,
a while to make up their minds about while the majority of Hungarians were
people. There is also the language issue: quite happily Calvinists by the end of
Hungarian does not belong to the Indo- the 16th century, many donned a new
European language family, meaning mantle during the Counter-Reformation
that Russian and Hindi are closer to under the Habsburgs. As a result of
English than Magyar is. It is part of the these swings, Hungarians tend to have
Finno-Ugric group, and due to millennia a prag matic view of religion and there is
of separation it is not even mutually very little bigotry. Today, however, both
intelligible with its closest cousins, Catholicism and Calvinism appear to be
Finnish and Estonian. As a result, visitors losing their influence as the country
will recognize few words, and trying to becomes more and more secular.
order a glass of vino in a bar gets you
nowhere; the word for wine is bor.
Few foreigners ever master Hungarian
completely, even after years of patient
study, and Hungarians themselves are
not particularly enthusiastic linguists.
English is, however, becoming more
popular as a second language, especially
among younger people in the cities.
The Magyars are not the only people
to have left their mark or helped form
modern Hungarian society. Germans
and Slovaks settled here as long ago as
the reign of King Stephen I (István) from
AD 1000 to 1038, and on the Great Plain
Balkan influences in the form of the
region’s lively markets can still be seen.
There are also Turkish footprints to be The symphony orchestra and state choir, Budapest

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