Price per person sharing room - $520; price for single room - $595. What is included: three nights in hotel including breakfast, 1st night Budapest, 2nd night Györ, 3rd night Vienna. Three pre-arranged lunches (Eger, Visegrád, Bratislava), one dinner (Györ), organ concert, wine tasting, guide, transportation in a/c bus. Pre-registration required. Refer to Registration Form.

Thursday, July 6, 2000. Departure from Budapest Grand Hotel Hungaria to Eger.
Every Hungarian school child knows about Eger. In 1552, the women of Eger fought alongside the 2000 soldiers in the castle and in a heroic struggle under the leadership of Captain István Dobó managed to repel an attack by Turkish forces six times their strength. Egri Csillagok (‘The Stars of Eger’), a novel by Géza Gárdonyi published in 1901, tells the story of the defense of Eger and the heroic deeds of the defenders. It has been virtually compulsory reading in all schools since it was published. No wonder that Eger Castle is one of the most popular places for Hungarian visitors in the whole country. All visitors find another attraction here - the wine. The Eger region is one of Hungary’s main wine-producing centers and the home of the internationally famous Egri Bikavér (Bull’s Blood).

The Eger Valley lies between the wooded Bükk and Mátra Hills. It was settled by the first generation of Magyars to arrive in the Carpathian Basin. Stephen I made it an episcopal see at the beginning of the 11C and the town has been an ecclesiastical centre ever since.

The Mongol forces that came from the east burned the town down in 1241 and slaughtered many of the inhabitants. This was followed by a wave of immigration from western Europe, and by the end of the 15C Eger was one of Hungary’s main Renaissance centers. The defeat of theTurks in 1552 delayed the spread of the Ottoman Empire, but it could not stop it altogether and 44 years later, in 1596, Sultan Mohammed III was able to capture the castle and the Turks ruled Eger until 1687. Mosques and baths were built, but today only one minaret remains standing.

In 1690 there were only 3500 residents, which included about 600 Muslims who stayed after the Turks had left and who were converted to Christianity and assimilated into Hungarian life. In 1702 the Habsburg Emperor Leopold I ordered the castle walls be blown up so that the fortress could not be used by Hungarian forces struggling for independence. Nevertheless Eger became one of the centers of resistance during the ensuing Rákóczi War of Independence.

The full day excursion to Eger includes a tour of the city's main sites, an organ concert in the cathedral, lunch and wine tasting program in the famous "Valley in the Beautiful Woman." Overnight in Budapest at the Grand Hotel Hungaria. The evening is free.

Friday, July 7, 2000. Departure at 10.00 from Hotel Grand Hungaria in Budapest via Visegrád, Esztergom (Danube Bend) to Györ.
The Danube Bend is the name given to the part of Hungary which lies along the Danube river to the north of Budapest. The designation comes from the fact that about 40 km to the north of the capital the Danube sharply alters its eastward course and starts flowing southwards. Strictly speaking the Danube Bend is that part of the river which cuts a swathe between the Börzsöny and Visegrád hills, but the term is generally applied to the whole of the area on both sides of the river roughly encompassed by the Budapest-Esztergom-Vác triangle. The sight of the Danube Bend around Visegrád, where the curve of the river is accompanied by hill ranges on both sides, is certainly impressive and counts among the most beautiful environments in Hungary.

The Danube Bend is also rich in historic monuments and places of interest. The ever-popular Szentendre is noted for its Serbian past. Refugees from the Balkans built Orthodox churches, which still determine the look of the town. It has also been an important artistic centre in the 20C and many galleries are dotted around its winding streets and narrow alleys. (Also see Tuesday, July 4, 2000 conference excursion to Szentendre).

Visegrád lies to the north of Szentendre, at the centre of the Danube Bend where the river actually swings north for a short distance. This small riverside village is the former site of one of the most sumptuous royal palaces built in Hungary.

The Romans established a fort here which was still in use in the 10C. At that time the area was inhabited by Slav people who gave the settlement its present name which means ‘high fortification.’ In the middle of the 11C, as the Hungarian state was being organized and Christianity was being established in the country, a monastery was built near the fortress.

While the former splendors of the Royal Palace can now only be seen in their ruin, the natural beauty of the area, which also appealed to visitors in the Middle Ages, can still be appreciated by today’s visitors. We will stop for lunch at Visegrád.

The great age of the Danube Bend commenced when, towards the end of the 10C, Prince Géza established his seat at Esztergom which then became the centre of the royal household for almost 300 years. Due to the efforts of Géza and his son Stephen to convert the Hungarians to Christianity, Esztergom also became the centre of the early Church in Hungary and the first cathedral of the country was built here. It was here that Stephen was crowned first King of Hungary in the year 1000.

The high point in the town’s history came in the late 12C during the reign of Béla III (ruled 1172-96). He had been brought up at the Byzantine court, and had been for a while heir apparent to the Byzantine throne. In 1241-42 the Mongols destroyed the town but were unable to capture the castle. In the years following their retreat Béla IV (ruled 1235-70) chose to move the royal residence to Buda and hence Esztergom declined in importance in royal terms. The town was under Turkish rule of almost all the years of the Turkish presence in Hungary. They were driven out in 1683, three years before they were forced to leave Buda.

We will be arriving in Györ in the late afternoon. Györ is a major town of western Hungary with a significant history and many valuable monuments and places of interest, almost all of which are in a confined, central area. The town’s proximity to Austria has brought increased investment and tourism to the area in recent years.

Györ is situated in the centre of the Kisaföld (Little Plain) at the junction of three rivers, the Danube, Rába and Rábca. In the Roman period it was called Arrabona, a name which originates from the Celts who inhabited the areas in the last centuries BC. King Stephen established an episcopal see at Györ in the 11C and during the Middle Ages the town was an important economic centre due to its riverside position.

A fortress was built in the mid 16C to protect the town against the approaching Turks, who only managed to occupy Györ for four years in the 1590s. For most of the period when the Turks were in Hungary Györ belonged to that part of the country under the rule of the Habsburgs. Thus Baroque art appeared in Györ much earlier than in other places, where its development was delayed until after the Turks had been driven out. In 1809 the town was occupied by Napoleon’s armies who were pressing into Hungary from Italy.

During the 1956 Uprising Györ was one of the most active places outside Budapest. Among the sites to be seen are Györ’s splendid, neo-Baroque Town Hall, the former Carmelite monastery (today a modern Hotel) and the Carmelite Church, in front of the church the statue of Károly Kisfaludy (1788-1830), a poet and playwright, and the Cathedral which overlooks several picturesque streets and alleys.

Overnight stay in Hotel Rába*** in Györ, dinner at Restaurant Vaskakas, a short walk from the Hotel.

Saturday, July 8, 2000. After breakfast departure for Bratislava, Slovakia.
Bratislava (Pressburg, Pozsony) on the north bank of the Danube (Dunaj) and at the foot of the little Carpathians (Malé Karpaty) is on the very edge of Slovakia, near the Austrian and Hungarian borders, and only 60km from Vienna. For two centuries the capital of Hungary, it is now the capital of Slovakia and administrative centre of the district of West Slovakia. The presence here of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Comenius University, numerous colleges and technical colleges, the National Gallery and National Museum make the town the cultural metropolis of Slovakia and the Slovaks.

The ‘Devín (Theben) Gate,’ through which the Danube passes between the Alps and the Carpathians, was already a crossing point of two great trade routes in prehistoric times: the east-west water route along the Danube and the overland route from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. The traffic along these routes was safeguarded by fortified hilltop settlements on what are now the castle hills of Bratislava and Devín. Around 15 BC, after the conquest of Raetia and Pannonia, the Romans reached the middle Danube and built numerous forts. The collapse of the Roman rule on the Danube was followed by the arrival of Goths, Herulians, Huns, Avars, and finally in the 6th century, the Slavs.

In the 9C the castle of the Devín served as a defense of the Great Moravian Empire against attacks from the Franks, and on the castle hill of Bratislava the Great Moravian prince Breslav built a mighty fortress in the second of the 9C which he chose as his residence. In 892 the Magyars together with Arnulf of Carinthia defeated the Great Moravian Empire and occupied Bratislava and the Devín. In a document of 907 the place is called Brezelauspurc, ‘Breslav’s castle.’ In the mouths of the German inhabitants this became Pressburg, while to the Slavs it was Bratislava. After the collapse of the Great Moravian Empire the town was for a time part of the territory of the Premyslides, until King Stephen I (István) of Hungary (997-1038) incorporated it into his kingdom.

In 1217 Bratislava received its town charter, and a few decades later it was even granted the privileges of a Royal Hungarian free town. Around the year 1000 King Stephen had already settled some Bavarian colonists here, and after the Tartar attack in the 13C (which the town itself had withstood) the Hungarian King Béla IV summoned more German and Italian settlers to the depopulated country. Between 1541 and 1784 Pressburg - or to give it its Hungarian name Pozsony - was the capital of Hungary after Buda had fallen to the Turks, and from 1563 until as late as 1830 the Hungarian kings were crowned here. In the carve-up of Habsburg dominions after the First World War, it became part of the new state of Czechoslovakia, and was known as Bratislava. In 1939 it was made the capital of the short-lived independent Slovak Republic, under its leader Tiso. In 1945 it became the capital of Slovakia within a reunited Czechoslovakia. Since the break-up of Czechoslovakia it is the capital of Slovakia.

Sightseeing in Bratislava and lunch at Hradnihá Vináren, The restaurant is situated on the eastern terrace of the castle. After lunch travel to Vienna. Overnight at Hotel Alexander Vienna. Evening free. The tour ends in Vienna.

Excerpts from Hungary, Bob Dent, 1998 A&C Black, London, WW Norton, New York and Czech & Slovak Republics, Erhard Gorys, 1996, DuMont Bookverlag GMbH & Co., Cologne, Germany.