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Szentendre, the town of artists

© Haragos Pal

Szentendre is a town which lies on the right bank of the Danube in the foothills of the Visegrad Hills. This territory has been inhabited since the Stone Age. The progress of the town began at the end of the 17th century, when Serbs, Dalmatians, and Greeks fleeing from the Turks, made their home there. Noted artists began to frequent the town from 1926. Artists' colony was established and the Society of Szentendre Painters was founded. These artists still play a decisive roll in the life of the town as well as in the Hungarian artistic life. Szentendre then became a cultural centre. The town famous for its museums and Orthodox churches, which attract more visitors.

Szentendre is not far from the centre of Budapest. Visitors can reach it by suburban railway within 40 minutes. Trains depart from 'Batthyany ter' terminal in every 30 minutes (in peak hours in every 15 minutes). The shortest way from Budapest to Szentendre is the Route 11 by car. This way is only 20 km long. Parallel the Route 11 there are an independent road for cyclists. http://www.szentendre.hu/vendega.html

Next to the railway station in Szentendre an old railway depot is the Museum of Public Transport, which shows the history of Budapest's public transport and old trams and suburban trains were used in the last 100 years. http://telnet.hu/hamster/kozlekedes/szte...

The Town Centre

Fo ter (Main Square) is the historic town centre. Almost all of the Baroque, Rococo style buildings were built in the 18th century. This Serbian business houses had little shops on the ground floor, the shop-keepers and their families lived on the upper floor and lofts were used for storage. The centre of the square is occupied by a Greek Orthodox memorial cross erected in 1763. In Fo ter are some museums and galleries like Szentendre Gallery, The Ferenczy Karoly Museum and Kmetty Museum. Gorog utca (Greek Street) is where Greeks settled. The street was lined with their shops. In this street is the Kovacs Margit Pottery Museum. The building, which is one of the most beautiful Baroque building of Szentendre, was a salt depot early in the 18th century, then a mail coach station, still later a business house. Today it is house the pottery of Margit Kovacs. Little houses of the centre are houses small galleries, museums, needlework and souvenir shops and restaurants. http://www.szentendre.hu/vendega.html

Churches

Szentendre is well-known from its Orthodox Churches. Blagovestenska Church, in Fo ter, was built in 1752 for Greek settlers. The steeple rises above the attractive Baroque entrance and arched gable of the facade. The interior of the church is single-naved and richly decorated with iconostases. Preobrazenska Church at the foot of Szamarhegy was built in 1740s. The mastery carved iconostases of the church is one of the most beautiful of its kind in Hungary. The Serbian Orthodox Cathedral was built in the middle of the 18th century. The church stands in the middle of a walled garden entered through a wrought iron gate. The interior is a single-aisle covered by a surpassed spherical vault. The most splendid piece of its rich furnishing is the carved lime-wood guilded iconostases.