Gellért Hill

Gellért Hill ( _hu. Gellérthegy; _de. Blocksberg; _la. Mons Sancti Gerhardi; _tr. Gürz Elyas bayiri) is 235 m high hill overlooking the Danube in Budapest, Hungary. It is part of the Ist and XIth Districts. Gellért Hill was named after Saint Gerard who was thrown to death from the hill. The famous Hotel Gellért and the Gellért Baths can be found in Gellért Square at the foot of the hill, next to Liberty Bridge. The Gellért Hill Cave is located within the hill, facing toward the Hotel Gellért and the Danube River.

Maps

*The streets on Google Maps [http://maps.google.de/maps?ie=UTF8&om=1&z=15&ll=47.481858,19.043684&spn=0.019287,0.040169]
*Near view "Citadella" on Google [http://maps.google.de/maps?ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=47.487078,19.04362&spn=0.004821,0.010042&t=h]

Name

The first recorded names of the hill in the Middle Ages were "Kelen-hegy", "Pesti-hegy" and "Blocksberg". It was called "Szent Gellért hegye" (lit. the hill of St. Gerard) from the 15th century onwards, referring to the legend about the death of St. Gerard. The saintly bishop was killed by the pagans during the great pagan rebellion in 1046. He was put in a barrel and rolled down into the deep from the top of the hill.

The former name, Pesti-hegy ( _la. Mons Pestiensis) referred the large cave (now Gellért Hill Cave) in the hillside. The word is of Slavic origin and means oven or cave. [ [http://www.palosrend.hu/szikla/szikla.htm A Rend külföldön ] ]

The Ottoman Turks called the hill "Gürz Elyas bayiri". [http://geo.organic.hu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=37] Gürz Elyas was a holy man from the Bektashi order whose shrine and grave on top of the hill was a place of pilgrimage in the 17th century. [ [http://www.mno.hu/portal/81309 MN Magyar Nemzet ] ]

Panoramic view

At the top of the hill is the Citadella (Citadel), from which a glorious view is available down both directions of the Danube.

History

In the 18th century the hillsides of Gellért Hill were covered with vineyards. The Tabán district at the foot of the hill was an important centre of wine-making in Buda. According to the 1789 land register vineyards covered 128 hectares on the hill (only 7.62 hectares were used as pastures). [Eltűnt budai szőlők nyomában, in: Borbarát, 2007/3, p. 52]

In the 18th century a small calvary was built on the top of the hill which was rebuilt around 1820. On Easter Mondays a procession climbed the steep road leading to the calvary to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Many tents and vendors were erected on the nearby meadow. The "emmausjárás" (Emmaus-walk) or "tojásbúcsú" (egg feast) was one of the most popular Catholic holidays of the year during the 18-19th centuries. [ [http://nol.hu/cikk/79615/ Népszabadság Online: A vén Gellért-hegy oldalán… ] ]

The Citadel was built after the 1848-49 Hungarian uprising by the ruling Habsburg Austrians, as it was a prime, strategic site for shelling both Buda and Pest in the event of a future revolt.

Gellért Hill also saw action in the Second World War and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, when Soviet tanks stood up on the hill and fired down into the city. Indeed, battle scars still pockmark the building. There is a small military museum in the Citadel’s grounds. At the end of Citadella is the "Liberty Statue" ("Szabadság Szobor" in Hungarian), a large monument erected by the Soviet Red Army to commemorate their victory in World War II.

Today

Now an affluent residential area, a number of embassies and ambassadorial residences line the streets which wind up the hill. Since 1987, the area is listed as a world heritage site as part of "the Banks of the Danube".

A large proportion of the hill consists of parkland. Bats and hedgehogs are commonly observed on summer nights.

In January 2007 a new cave was discovered under Gellért Hill during a private construction. The cave is 60 m long and 18 m deep with 3 rooms. The interior is covered with dazzling white crystals composed of gypsum, calcite and aragonite. The cave was created 300-500'000 years ago by a now disappeared thermal spring. The crystal cave was immediately placed under legal protection. [ [http://index.hu/tech/tudomany/ujbarl0214/ Index - Új barlangot találtak a Gellért-hegy alatt ] ]

See also

*Naphegy
*Tabán
*Gellért Hill Calvary

Notes

External links

* [http://www.vendegvaro.hu/6-3133 Gellérthegy a Vendégvárón]
* [http://www.gellerthegy.hu/ www.Gellerthegy.hu (Budapesti XI district homepage)]
* [http://korlat.bmknet.hu/vakbarat/gellerthegy/terkep_nagy.gifMap]
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=47.486644,19.046742&spn=0.007907,0.010664&t=k&hl=en Google]
* [http://www.360travelguide.com/360VirtualTour.asp?iCode=bud06 Panoramic Virtual Tour]