Országház (Hungarian Parliament)

We had an early start to join the queue for the day’s release of tickets for the parliament tours, arriving just after the ticket office opened at 8am. Once we’d secured tickets for an audio guided tour in English at 11am, we hopped back on the metro to the hotel for breakfast.

Once ready to (re)start the day, we took the metro back to the Parliament building. After the usual security checks, we joined the English tour which was mostly pre-recorded talks with occasional instructions to follow our guide.

The Országház (literally, House of the Nation) had been the seat of the Hungarian National Assembly since 1902, including through the Communist era. The parliament originally had 2 houses, each using opposite wings of the symmetrical building (much like the Westminster Houses of Parliament) but has been unicameral since WW2.

Our tour took us into the wing formerly used by the House of Peers, including the Grand Staircase which leads to the central Dome Hall under which sits the Holy Crown of King St Stephen, and the Orb, Sceptre and Sword of Hungary. These constitute Hungary’s sacred Crown Jewels, and were guarded by 2 incredibly tall Crown Guards with swords unsheathed and held in salute. No photos are allowed in the Dome Hall but here’s a link to someone else’s photo (https://www.flickr.com/photos/189420050@N03/519…).

The House of Peers chamber is virtually identical to the chamber used by the National Assembly, and occasionally stands in for the main chamber but is otherwise used for other ceremonies and conferences.

We found a convenient coffee stop (Elysée Kávé & Bistro: https://elysee.hu/en/) overlooking the Parliament building and ended up staying here for a tasty lunch.Read more