Eger

Saturday Jon, Briggi and I spent a day in Eger, a city in northern Hungary. The most famous Hungarian red wine, Egri Bikavér ("Bull's Blood of Eger"), comes from here. It was a beautiful day for seeing the city. Our first stop was at the Eger Cathedral, one of the largest churches in Hungary.

looking up at the front of Eger Cathedral

statue of St. Peter in front of the cathedral

The cathedral built between 1831 and 1836 and is home to the biggest organ in Hungary. The organ itself was built in Salzburg by Ludwig Moser at the end of the 19th Century.

the organ


painted interior of the dome

Just across Eszterházy Square from the cathedral is the Líceum, built between 1765 and 1780 by Jakab Fellner, a famous Hungarian Baroque architect. Today it contains the Eszterházy Károly College as well as a library, an astronomy museum, a hands-on science museum, and a camera obscura. Both museums were packed with kids, so we only peeked in on our way up to the balcony and the camera obscura.

at the top balcony of the Líceum with the Cathedral in the background

view of the Minorite Church and Eger Castle from the top balcony of the Líceum

Built in 1776, the camera obscura is a periscope through which the entire panorama of the city can be viewed as reflected on a white table in a dark room atop the Líceum. About 15 people are allowed into the dark room at a time for a guided viewing of the city. It was really incredible.

diagram of the camera obscura

view from the dark room of the camera obscura at the top of the Líceum

Our next stop was Palacsintavár ("The Pancake Castle") where we chowed down on amazing palacsintas, which (even though it translates into English as "pancakes") are Hungary's version of crêpes. Jon ordered a traditional hortobágyi palacsinta, a crepe filled with a pork paprikás (basically pork in a sour cream and paprika sauce), while Briggi and I split a veggie one filled with a kind of herb and onion cream cheese. Yum.

the most delicious palacsinta I've eaten in Hungary

After delicious palacsintas we headed up to the castle. Jon and Briggi quickly spotted two men in costume charging a few hundred forint for a few shots with a recurve bow or a crossbow. While Jon was trying out the recurve bow, the guy with the crossbow offered Briggi and I some wine and a shot each with the crossbow.

Briggi got the cardboard man right in the neck and I shot him in the nose. Afterwards we chuckled a bit at the improbability of being handed wine BEFORE trying out a crossbow anywhere but in Hungary. Thankfully the only injuries were sustained by men made of paint and cardboard.

We walked around and came across some other costumed people cooking in cauldrons. Briggi started talking to one of men in costume and before we knew it we were sitting down in front of two big plates of pork and french fries and some local wine. After a grand attempt to make a dent, I had to explain to the nice man that we couldn't possibly finish the lovely meal he had set for us because we had just stuffed our faces with palacsintas a few minutes ago. Thankfully he didn't seem too frustrated with us when we got up from our still half-full plates.

view of the Minorite Church and the Líceum (far distance, left side) from Eger Castle


Briggi by the castle wall

Our last stop was in the Szépasszony-völgy ("The Valley of the Beautiful Woman"). This wine making valley is just outside the city and is home to over 200 wine cellars. At one end is a small park surrounded by about 50 different cellars open for tasting and purchase by the liter.

view into the Szépasszony-völgy