Panoramas of Budapest [antikvár]

The shutter of a tiny window is thrown open to expose the silhouette of a section of Budapest, outlined against the blue sky. A Gothic tower, the furthermost building of the district, appears within its franrie. Further to the fore, the river is lined with an unbroken row of mansions, while between the window and the buildings on the opposite bank flows the longest river in Central Europe, the Danube. The two major components ofthe "veduta" presented by Budapest strike the eye at the first glance. On the right bank the fascinating configuration of Buda enriches the capital with rolling hills within its very boundariesa rare feature for a city of two million inhabitants. The second important factor is the Danube. Of its total length of 2,850 km, 28 km fall to Budapest. Here the river is not yet broad enough to prevent the spectator from delighting in the natural beauty of the opposite bank and in the gay patterns of its buildings, but it is wide enough to embrace the reflection ofthe rows of mansions, and its glittering surface stretches between the two richly built-up banks like the ribbon of some huge, blue high-road.