ONE expects to see a grand cathedral in a capital city.
All the popular European destinations have at least one, an impressive sanctuary with stained-glass windows and a towering cupola decorated with a spray of ethereal frescoes.
But one certainly doesn’t expect to stumble across the church that rivals St Peter’s Basilica while exploring the modest Hungarian countryside.
That’s just what happened today as my cheery brand of travellers followed the curves of the Danube River to Budapest.
It isn’t a long journey from Bratislava to Hungarian capital, as the crow flies, so we took the scenic route along the touring path known as the Danube Bend which had us passing through the town of Esztergom not long after breakfast.
Our guide said we would be stopping to take a closer look at the local church, and I was expecting a little stone shack constructed by a band of monks back in the Dark Ages.
What we found, as we approached this town that served as the capital of Hungary for 300 years until the middle of the 13th century, was a monumental structure set high on the plateau of a slope that climbed steeply from the south bank of the Danube.
The Esztergom Basilica, built during the 19th century, is the largest church in Hungary with a grand dome that towers 71m above the altar and a collection of peaceful chapels that line the side walls of the sanctuary.
The folks who designed the cathedral and the gardens that surround the structure sure knew how to make a statement, and today’s visitors walk a long stone path to get to the building which is fronted by a line of ionic columns that support a very Roman portico.
There’s an enormous door that opens to the sanctuary, but we had to use a more modest side entrance, and once inside it took my eyes a few seconds to get used to the limited light filtering through the ring of windows set high in the dome.
It was much cooler inside the church than outside in the springtime sunshine, which made me think it would be a blessing to head to mass on a hot summer’s afternoon and a curse in the middle of a frosty winter.
The Basilica sits on the very edge of the plateau, with only enough space for the footpath that loops the structure, and from the back steps visitors can enjoy the view by follow the curved line of the Danube and look back into Slovakia which is just across the river.
It was only a short stop, but it was another building that challenged that old saying “when you have seen once church, you have seen them all”.
