24/01/2017
Interesting stories about Budapest:
Did you know that the Chain Bridge is one giant urban legend?
It was completed in 1849 as the first bridge across the Danube River connecting Buda and Pest. Construction was instigated by Count István Széchenyi, although there are opposing stories on WHY he decided to undertake this feat. The first says that his father had grown fatally ill in the dead of winter, but, because the river had become too dangerous to cross by boat, he could not make it in time to say goodbye. He swore to his mother that he would complete the bridge so that no family would go through that again.
Another version says that he simply had a mistress on the other side of the river and wanted to be able to visit her more often.
The statues of the four lions, carved by János Marschalkó, guard each end of the bridge. Legend has it that he spent YEARS studying lions in their natural habitats so as to carve the most perfect statues ever created. Before unveiling the lions he boasted to anyone who would listen that his statues were flawless. He said that if anyone could find a flaw in his work he would kill himself.
Unfortunately for him, the story says that one day a young boy was overheard to have asked his father loudly where the tongues were on the lion statues. Upon realizing that he had forgotten this crucial point, Marschalkó jumped from the bridge, thus becoming the first official su***de. (This rumor has been proven completely false as the lions do, in fact, contain tongues. You can only see them from a high angle because they are behind the teeth.)
