The 7 Urban Legends of Budapest

Two of them still exist, of course on different names, and no ringing.

I love this one, having heard of it since I was a child. So, we have this very fancy, very old and very expensive high-end café in the heart of the city, called Gerbeaud. You probably have heard of it if you read any of the mainstream travel guides to Budapest. This place is really a piece of history, having been here since the 19th century, and always being the place were the well-situated, upper-class citizens of the city congregated.

And a lot of them were single, elderly ladies who were rich in assets, but left behind in affection. Sow hat they were allegedly looking for in Gerbaud were young males willing to entertain them. In all senses of the word.

Just imagine the misunderstandings this could have caused. Legend has it that some of the ladies went to action right away since they were living very close. Aand if the young dud was doing well they were willing to pay good money for their efforts. I remember some of my classmates at school were always pondering whether they should just give it a go, luckily it never happened.

Well, nobody really knows. The waiters at the café will just give a polite smile and respond no further, which is suspicious. But nobody knows anyone who was involved with any of that so we’re clouded in mystery on that one.

The Budapest zoo is actually pretty famous. It was one of the very first to be opened in Europe in the late 19th century and had a lot of excotic stuff on display for the average citizen of the time. However, despite being a key part of the city, managemt was struggling financially towards the end of the century and had to find ways to re-energize the business. Eventually, they went the distance and imported a full family of indigenous people from Africa to show around as the main attraction.

It might sound somewhat off in 2016, but in the late 1890s most people in Hungary had never seen or heard about people with different skin tones from theirs. Be that as it may, the zoo went bankrupt for a few years before it was re-opened not long after in what still is its current set-up. With animals only, that is, as the family was let go. Their fate, however, remains uncertain.

I don’t have much else to say. A true story.

On the Chainbridge, which in itself is an engineering marvel, you can see two sculptures of lions, protecting the bridge. They’re remarkable pieces of art and very unique as well. – Mainly because they don’t have a tongue.

It is not even something you would think of instantly, maybe not even notice (I surely haven’t), but we can understand the artist János Marschalkó’s (1818 – 1877) frustration when his butler pointed out this little mistake to him. Legend has it that he was so struck by agony that he actually killed himself, having his lions carry this heavy burden forever.

He was extremely dissappointed of course, but he could live with it and kept working as a sculptor for a long time.

This one is hilarous in a way. The date is 1963 and promiscuity is nowhere to be seen in socialist Hungary. If at all then only behind closed doors, and those involved were usually foreigners. Or just very rich. Anyhow, the absolute top of tourism, the place where most Western people went if they were in the city, was the Grand Hotel Royal. It was here where one day two employees decided to hold their wedding party, thinking it would be cool to have the rich guests involved.

All went well, but the morning after, it all took a turn for the worse. One girl found a number of weird rashes on her body. The local doctor hastily came and was shocked to see that this might be in fact smallpox. He ordered to shut the hotel down immediately with nobody being allowed to enter or to leave the. Quarantine was on for three weeks before they determined it wasn’t pox, but just some allergic reaction that went away eventually.

Boy, what went on during those three weeks. While people on the outside conspired anything they could think of (Western leaders or spies captured in there, for example), the book written by György Majtényi titled K-Vonal (2009; English title: K-Train: The Ruling Elite And Luxury During Socialism) suggests there was a massive, Project-X-like party going on. Since most of the 800 people trapped inside the hotel thought they contracted a deadly virus, György Majtényi clasims they partied like it was the end of everything and, stereotypically, that included orgies as well. This was apparently confirmed by one of the waiters who claimed a number of waitresses and maids gave birth to babies 9 months after the lock-down.

It sounds much like made-up nonsense, and there’s no real proof apart from the waiter’s interview in K-Vonal. On the other hand nobody ever came out to deny the orgies, either. Just let it go.

Something along those lines was the name of a weird sculpture that can actually be found at the underpass of the Kálvin Tér metro station. Just look at the picture. This is a bit of a twisted legend since there’s living proof that this ’creation’ is still there. But, the point of the story is that when it was done in 1983 the country still felt the winds of communism, and all works of art had to have been approved by a panel of socialist ministry workers who decided what can be actually displayed, and what works would disgrace the state.

This is just simply ludicrous and obviously not true. The sculptor didn’t even deny that it depicts anything else than the female genital and the government at that time already started to realize they will have a hard time upending artistic freedom in the 1980’s. Increased some minister’s blood-pressure? Maybe. But nobody had their liberty or life threatened.

Let’s have some really dark story as the last one. We’re in 1926, in a popular café downtown. Onwe day and for unknown reasons, a waiter working at the café committed suicide, without leaving any suicide note. What he did leave, however, was a crypted crossword-puzzle.

Or it could have been just one he made, nobody really knows because it wasn’t ever solved. It remains a mystery what was hidden behind that eerie incident. And it will probably remain a mystery  forever as apparently the puzzle has been lost for a long time.

It was reported in the 4th of March, 1926 issue of the Est newspaper. The waiter was called Gyula Antal, who killed himself in the EMKE café where the crossword puzzle was also found – and never solved.