VICTORIA HAS NOTHING ON BUDA CASTLE HILL SECRET

Can you keep a secret?

No?

I didn’t think so, but that's okay.  I can’t either.  Secrets get so heavy over time; the sack of potatoes suddenly feels like boulders weighing down my best intentions.  I’d drown if I was treading water while trying to keep a secret. 
 
I invariably start looking for someone to throw me a line; someone almost always comes along willing to lend a hand (and an ear).  
 
At which point my burden becomes gossip and spreads like jam on toast.

So I ask you, how does a hilltop village keep an entire hospital secret for years and years?

No low profile anymore!

Maybe the bombs dropping 24/7 during the siege of Buda, circa World War II, put the skids on any senseless chatter.  I know fear usually renders me speechless.  
  
Just seeing the few tattered buildings that survived the siege blanketed our entire tour group with a reverent silence.  

This building was a sobering reminder of the shelling the village withstood during World War II.

During the siege, from December, 1944 to February, 1945, much of the Castle Hill District was razed.  On orders of the Mayor of Budapest, an emergency hospital, the ‘Hospital in the Rock’ (Sziklakohraz) was built within the 6 miles of interconnected caves and cellars.  Thousands of civilians and soldiers alike were treated in the secret caves and cellars just beneath the rocky edifice of the decimated Government Quarter. 

Photo courtesy of Bolagraphy.

The cat’s out of the bag now (that was an impressive 60-year record for keeping a secret; eat your heart out, Victoria!); the hospital has been a museum since 2008.  It survived the siege, but most of Castle Hill did not. And yet, here we were, on a beautiful fall day, walking the  streets of Castle Hill,

I guess there's not much parking up on the hill.

admiring Trinity Square, circa 1710,

There's gold in them thar hills, at the top of Trinity Column.

Fishermen’s Bastion, circa 1902,

The first King of Hungary, St. Stephen, still lords over the land he loved.

and Matthias Church, officially the Church of Our Lady, circa 1255. 

King Bela and his queen are buried here.

The Hungarians are an impressive bunch of people.  They’re not only good at keeping secrets; they’re amazingly resilient; which reminds me.

I've got a secret! If I tell you, you've got to promise not to say a word to anyone else. Can you do that? Never mind, I don't want to know.  

Did you know that Buda's Castle on the Hills District has been razed, excavated, rebuilt and renovated no less than 3 times since King Bela IV (known as the second founder of Hungary) built a fortress on this hill in the 13th century? That's a lot of plastic surgery! No wonder she looks so good!

You knew?  OMG!  Where have I been?

I've been to one enchanting hilltop village, that's where I've been. It's no secret, it was love at first site.

What's not to love about Matthias Church and Fishermen's Bastion.