JSBP's Long Awaited Field Study. . . Parliament!

            Beautiful view of Parliament from across the Danube River

           This week JSBP finally had its chance to visit the Hungarian Parliament building, a trip that we have all been looking forward too.  It is one of the top ten sites in Budapest; it is one of the largest buildings in Hungary, and it is one of the most important places in the country.  The outside of the building is loosely based off the Palace of Westminster in the United Kingdom, with its many spires and gothic inspired architecture.  The entire building dons the national colors of Hungary: white bricks, red tiled roofs, and green trimmings.  The interior of the building is even more impressive than the exterior.

Another great shot of the building at night

            The main corridor of the building resembles that of a palace, red carpets lining the floors, marble brick along the walls, gold detailing on every column and banister.  In the main lobby we were told that a recurring theme in the architecture of the interior is the number 96.  For example, there are 96 stairs in the main lobby of the building and the building itself is 96 meters high.  This concept represents Hungary’s millennium in 1896 and the conquest of the Kingdom of Hungary in 896.  It was explained to us that many of the columns in the main hall were rare granite that were each cut out of one single rock and given to Hungary as a gift.

Main staircase in the interior (notice the columns and gold detail)

            Our tour guide explained to us that the building is historically separated in half, one side being used for what would be called the House of Commons and the other side being used for the House of Representatives.  She also explained to us that the Hungarian Parliament is a bicameral system but during the period of Communism—over fifty years—their Parliament was a unicameral system. 

One of the two identical conference halls

One of the more interesting and insightful things that JSBP was able to do while visiting was sit in on an actual Parliamentary assembly that was going on.  Though we could not understand what the assembly was meeting about, it was very interesting to see how the meeting was conducted and how a typical day went.  We were intrigued to find many of the assembly members reading emails, reading newspapers, and in one case napping while the meeting was in progress.  However, it was explained to us that this is meeting was called about an issue involving media censorship and that for whatever reasons was not a very important meeting.  That is why we saw some of the behavior we did.  Despite the unenthused participants, it was a great experience to witness and makes for a great story to tell.  Never in my life did I imagine that I would be sitting in on a foreign national assembly meeting.