Budapest, Hungary: This One Is for the Architecture Buffs

On the outer perimeter of Szabadság tér, there are four apartment buildings built during the Golden Age of Budapest, which approximately would be years leading up to 1896 and the Budapest millennial celebration. The architectural style, popular during that era, is known as "historicism," which is basically mix-and-match from various and assorted other, previous pre-modern eras. The buildings all look great. Ornate, but well short of gaudy.

Here are the four, going clockwise from 8 o'clock on the square:

    At this point of my tour of Pest, I should come clean that we are following the "Leopold Town Walk" from the Rick Steves Budapest book. I got my problems with Mr. Steves, particularly his politics. (He makes occasional political asides that I could have done without). While I found the Moon Guide much more helpful in Croatia, Mr. Steves's Budapest guide is proving itself to be very useful.