Page 241 - WDT MAGAZINE IRELAND ISSUE WINTER 2018

once the sun goes down. The afternoon I visited, I
savored the squeals of children as they frolicked in the
wet. Yes, of course, I wanted to join them.
Instead, I wandered the paved trail through Marga-
ret Island woods. I inhaled scents of the island’s rose
garden, its wild honeysuckle and 10,000 trees (mostly
oaks and poplars, some more than a century old). I
walked the perimeter of the island on a rubberized
track – a squishy 3-mile loop. I had time to explore
the ruins of the 13th-century Dominican convent
where the island’s namesake lived from age 11 until
her death at 28. Hungarians say Margaret's father,
King Bela IV, placed her in the convent to fulfill a vow
he made in thanks for surviving a Mongol attack.
From the island, it was an easy walk along the
Danube to our Viking cruise ship. Just before I arrived,
an unanticipated monument took my breath away: 60
pairs of shoes sculpted from iron, a haphazard collec-
tion strung along the riverbank. There were shoes that
could have belonged to wealthy businessmen, labor-
ers, athletes, women, children.
Signs in Hebrew, Hungarian and English dedicated
the memorial to the hundreds of locals, including
many Jews, who were routinely rounded up, forced to
strip naked and face the Danube in 1944-45. A firing
squad of fascist, anti-Semitic Arrow Cross militiamen
shot those prisoners in the back, at close range, so
that they fell into the river and were washed away. All
that remained: their shoes.
The image lingers. This simple, somber monument
was the most moving I saw in Budapest – perhaps,
anywhere in Europe.

Matthias Church, in the heart of
Buda’s Castle District, has roots
that date back to the 11th century.
Over the years, it was ravaged and
restored numerous times. Today it
serves as a Roman Catholic Church,
a museum and a concert venue.

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