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The Belgrad rakpart (Belgrade Embankment) bore the brunt of the fighting in 1944-45, when the Nazis and the Soviets exchanged salvos across the Danube. Like the Varhegy in Buda, postwar clearances exposed historic sites and provided an opportunity to integrate them into the environment - but the magnificent view of Buda Palace and Gellert-hegy is hardly matched by two colossal eyesores on the Pest side. While such historic architecture as remains can be seen in a fifteen-minute stroll between the Erzsebet hid and the Lanchid, tram #2 enables you to see a longer stretch of the waterfront between Fovam ter and Kossuth ter, periodically interrupted by a tunnel. Heading north from Fovam ter, the riverscape is dominated by the bold white pylons and cables of the Erzsebet hid (Elizabeth Bridge), the only one of the Danube bridges blown up by the Germans in 1945 that was not rebuilt in its original form. In the shadow of the approach road, the grimy facade of the Belvaros Parish Church (Mon-Sat 7am-7pm, Sun 8am-7pm) masks its origins as the oldest church in Pest. Founded in 1046 as the burial place of St Gellert, it was rebuilt as a Gothic hall church, turned into a mosque by the Turks and reconstructed in the eighteenth century. By coming after Latin Mass at 10am on Sunday you can see Gothic sedilia and a Muslim mihrab (prayer niche) behind the high altar that are otherwise out of bounds; the nave and side chapels are Baroque. On the square beside the church, a sunken enclosure exposes the remains of Contra-Aquincum , a Roman fort that was an outpost of their settlement in Obuda. More pertinently to modern-day Hungary, the name of the square, Marcius 15. ter , refers to March 15, 1848, when the anti-Habsburg Revolution began, while the adjacent Petofi ter is named after Sandor Petofi, the poet whose National Song - the anthem of 1848 - and romantic death in battle made him a patriotic icon. The Petofi statue has long been a focus for demonstrations as well as patriotic displays - especially on March 15, when it is bedecked with flags and flowers. Behind it looms the Greek Orthodox Church , built by the Greek community in the 1790s and currently the object of a tug-of-war between the Patriarchate of Moscow that gained control of it after 1945 and the Orthodox Church in Greece that previously owned it. Services (Sat 6pm & Sun 10am) are in Hungarian, but accompanied by singing in the Orthodox fashion. North of Petofi ter is a 24-hour Ibusz office, which lies in the shadow of the gigantic Marriott Hotel . The concrete esplanade on the Danube side of the hotel is a sterile attempt to re-create the prewar Duna-korzo - the most informal of Budapest's promenades, where it was socially acceptable for strangers to approach celebrities. As you'd expect, its outdoor cafes are as expensive as the view is wonderful; in recent years, customers have also had a ringside view of the annual Gay and Lesbian parade.
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