|
From the Dominican church you can follow the road down to the riverside promenade , Jozsef Attila setany, where the townsfolk of Vac walk on summer weekends and evenings. The northern stretch of the promenade, named after Liszt, runs past the Round Tower , the only remnant of Vac's medieval fortifications. Beyond the dock for ferries to Budapest and Esztergom rises the forbidding hulk of the town's prison . Ironically, the building was originally an academy for noble youths, founded by Maria Theresa. Turned into a barracks in 1784 - you can still see part of the older building peering awkwardly above the blank white walls of the prison - it began its penal career a century later, achieving infamy during the Horthy era, when two Communists died here after being beaten for going on hunger strike to protest against maltreatment. Later, victims of the Stalinist period were imprisoned here, but in October 1956 a mass escape occurred. Thrown into panic by reports from Budapest where their colleagues were being "hunted down like animals, hung on trees, or just beaten to death by passers-by", the AVO guards donned civilian clothing and mounted guns on the rooftop, fomenting rumours of the Uprising among prisoners whose hopes had been raised by snatches of patriotic songs overheard from the streets. A glimpse of national flags with the Soviet emblem cut from the centre provided the spark: a guard was overpowered, locks were shot off, and the prisoners burst free. Edith Bone was an inmate at the time, an English journalist who had been accused of spying and imprisoned for fifteen years in 1949. Robert Maxwell was also imprisoned here during World War II, accused of spying, then using his original name of Ludvik Hoch. The Triumphal Arch flanking the prison was another venture by Migazzi and his architect Canevale, occasioned by Maria Theresa's visit in 1764. Migazzi initially planned theatrical facades to hide the town's dismal housing (perhaps inspired by Potemkin's fake villages in Russia, created around the same time), but settled for the Neoclassical arch, from which Habsburg heads grimace a stony welcome.
Your Tip for Along the waterfront to the prison
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Along the waterfront to the prison - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Along the waterfront to the prison - visit the main Along the waterfront to the prison forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Along the waterfront to the prison webguide section below! Thanks.
|
