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The natural defence presented by the broad river and the hilly western bank has long attracted the inhabitants of this region to build their castles here. The Romans built a camp to keep the barbarians at bay, unwittingly staking out the sites of the future castles of the Magyar kings, who, a thousand years later, had to repel the Mongols arriving from the east. Esztergom , the scene for the Hungarians' official conversion to Christianity in the tenth century, served as the royal seat for three hundred years, after which the kings moved their base downriver to the citadel of Visegrad . With the expulsion of the Turks in the seventeenth century, the fertility and beauty of the landscape became the main attractions. Baroque Szentendre was established in the eighteenth century when Serbs fleeing up the Danube from the Turks settled here. Later, in the 1920s, it became an artists' colony. If you want to explore the countryside, the Pilis range of mountains makes for excellent hiking. Its proximity to Budapest makes Szentendre the logical place to start your trip. With frequent onward bus services, it's easy to move on to Visegrad and then continue westward to Esztergom. Both these towns are also accessible direct from Budapest: hourly buses from the Arpad hid terminus follow an anticlockwise route around the Bend - although Esztergom can be reached more directly by the less scenic clockwise route that goes via Dorog; this is also the route taken by trains to Esztergom from the capital's Nyugati Station. Train access is otherwise limited in the Bend: you can catch a train to Visegrad only by going up the east bank to Nagymaros via Vac and taking the ferry across the river, but there is no onward train to Esztergom. In summer you can take the more leisurely option of travelling by ferry from Budapest's Vigado ter pier to Visegrad (daily: June-Aug at 7.30am, 9am & 2pm; April, May & Sept at 8am & 9am; 3hr 30min) and Esztergom (daily: June-Aug at 7.30am & 2pm; April, May & Sept at 8am; 5hr). For further information, contact any Tourinform office or the Mahart shipping company by Vigado ter pier. To make a day-trip from Budapest, you might want to combine transport, taking a boat up to Esztergom and then catching the bus round to Visegrad and back to Budapest.
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