Have a walk at the Várhegy of Esztergom! Several centuries come alive in just a few hours.
The 400-year old Turkish prayer room, the Öziçeli Hacci Ibrahim Djami has served as an archbishop’s warehouse and a residential house in the past, however, today it hosts a museum showcasing the building with its special layout and the Turkish history of Esztergom.
After viewing the exhibition, have a coffee and some cake in the café at the lower level of the building and discover the wondrous rose garden. After admiring the gorgeous fountain built in Old Ottoman style, you might find the marks of the main street of the Middle Age quarter of Víziváros. You can have more information about the tickets here.
Only a short walk and you reach the mill-bastion, which was once the key fortress point connecting Víziváros and the upper castle. One of the biggest treasures, drinking water, originated from this place and was brought to the mountain in extraordinary ways: for more than two centuries, a renaissance water machine had been pumping the water from the Danube up to 50 meters high. This innovation was introduced by the archbishop of Esztergom, János Vitéz.
The Veprech tower in the middle of the bastion is already mentioned as an important object in a deed dated 1239. The tower was perhaps built on the foundations of a building that remained from the Roman Age, and still today it hosts the warm water source with which the amazing water-lift mechanism was operated. The Renaissance water machine can still be viewed in the Veprech Tower, painting a vivid picture of the water flow.
The Renaissance water machine can still be viewed in the Veprech Tower, offering an insight as to how the water was delivered.
If you have coffee in the interior court of the mill bastion, the Basilica becomes visible, and if you go to the terrace overlooking Erzsébet Park, the panoramic view of the Danube can be seen.
