The Danube Bend tour is one of my most popular tours, as it includes three very different little villages along the Danube river.

Visegrád is one to the towns we visit, it’s famous for the Royal Palace and the Upper Castle, both belonged to the amazing complex of fortification built after the invasion of the Mongols in the 13th century.

The castle was originally built as a heaven for nuns and was paid for by the wife of the Hungarian king Béla IV. Today you can still see the remains of the massive fortification walls and the panoramic view over the Danube Bend.

When we are touring the Danube Bend I usually try to include the visit of the Castle complex including the Upper Castle and the Royal Palace, too.

The miracle that we are able to see how royals lived in the 15th century is due to a passionate Hungarian archeologist who had discovered the ruins of the palace in an orchid, we are tremendously grateful to the archeologists who recreated the lavish interiors of the Gothic-Renaissance palace.

The barely 5.000 sq feet stone house built in the 1300’s was rebuilt and extended several times and transformed to a fabulous royal residence with 350 rooms by King Matthias. Legend is that marble fountains were filled with red wine in the 15th century. The Gothic cloisters, Renaissance loggia, living quarters of our kings and queens, amazing fountains and gardens are to be seen in the Palace as well as items and relics from the Middle Ages.