Hungarian wine is Europe’s best kept secret

The Ottomans were evicted from Budapest in 1686, but you can still find reminders of Turkish rule if you look in the right places. All these relics are on the western, or Buda, side of the river, for Pest did not really exist in the 17th century. The original Turkish dome crowns the Rudas Baths, which are still in operation, public baths being one of the more salutary legacies of 145 years of Turkish occupation. Just north of the baths, on a slope leading up to the Buda Castle, an out-of-the-way cluster of graves is all that’s left of an old Muslim cemetery. From a distance, the weathered turban headstones look like pineapples.

Other legacies of the Turkish era remain outside of Budapest. In the southern city of Pécs, the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary bears the unmistakable architectural hallmarks of its previous occupation as a mosque. And in the north-east, set against the backdrop of an old castle and the rolling hills of Hungarian wine country, a lonely minaret reaches skyward.