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TRH visit the Dohany Street synagogue in Budapest on their tour of Central Europe

18th March 2010

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall continued their tour of Central Europe today with a visit to Budapest in Hungary.

Their Royal Highnesses are on the second leg of their nine-day overseas visit to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Today The Prince and The Duchess visited the impressive Dohany Street synagogue in Budapest.

Their Royal Highnesses were taken on a tour of the Jewish place of worship which was built in the 1850s but bombed in 1939 by a pro-Nazi organisation. The restoration took five years with the work completed in 1996.

The Prince and The Duchess arrived at the main entrance of the Synagogue and were greeted by the Chief Rabbi, Mr Róbert Frölich, who also introduced Hungarian Jewish Faith Leaders.

Inside the synagogue, they were greeted by the choir singing a welcome song and given a brief history of the Synagogue by the Chief Rabbi before being introduced to community members involved in the restoration work.

During the visit, The Prince and The Duchess viewed the Jewish Cemetery and the Raoul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Park. They laid stones under a sculptured Steel Tree, which is a memorial to Hungarian Jews murdered by the Nazi regime during the Second World War.

The couple then conducted separate engagements.

The Prince visited the Regional Environment Centre to celebrate 20 years of the organisation. The Regional Environment Centre for Central and Eastern Europe is an international organisation with a mission to assist in solving environmental problems.

The Duchess headed to the Moricz Zsigmond High School to view education and environment projects supported by the British Council.

Afterwards Their Royal Highnesses travelled together to the Skanzen Open-Air Museum at Szentendre where they sampled some of the fine Tokaji wines for which Hungary is famous, and learnt more about the work of the museum which aims to preserve Hungary’s cultural and environmental heritage.

In the afternoon, The Prince met young Hungarian scientists and attended a meeting with business leaders on climate change at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

In the evening Their Royal Highnesses visited the Urania Film Theatre in Budapest where they attended a reception of guests who are all involved in promoting human rights, integration and diversity issues, particularly towards the Roma community.