covered 128 hectares (316 ac) on the hill (only 7.62 hectares or 18.8 ac were used as pastures). A small calvary was built on the top of the hill which was rebuilt around 1820. On Easter Mondays a procession climbed the steep road leading to the calvary to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Many tents and vendors were erected on the nearby meadow. Emmausjárás (En: Emmaus-walk) or tojásbúcsú (En: Egg Feast) was one of the most popular Catholic holidays of the year during the 18th–19th centuries. The Citadella was built after the 1848–49 Hungarian uprising by the ruling Habsburgs, as it was a prime, strategic site for shelling both Buda and Pest in the event of a future revolt. Gellért Hill also saw action in the Second World War and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, when Soviet tanks fired down into the city from the hill. Indeed, battle scars still pockmark some buildings in Budapest. There is a small military museum in the Citadella’s grounds. At the end of the Citadella is the Liberty Statue (Szabadság Szobor in Hungarian), a large monument erected by the Soviet Red Army to commemorate their victory in World War II. Today Now an affluent residential area, a number of embassies and ambassadorial residences line the streets that wind up the hill. Since 1987, the area has been a UNESCO World Heritage site as part of "the Banks of the Danube". A large proportion of the hill consists of parkland. Bats and hedgehogs are commonly observed on summer nights. In January 2007, a new cave was discovered under Gellért Hill during private construction. The cave is 60 m long and 18 m deep with three rooms. The interior is covered with dazzling white crystals composed of gypsum, calcite, and aragonite. The cave was created 300,000–500,000 years ago by a now disappeared thermal spring. The crystal cave was immediately placed under legal protection. Gallery See also Naphegy Tabán Gellért Hill Calvary Notes External links Gellérthegy a Vendégvárón www.Gellerthegy.hu (Budapesti XI district homepage) Google Panoramic Virtual Tour Újbuda Buda Hills Neighbourhoods of Budapest