Must See in Budapest
We were on a holiday when we asked some help from a local person who didn’t speak lots of English but was very helpful and enthusiastic, he pointed on our map some villages and museums and kept telling us “ That is a Must See and this is a Must See too..” He helped a lot for us so we decided to help for you a lot with a MustSee and a MustDo list.
The MustSee list contains lots of sights that you cannot miss when you are in Budapest (or Hungary) or if you missed it (for example because of lack of time) there is a good reason to return soon again.
Introduction
The area of their country is barely 100,000 km2. Their language is spoken nowhere else. Their folk songs bear no resemblance to those of other nations. Yet, the Hungarian people have been living in the centre of Europe for over 1,100 years.
Despite frequent tragic upheavals which spared nothing and nobody, the country boasts a heritage that attracts people from far and wide.
Citing the city’s unparalleled panorama, UNESCO declared Budapest, Hungary’s capital, ‘the Pearl of the Danube’, a World Heritage site.
After Iceland, Hungary has the world’s largest reserve of surface thermal water: hundreds of springs help thousands in recovering.
Some fall in love with the city at first sight, others are won over only after a longer period of discovery; but all agree that it is one of the most beautiful locations in the world.
The metropolis with a population of two million is bisected by the mighty flow of the Danube with hills and valleys on the Buda side and the flat, low-lying Pest on the other. The riverside panorama has been declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Anybody who has ever seen it illuminated by night can understand why.
Here are some interesting facts about Budapest:
– Although initially inhabited fifty thousand years ago, it has only had its present name for a mere 128 years. Prior to 1873, Óbuda, Buda and Pest were separate towns.
– Under its hills there is a system of caves with thermal waters gushing from 80 thermal springs which supply 12 spas with 70 million litres of water daily.
– It's monuments include 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatres, 400-year-old Turkish baths and unique Hungarian Art Nouveau buildings from the 19th century. The cityscape owes its uniform appearance to the elegant mansions erected in Eclectic style in the early 20th century.
– The transport system also has some interesting features. The first underground railway of Europe has been connecting the downtown with the City Park for over 100 years. In the Buda hills you will find the world's third hill railway and a narrow-gauge forest railway operated by children.
– Lovers of culture are spoilt for choice with 237 monuments, 223 museums and galleries, 35 theatres, 90 cinemas, 2 opera houses and 12 concert halls. Around 200 excursion destinations offer a wide variety of things to do. Throughout the 365 days of the year, travel agencies organise walks and sightseeing tours by coach and boat, tailored to individual requirements.
There are plenty of other capital cities built on the banks of a river, and in many cases the river runs through the historic centre. But such a wide and majestic river, as is the Danube at Budapest, is more of a rarity. Even more exceptional is the perfect contrast between the right and left banks. Buda is built upon hills, the feet of two of them – Castle Hill and Gellért Hill – almost stand in the water. Facing it is Pest, as flat as a pancake (or, as a Hungarian might say, as flat as a “lángos”, a pita-type bread popular for many a century). It’s no exaggeration to say that Budapest is one of the finest capital cities in Europe, and also one of the best situated. Among the several places in Hungary that have been afforded the classification of UNESCO World Heritage Site, the first were the Danube panorama (on the Buda side from the Gellért Hotel all along Castle Hill to Margaret Bridge, and on the Pest side from the Parliament back down to Petőfi Bridge), and Andrássy út (along its entire length from the centre of Pest to Heroes’ Square, where the Millenary Monument stands on the edge of the City Park).
At the time of the Magyar Conquest in 896, the first Hungarian tribes settled in the plains to the east. They migrated to the hills further west later on to take advantage of the greater protection they offered. Buda became the royal seat in the thirteenth century and saw the court’s rising status reflected in the building of ever more splendid palaces and the expansion of the town into a flowering middle class town. Pest at this time was a town of merchants and artisans. In the history of Budapest the year 1872 stands out as a milestone, for it was then that the three separate settlements of Pest, Buda and Óbuda (literally “Old” Buda) were united. Budapest officially became the capital city of Hungary, and underwent rapid growth in size and eminence. This was the city’s golden age, and coincided with the Hungarian millennial celebrations in 1896.
PEST
Concert Hall of Great Musicians
From the Chain Bridge one of the most pleasant walks is south along the embankment (korzó) towards the Vigadó Concert Hall, one of the best examples of Romantic architecture and a venue for grand balls and concerts since 1865. Great figures from the world of music such as Liszt and Brahms played here, while Mahler, Dvořák, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky and Ravel all conducted.
The Capital’s Largest Covered Market
Two buildings that dominate the southern stretch of the Danube embankment on the Pest side are the one-time Customs House built in the 1870’s (now the Economics University) and, behind it, the capital’s largest covered market. When first opened in the 1890’s a network of tunnels enabled incoming barges to unload their goods directly under the market floor.
Today the Market Hall houses the city’s biggest, best and richest selection of merchandise, including everything from fresh vegetables to meat and spices. It has several times appeared in world news broadcasts, as it is a favourite place for celebrity guests to be filmed buying garlic or red paprika pepper.
The City’s Longest Pedestrianised Street
The City Centre’s most popular pedestrianised street, Váci utca, begins opposite the Market Hall. This was a favourite place for the well-to-do to promenade as early as the eighteenth century, and has always attracted better quality shops, now as much as then. Today virtually every world-ranking brand of cosmetics, clothes or shoes can be found in the businesses housed on the ground floors of the hundred year-old buildings. Váci utca finishes in Vörösmarty Square, dominated on one side by Gerbeaud, one of Pest’s most refined coffee houses.
The Eiffel Tower’s Distant Relation
Just like Paris, Budapest is proud of two of its old, iron framed railway stations: the Eastern Station (Keleti), and the Western (Nyugati) built in 1877. The latter is one of the most striking buildings along the Great Boulevard, and has a connection with Paris and the Eiffel Tower. The tender to build the Western Station was won by the Eiffel Company, and much of the ironwork was cast in Paris.
The Biggest Church and the Heaviest Bell
It’s only a short walk from the Western Station to Budapest’s largest church, the 8,500 capacity Saint Stephen’s Basilica. With its principal façade facing towards the Danube, the proximity of the river necessitated digging extremely deep foundations; indeed the three levels of cellars go almost as deep as the height of the imposing church. The ground plan is in the form of a Greek cross, and the Basilica was consecrated in 1905. The right-hand tower houses Hungary’s heaviest bell, weighing in at nine tons, while Hungarian Christianity’s most important relic – the mummified right hand of the founder of the Hungarian State and Church, King Saint Stephen – can be seen in the chapel behind the sanctum.
Europe’s Largest Synagogue
A short walk along the Inner Ring Road brings you to Dohány utca and Europe’s largest working synagogue. The first Jewish merchants settled in Buda in the middle of the thirteenth century. In the eighteenth century a Jewish community, along with craftshops and workshops, was established in Óbuda. A gradual migration into Pest started a few years later and in the mid-nineteenth century the period’s largest synagogue was built to a Romantic-Moorish design on the edge of the new Jewish quarter. It can seat three thousand people, and features cast iron columns and arches which at the time of its construction were very much a new innovation.
Concerts are regularly held in the Synagogue, and the adjacent building houses the world renowned National Jewish Museum. This covers the history of Hungarian Jewry, has displays of ritual artefacts and everyday objects, and commemorates the Holocaust. There are kosher shops and restaurants in the neighbourhood.
Hungary’s First and Largest Public Collection
One of the most beautiful buildings on the Inner Ring Road is the neo-classical Hungarian National Museum dating from 1846. Its comprehensive displays richly illustrate the history of Hungary from its original founding onwards, and also include exhibitions of Roman, medićval and modern stonework. The building itself is regarded as a symbol of national independence, as it was the scene of pivotal events in the 1848 Revolution. The Revolution is now marked annually by the 15th March national holiday, when there are also commemorative events held at the museum.
The Capital’s Largest Park
Budapest’s City Park is reputed to have been the world’s first public park open to all. In 1808 the Emperor ordered a Hungarian “National Garden” to be laid out, including the planting of seven thousand trees.
Today’s City Park contains amusement areas, sports grounds, foot and cycle paths, as well as the hundred-year old Széchenyi Thermal Baths (Pest’s first), popular for swimming, relaxation and treatments. There is also the Transport Museum, containing rare model locomotives, the Petőfi Hall, home to rock concerts, and at weekends one of the city’s most interesting flea markets, where goods on sale range from interesting old books and antique painted plates to valuable old toys.
In summer there is boating on City Park Lake. In winter, it is transformed into Central Europe’s largest artificial skating rink.
Model comes to life
On the shore of City Park Lake stands Vajdahunyad Castle. The first version of this was a wooden edifice constructed for the 1896 Millennium celebrations to a mix of designs in order to show characteristic elements of architectural styles from different parts of Hungary. This giant “model” was so successful that after it was taken down it was rebuilt out of stone. It later became home to the Agricultural Museum, which also contains one of the world’s largest trophy collections.
One of Europe’s Oldest Zoos
Budapest Zoo is a pleasant day out for all the family. It first opened in 1866 and has in the last decade undergone significant modernisation. Some of its buildings are particularly fine examples of Hungarian art nouveau. Five hundred types of animal and 4,000 different plants live within its 250 acres. The animal petting area is especially popular with children – they can come into close contact with and feed the goats, small cows and sheep.
Prize-Winning Merry-go-Round
Spectacles and curios were already being paraded in the City Park in the middle of the nineteenth century, and travelling circuses regularly set up their big top here. Budapest’s own permanent circus settled here in 1891.
The adjacent Fun Fair is a real meeting of antique and state of the art technology. There are gentle rides on the Ferris wheels and, for the brave, there are fast, spinning, hair-raising rides on the roller-coasters. The hundred year-old merry-go-round, recently awarded the European Nostra Prize, and the two-thirds of a mile-long wooden framed switchback with nine peaks (now a listed monument) have a charming old-world atmosphere to them. There is an exhibition about the history of the Fun Fair in the departure building.
BUDA
Budapest’s Number One Visitor Attraction
In Buda, contrary to many other capitals, the royal castle really is at the top of a hill, as it is in all the best old stories. Known as the Royal Palace of Buda, it is visible from virtually every point in the city.
Not just one but three castles have been built on this site. The first appeared in the thirteenth century after the Mongol invasion and was a thick-walled fortress intended to withstand enemy attacks. Few contemporary descriptions have survived but archćological digs have revealed fragmentary remains. In the fourteenth century it was enlarged in the Gothic style, and then at the time of one of Hungary’s greatest monarchs, King Matthias, it was remodelled into a Renaissance palace famed far and wide. The Turks took Buda without a battle in 1541, and for a while the medićval buildings remained structurally intact. However, they suffered grievously later through siege, conflagration, explosion and earthquake. The city walls often had to be patched up and new bastions built, and today a part of the fortifications from this period can still be seen.
Having lasted almost 150 years Turkish rule ended with a three-month siege, and this heralded the third main period of castle building in Buda. Ruined buildings were cleared away, cellars filled in, and in 1714 the building of a baroque palace began. It was further extended in the nineteenth century into the form with which we are familiar today. The Royal Palace was completely burned out in the Second World War, losing in the process its valuable furniture and art treasures. On restoration it was converted into a centre of culture becoming home to the medićval, Renaissance, baroque and later Hungarian masterpieces that comprise the permanent collection of the Hungarian National Gallery. In separate wings of the palace complex, the Budapest History Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the principal library of Hungary, the Széchényi Library are housed. The Palace can be reached from the Danube embankment by the Castle District’s own special funicular railway, the “Sikló”. The two coaches and both stations have been restored to their original nineteenth century condition.
Unique Sights behind the Gates of Buda
When locals say Buda Castle they are usually referring not just to the Royal Palace but to the whole of the medićval town built on Castle Hill, with its charming squares, narrow twisting streets, and fantastic views over the city. Some of the old houses sport Gothic decorated door and window frames. It is worth looking into the courtyards and long gateways, for you can sometimes see a Buda speciality, the medićval sedilia. In olden times the retinue accompanying an important guest could rest awhile in these hollowed-out stone seats with their Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance decorations.
The Church of Royal Weddings
One of the most beautiful Gothic churches in all Hungary stands next to the Holy Trinity Column commemorating the plague of 1709 in Szentháromság Square in Buda. The Church of Our Lady – more commonly known as the Matthias Church – was founded at the same time as the first of the Buda Castles, by King Béla IV. Later rulers left their mark on it, adding a tower here and a door there, and generally enlarging the building, and for a while it was also used as a coronation church. It came to be called the Matthias Church in honour of King Matthias, Hungary’s illustrious monarch, who held both his marriage ceremonies here. Its appearance today results largely from nineteenth century reconstruction, and its excellent acoustics make it a favourite venue for organ recitals and orchestral concerts.
A Collection of hungarian Wines
A somewhat newer attraction on Szentháromság Square is the House of Hungarian Wines (Magyar Borok Háza), where 450 wines from all 22 of Hungary’s historical wine-producing regions can be tried in the huge cellars. Visitors receive a small cup on arrival and can begin their adventure, for 70 to 80 different types can be tasted within the admission price.
The Only Bastion never to have seen a Soldier
If you walk up to the Castle District in the evening from the Danube embankment, the illuminated, snow-white towers of the Fishermen’s Bastion (Halászbástya) rise up ahead, like so many sugar-loaves. You are more likely to associate the sight with fairy tales than with soldiers, although it is the latter who are the rightful users of a bastion. The Fishermen’s Bastion has never served as a defence; it was built in 1905 purely as a lookout terrace and to augment the cityscape. It follows the line of the old city walls and is near the site of a former fish market. And the connection with fishermen? Back in the mists of time it was the Fishermen’s Guild who were responsible for defending this section of the castle ramparts.
Labyrinths – a Town under the Town
On the northern and western slopes of Castle Hill it has been known for people to go out into their garden and suddenly find a cave, sometimes with spring water gushing up in it! The northern and central parts of Castle Hill have more holes in them than an Emmental cheese! The caves are very old and were formed by thermal springs. They were developed and enlarged in the Middle Ages and, extending to over six miles, they really did become like an underground town. In times of war they served both as somewhere to hide and as a place where the defence forces could regroup in secret.
A part of the system of natural and man-made passages, the Buda Castle Labyrinth, is open to the public.
Special Attraction – a Cave Tour in the Capital
Among the many ways in which Budapest can be summed up, one is as a City of Caves. It is the only city in the world where there are surface openings to cave systems in built-up residential districts. One such is the Pálvölgy dripstone cave system; it is Hungary’s third longest, a protected site and open to visitors for guided tours starting hourly and extending for 500 metres. A 300 metre-long, recently renovated section of the Szemlő-hegy cave is also open to visitors. This is one of those rare instances where the entrance is fully accessible to visitors with impaired mobility.
The First Permanent Bridge between Buda and Pest
The Lánchíd (Chain Bridge), the symbol of Budapest, was the first permanent crossing over the Danube on Hungarian territory, and only the second along its entire length. The river had long bisected an important trade route, and in early times people were ferried across in boats. By the beginning of the fifteenth century pontoon bridges were being used, and although in winter when the river froze over people could cross on foot or with horse and cart, when the ice started to thaw the two shores were completely cut off from each other. In a particularly cold December in 1820, Count István Széchenyi had to wait a whole week to cross, as there wasn’t a boatman willing to take the chance of carrying him from Pest to Buda between the ice flows. Széchenyi is a legend in Hungarian history for the things he did to develop the capital and the country, and after this experience he declared he would give a whole year’s income towards the building of a permanent bridge. There had been plans earlier than this. One that originated from the end of the 1700’s took the multiple buttressed Charles Bridge in Prague as its model, but this was not adopted. In England Count Széchenyi saw the bridges of William Tierney Clark and, on the basis of those, commissioned him to design the first bridge over the Hungarian Danube. Construction was entrusted to the Scottish engineer Adam Clark (no relation), and the Chain Bridge was officially opened on 20th November, 1849. Traffic crossing the bridge from Pest still had to wait a few more years, though, before it could continue its journey westwards without diverting around Castle Hill. The Tunnel under the hill was constructed in just 7˝ months in 1853; it is 32 feet wide and 32 feet tall, and, at 382 yards long, exactly the same length as its neighbour the Chain Bridge. One of the many anecdotes about these landmarks says that when it rains the Bridge can be pushed into the Tunnel to prevent it from getting wet!
Adding the Royal Touch to Nineteenth Century Bridge Construction
According to the superstition, if you make a wish while going under a bridge in a boat, that wish will come true. In Budapest you can have nine wishes. Counting the two railway crossings, there are nine bridges spanning the Danube, of which the newest is the Lágymányosi Bridge, dating from 1995. All Budapest’s bridges were blown up by the retreating Germans in 1945. The majority were rebuilt to the original plans, but the Elizabeth Bridge, named after the popular Queen Elizabeth, was deemed to be in such bad a state that a completely new bridge had to be built in its place. The fine suspension bridge we see today was inaugurated in 1965 after much public debate.
The Szabadság (Liberty) Bridge, restored after the War to its original condition, was first opened in 1896 to mark the millennium of the Magyar Conquest. The King Emperor Franz Joseph himself ceremonially hammered in the last rivet with great technical bravura. He had no tool in his hand but stood in a ceremonial tent on the Pest side and pressed a button which activated a 45-ton hammer across on the Buda bridgehead. And so the last rivet, made of silver, was put in place. Subsequently it disappeared, a feat that would certainly have demanded real bravura. There is a replacement now, with a protective covering, but it’s not made of silver.
Budapest’s Most Beautiful Park is an Island
The seven-buttress Margaret Bridge, built to a French design, was Budapest’s second permanent river crossing and opened in 1876. From the central buttress a spur links to Margaret Island, unquestionably the city’s most beautiful park. After the Mongol invasion it became home for several monastic orders; it was at that time known as the Island of Hares, and only later assumed its current name in honour of the pious daughter of King Béla IV. His Margaret joined the Dominican nuns in their new convent in 1252, and remained there until her death.
In its time Margaret Island has also been a royal hunting ground, and from the nineteenth century, a 250-acre municipal park. Hidden behind its noble trees are sports grounds, swimming pools, the capital’s largest open-air leisure pool, an outdoor theatre, and two spa hotels. The island, which can also be reached by small boat, is free from traffic, and a very popular way of getting around it is by hiring a “bringóhintó” family cycle car. The north end of the island is connected by Árpád Bridge to both Buda and Pest.
Roman Town
The part of the city now known as Óbuda is the site of the principal town of the Roman province of Pannonia. The frontier of the Empire ran along the line of the Danube, and Budapest’s 2,000-year old forerunner was called Aquincum. It was an important military centre, but a civilian town of merchants and artisans also grew up around it. Remains of the military amphitheatre can be seen at Óbuda and, a mile further on, ruins of the streets of the civilian town and some of its houses.
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 Your Top Choice! Budget place, great location & helpful staff! Different rooms and apartments.
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 Self catering apartments in the downtown Cheap solution for your stay.
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 Mini-hotels/bed and breakfast places. Clean rooms with bathroom, TV & minibar.
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 The cheapest way to stay in the City is in a dormitory room. If you like it go on!
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 For a more pleasant and luxury stay we also offer 3 and 4 star hotels in the capital.
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Find some hints on where to go & what to do in Budapest! 
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