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Sightseeing Overview
The Széchenyi Lánchíd (Chain Bridge) is the central point of Budapest. From here, hilly Buda is to the west and the plains of commercial Pest are to the east. A steep climb in the Sikló, the 19th-century funicular, leads to Buda’s Várhegy (Castle Hill), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where many attractions are clustered. Szentháromság tér (Trinity Square) is at the heart of the district and usually thronging with tourists. Nearby is the mosaic-roofed Mátyás Templom (Matthias Church), fronted by King Stephen’s statue and the fairytale Halászbástya (Fishermen’s Bastion), with the best views of Pest – particularly of the Országház (Houses of Parliament). A mass of museums are housed within Budavári Palota (Buda Castle Palace), first built by Béla III, following the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, and reconstructed over the centuries. South of the Chain Bridge lies Gellért-hegy (Gellért Hill), named after Bishop Gellért, who was (as legend has it) rolled off the hillside in a barrel for converting the Magyars to Christianity. At the summit are the Liberation Monument and Citadella, a Hapsburg fortress built to subdue the Magyars after the 1848-9 revolution.

From here, Szabadság híd leads to Pest, which extends out from the Belváros (inner city). The busiest parts are the shop-lined Váci útca and the square, Vörösmarty tér, marked by a statue of the poet, Mihály Vörösmarty (1800-1855), and the location of the Gerbeaud pâtisserie. The most grandiose monument in Pest, Hosök tér (Heroes’ Square), is reached via Andrássy útca, home to the Opera House. The Szépmûvészeti Múzeum (Museum of Fine Arts) and Mûcsarnok (Palace of Art) border the monument and Városliget (City Park) is just behind it. Warm vapors rising from underground hot springs swirl up into the square, which is much favored by teenage skateboarders. Moving closer to the River Danube lies the Dohány Synagogue, the second largest in Europe, as well as the small Jewish quarter (district VII). Further south is the Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum (Hungarian National Museum).

Tourist Information
Budapest Tourism Office
1056 Budapest Marcius 15 tér 7
Tel: (01) 266 0479.
Website: www.budapestinfo.hu

IBUSZ tourist office, V Ferenciek tér 10, and Budapest Tourist, Roosevelt tér 5 (by the Chain Bridge) and VIII Baross tér 3 (near Keleti station), also provide tourist information. The main information office of the Budapest Tourism Office is located in Liszt Ferenc tér 9-11 (tel: (01) 322 4098). Other offices can be found in the main hall of Nyugati station (tel: (01) 302 8580), at Budaörs in the AGIP Complex, VII Király útca, and the Castle District, I Tarnok útca 9-11.


Passes
The Budapest Card is simple to use and excellent value. It provides free travel on public transport, entrance to 60 museums and attractions (such as the Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest Zoo and the Museum of Fine Art), half-price city sightseeing programs, reductions on cultural and folklore programs and further discounts at spas, shops, restaurants, airport minibus and car hire services, sports facilities and flights. The card is valid for one adult and one child under 14 years for two or three days. Cards are available at tourist information offices, hotels and at main underground ticket booths. Budapest Tourism Office provides online details of the discounts available at each location.

Key Attractions:

Széchenyi Lánchíd (Chain Bridge)
Eight bridges link Buda to Pest but the Chain Bridge is the first and most famous, with its solid arches and lion statues. Count István Széchenyi commissioned the Englishman responsible for London’s Hammersmith Bridge, William Tierney Clark, to design a bridge after his father's funeral was delayed by a week while his son attempted to cross the Danube in particularly bad weather. Completed in 1848, the bridge was inaugurated in 1849, allowing for the integration of Buda, Pest and Óbuda in 1872. After suffering considerable damage at the hands of the Nazis, the bridge was repaired and re-inaugurated on 21 November 1949.

1 Clark Ádám tér
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Free admission.

Budavári Palota (Buda Royal Palace)
First inhabited by King Béla IV, after the 1241 Mongol invasion, the Royal Palace had its heyday during King Mátyás’s reign (1458-90). In the late 18th century, Empress Maria Theresa rebuilt and enlarged the palace. The Royal Palace has risen Phoenix-like from the ashes of many wars – the Turkish siege (1541) and invasion (1686), the 1848-49 War of Independence and the latter stages of World War II. Within the palace’s partially reconstructed walls lies a vast museum complex, which includes three museums (Budapesti Történeti Múzeum (Budapest History Museum); Ludwig Múzeum (Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art); and the Magyar Nemzeti Galéria (Hungarian National Gallery)) and the National Széchenyi Library.

The Budapest History Museum, in the southern part of the palace, traces the city’s history from Buda’s liberation from the Turks in 1686 to the 1970s. The Ludwig Museum, in the palace’s northern wing, is named after its patron, Peter Ludwig, whose donations include paintings by Picasso, Warhol and Lichenstein. Eastern European paintings and sculpture provide a fascinating critique of crumbling communism. The Hungarian National Gallery is situated at the core of the palace. The encyclopaedic collection of Hungarian art from the 10th century to the present day portrays battles, both victorious and disastrous, romantic rural scenes and religious medieval altar paintings, providing a valuable insight into the Hungarian national identity.

I Budavári Palota, Dísz tér 17
Cars forbidden.

Budapesti Történeti Múzeum (Budapest History Museum)
I Budavári Palota (Wing E), Szent György tér 2
Tel: (01) 487 8801.
Website: www.btm.hu
Opening hours: Wed-Mon 1000-1600 (Nov-Feb); Wed-Mon 1000-1800 (Mar-Oct).
Admission charge.

Ludwig Múzeum
I Budavári Palota (Wing A), Komor Marcell útca 1
Tel: (01) 555 3444.
Website: www.c3.hu/~ludwig
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-2000; every last Saturday of the month 1000-2200.
Free admission; charge for temporary exhibitions.

Magyar Nemzeti Galéria (Hungarian National Gallery)
I Budavári Palota (Wings B, C, D), Szent Gyorgy ter 2
Tel: (20) 439 7325.
Website: www.mng.hu
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 1000-1800.
Admission charge.

National Széchenyi Library
I Budavári Palota (Wing F), Dísz tér or Palota útca
Tel: (01) 224 3700.
Website: www.oszk.hu
Opening hours: Mon closed, Tues-Fri 0900-2100, Sat 100-2000; closed Aug.
Free admission; charge for special exhibitions.

Mátyás Templom (Matthias Church)
The Zsolnay pyrogranite tiles of Matthias Church are as colorful and richly patterned as snakeskin. Inside is a melange of styles from the 13th to the 19th centuries. It is thought that a church was first built on this site in 1015, by King István. When the Turks occupied the Castle District in 1541, the church was turned into a mosque and the walls painted with extracts from the Koran. In the 20th century, the church was used as a kitchen by occupying German forces, and later as stables by the Russians. Mass takes place on Sunday at 1000. There are frequent summer concerts on Friday at 2000.

I Szentháromság tér 2
Tel: (01) 355 5657.
Website: www.matyas-templom.hu
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 0900-1700, Sat 0900-1300, Sun 1300-1700.
Admission charge.

Fishermen's Bastion
Behind the sanctuary of the Matthias Church, the Fishermen's Bastion offers a splendid view of the Danube and Pest. At the end of the 19th century, Frigyes Schulek designed a graceful system of stairs running from the Danube to the hilltop, and the current structure, which has been embellished with turrets, scrolls, arcades, curved stairs and statues, was intended to be the end point. Schulek imagined the bastion section defended by the fishermen’s guild, hence the name. Many felt his vision was of a more austere, defensible and less decorated piece of architecture, but his original plans were later altered to the delight of today's visitors.

I Szentháromság tér
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Free admission.

Hotel Gellért and Thermal Baths
Prudes are not advised to try out the Gellért Baths (valued since the Turkish occupation for their medicinal qualities) or any other thermal spas in the city, for that matter. Upon entrance, a strip of cloth is given to men and a tiny apron to women. Massages last 15 or 40 minutes – a vigorous experience not to be embarked upon by the faint-hearted. Bathing suits are donned before entering the main mixed swimming pool, an art nouveau beauty surrounded by columns. There are separate thermal pools of varying temperatures, steam rooms and sauna, with one side for men and the other for women.

XI Szent Gellért tér 2-6
Tel: (01) 889 5500.
Website: www.danubiusgroup.com/danubius/gellert
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 0600-1900, Sat and Sun 0600-1600.
Admission charge.

Országház (Parliament)
Imre Steindl’s design for Budapest’s Parliament, inspired by London’s Houses of Parliament, won first prize in a competition to celebrate the 1,000th year of the Hungarian nation. Work commenced in 1885 and was finally completed in 1902. The edifice, with its elegant neo-Renaissance dome, topped by a pointy neo-gothic spire, stretches for over 250m (820ft) along the River Danube. It was here that the crowds assembled on 23 October 1989, when Mátyás Szurös declared the Hungarian People’s Republic from the balcony on Kossuth Lajos tér.

V Kossuth Lajos tér 1-3
Tel: (01) 441 4904.
Website: www.mkogy.hu
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 1000 and 1400, Sat and Sun 1000, subject to parliamentary sessions (guided tours only).
Admission charge.

Szent István Bazilika (St Stephen’s Basilica)
St Stephen’s Basilica, Budapest’s largest church, designed by József Hild, was built in 1845, although not consecrated until 1905. A storm destroyed the original dome in 1868. The building was rebuilt from scratch in neo-Renaissance style but suffered damage during World War II. The building seats 8,500 and is currently undergoing restoration, which began in 1980 and is set to continue for the foreseeable future. Inside, Gyula Benczúr’s painting of Szent István offering the Hungarian crown to the Virgin Mary symbolises the alliance between Hungary and Western Europe. The basilica’s tower offers excellent views of the city.

V Szent István tér 1
Tel: (01) 317 2859.
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 0700-1900, Sun 1300-1900. Opening times for Stzent Jobb Chapel and for the cupola vary, phone ahead. Tower: daily 1000-1800.
Free admission; charge for the tower.

Dohány Zsinagóga (Central Synagogue)
Europe’s largest synagogue (and the world’s second largest) was designed by Lajos Föster, in a Byzantine-Moorish style, and completed in 1859. Desecrated by German and Hungarian Nazis, its two Moorish domes gleam afresh after a 10-year restoration project financed by the Hungarian government and Tony Curtis’ Emmanuel Foundation. Some 724,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and their lives are remembered in the Jewish History Museum, annexed to the synagogue, and at Imre Varga’s memorial to the side of the synagogue.

Dohány Zsinagóga (Central Synagogue)
VII Dohány útca 2
Tel: (01) 013 5500.
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 1000-1500, Sun 1000-1300; closed Jewish holidays.
Admission charge.

Jewish Museum
VII Dohány útca 2
Tel: (01) 342 8949.
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 1000-1700, Sun 1000-1500 (May-Oct); Mon-Fri 1000-1500, Sun 1000-1400 (Nov-Apr); closed Jewish holidays.
Admission charge.

Hosök Tere (Heroes’ Square)
Millenniumi Emlékmû (Millennium Monument)
Heroes’ Square was built in 1896, to celebrate the millennial anniversary of the Magyar conquest. Here the Archangel Gabriel, at the top of a 36m (118ft) column (winner of the Grand Prix at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900), is half-encircled by statues of the seven victorious Magyar tribal chiefs on horseback and Hungary’s most honored rulers, from King Stephen to Kossuth.

VI Andrássy útca, corner of Dózsa Dyörgy útca
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Free admission.

Further Distractions:

Margitsziget (Margaret Island)
Wedged in a loop of the River Danube and linked by Árpád híd and Margit híd to Buda and Pest, the 2km (1.5 mile) Margaret Island is one of the calmest and greenest spots in Budapest. No cars are allowed or needed – the island from Margit híd to Árpád híd can be crossed on foot in 20 minutes. The island is named after the devout daughter of King Béla IV, who lived here in a Dominican convent in the 13th century. In summer, Margaret Island is bursting with people heading for a swim at the Hajós Alfréd swimming pool or Palatinus pool.

Margaret Island
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Free admission.

Szobor Park (Statue Park)
Just as Lenin Boulevard and Marx Square no longer exist in Budapest, so their statues and monuments have been sent into exile to Statue Park. A 30-minute trip leads to this eerie and increasingly popular outdoor attraction.

XXII Balatoni útca, corner of Szabadkai útca
Tel: (01) 424 7500.
Website: www.szoborpark.hu
Opening hours: Daily 1000-sunset.
Admission charge.

House of Terror Museum
For an insight into Hungary’s turbulent recent history, pay a visit to the House of Terror Museum. Featuring the grim decades of Nazi and Communist repression, this museum is housed in the former headquarters for the secret police of both the Nazi and Communist governments, an address that filled the heart of the average Hungarian with dread for the best part of 50 years.
Andrassy útca 60
Tel: (01) 374 2600.
Website: www.terrorhaza.hu
Opening hours: Tues-Fri 1000-1800; Sat-Sun 1000-1930. Closed Mon.
Admission charge.

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