Explore Budapest

The Széchenyi Chain Bridge was the first permanent bridge across the Danube in Hungary, designed by William Tierney Clark, built under Adam Clark and opened in 1849. Its two stone towers carry a 202-metre central span between Széchenyi tér in Pest and Clark Ádám tér in Buda, guarded by stone lions from 1852. A renovation closed it from 2021 to 2023.

Buda Castle is the palace complex of the Hungarian kings on the southern tip of Castle Hill. The domed Baroque palace was built between 1749 and 1769, badly damaged in 1945 and rebuilt in simplified form; its courtyards and terraces are open to walk through, while its wings house the Hungarian National Gallery, the Budapest History Museum and the National Széchényi Library.

Fisherman's Bastion is a Neo-Romanesque terrace on Castle Hill, built between 1895 and 1902 by Frigyes Schulek on a stretch of the old Buda castle walls beside Matthias Church. Its white stone walkways run about 140 metres along the Danube side, with seven conical towers for the seven Magyar chieftains, and look out over the river to Pest and the Parliament.

The Shoes on the Danube Bank is a Holocaust memorial on the Pest embankment south of the Parliament, created in 2005 by Can Togay and sculptor Gyula Pauer. Sixty pairs of iron shoes stand at the water's edge in memory of the Jews shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944 and 1945.

The Great Market Hall is Budapest's main covered market at the Pest end of Liberty Bridge, designed by Samu Pecz and opened in 1897, with a roof of Zsolnay ceramic tiles. The ground floor holds stalls of produce, meat, paprika and salami, the basement fish and pickles, and the upper gallery food counters and handicraft stalls.

Heroes' Square is the large square at the end of Andrássy Avenue, laid out for the 1896 millennium of the Hungarian conquest. Its Millennium Monument has a 36-metre column topped by the Archangel Gabriel, the seven Magyar chieftains at its base and two colonnades of statues of Hungarian rulers; the Museum of Fine Arts and the Műcsarnok flank it.

Vajdahunyad Castle stands on an island in the City Park lake, designed by Ignác Alpár for the 1896 Millennial Exhibition and rebuilt in stone between 1904 and 1908. Its wings copy buildings from across historic Hungary, including Hunyad Castle in Transylvania; the courtyard is open to walk through and the Hungarian Agricultural Museum fills the main building.

City Park is a public park of about 1.2 km² in Budapest's District XIV, planted with trees and walkways from 1751 and opened to the public in the early 19th century. Its main entrance is Heroes' Square; inside are Vajdahunyad Castle, the Széchenyi Baths, the zoo, the Museum of Ethnography, the House of Music and a lake used as an ice rink in winter.