Most important tourist sights

Gellért-hill and the Citadel

The Gellért-hill was named after the missionary bishop Saint Gerard (Gellért). According to the legend the pagans of the city put him in a barrel that was inlaid with spikes and rolled him down the hill into the Danube. There is a monument and a waterfall on the scene of his martyrdom.

The fortress named Citadel was built by Franz Joseph in 1851 to keep the rebellious city under control with his cannons. The 60-metre wide and 220-metre long building that has 4-metre thick walls functions as a tourist centre nowadays from where there is a great panorama to the capital.

The Statue of Liberty holding the palm branch symbolizing peace is standing on the ridge of the Gellért hill, that was erected for the respect of liberty after the second world war.

Saint Stephen Cathedral

The biggest church of Budapest is the Saint Stephen Cathedral. The 50-year long construction of the church has a really interesting story. First of all a decision was made in 1845 about the construction of the Cathedral, the plans were made by the great architect of the era, Joseph Hild. His innovation was to design huge windows on the dome to make the inside of the church more light. In a few years Hild died and Miklós Ybl took over the management of the construction, however, he as opposed to his predecessor considered the structure of the dome unstable because of the windows.

There was a legend at that time that one night Ybl had a dream that the dome collapsed which he experienced upon his arrival on the spot in the morning. Afterwards he redesigned the dome and replaced the big windows with the present small ones.

The cathedral was built in the neo-renaissance style. There are mosaics, paintings, frescos and statues of illustrious artists inside. The most significant painters and sculptors contributed to the decoration of the cathedral for which 50 different types of white, green, grey and red marble were used.

The Synagogue

Only a few steps from the Small boulevard you will find the biggest synagogue in Europe in the Dohány street that is still in operation. The first jewish merchants settled in Buda around the middle of the 1200's. The main part of the jewish communitiy in the 18th century built houses, crafts and industrial shops. A few years later more and more of them moved to the Pest side in the middle of the 19th century and the biggest synagogue of the era was built on the edge of the Pest jewish quarter. The hall of romantic-arabesque building with a capacity of 3000 people is held by cast iron coloumns and arches, which was a new innovation at the time of the constructions. Classical concerts are regularly organized in the synagogue. In the neighbourhood the world-famous Jewish Museum and the holocaust-memorial room can be found which show the history, artefacts and everyday instruments of the Hungarian jews.

The Parliament and the Kossuth square

For the constructions of the Hungarian Parlament building proposals were invited for a competition in 1881. Out of the submitted 20 proposals according to the decision of the committee, three were built that are all at the same square. The winner of the third prize is the building of the present Ministry of Agriculture, the winner of the second prize is the Museum of Etnography, while the first-prize-winner is the one designed by Imre Steindl which houses the Parliament today.

The building was designed according to the English parliament building in the neo-gothic style. To mention the numbers: it has 600 rooms, 17 inner courtyards and it was built of 40 million bricks. The constructions were started immediately, however, it was not finished by the millennium celebrations in 1896. Despite the millennium session could be held under the dome of the Parliament.

Baths

There are altogether 80 mineral and medicinal water springs, 10 outstanding monument-like baths and more than 400 bitter water springs in the Europe-famous city of baths.
The visitors suffering from illnesses may choose from a great variety of medical therapies and supplementary services.

Along the tectonic braking line under the Buda-hills there are a number of thermal karstic water springs, the rainwater leaking through the limestone and dolomite layers does not only dissolve the mineral salt but it naturally warms up.

The water springs on the Pest side are made of artificial drilled wells.
Already the Romans who settled here (about 2200 years ago) utilized the natural treasure under the city.
They named their city Aquincum (meaning abundance in water).

They had a developed bathing culture, the water was forwarded through the aquaductus, the built water pipe system to the public baths. The next time when the baths were of more importance was during the Turkish domination. One of the important elements of the islamic religion is the bathing culture as a result of which the settled Turks built a number of typical Turkish baths of which four are still in operation in Budapest.

Our most famous baths:

• Király Bath: it is a characteristic Turkish bath, the construction began in 1565. It is interesting that it has no direct hot water base because it was built far from the springs to keep the possibility of bathing at the time of a possible siege as well. The water is and was forwarded from the present Lukács Bath.
• Lukács Bath: it was built in the 12th century by the Saint John knights who dealt with the nursing of ill people. The Turks kept it and rearranged the bath. It is open to the public today with its drinking hall, complex medical services, outdoor pools and modern spas.
• Rudas Bath: the centre of the bath was made in the 15th century in the Turkish times. Under the dome that is 10 metres in diameter there is an octogonal pool. The thermal bath was only allowed to be used by men between 1936 and 2006, however, from January 2006 it may be visited by ladies tentatively as well due to the great interest. It opens its gates for night bathing every Friday and Saturday in May and June.
• Gellért Bath: it was already favoured in the Turkish times as it was bigger and had hotter water than the other baths of Buda at that time. The world-known and quite favoured Gellért Bath and Hotel that was built upon a spring and has been in operation since 1918. All of the medical services are available here.
• Széchenyi Bath: one of the biggest bathing complexes of Europe, it was the first medical bath of Pest. The beautiful building of the bath awaits its visitors all year in the City Park with its in- and outdoor pools, saunas, steam chambers and many other, so far little-known services.

The World Heritage

The continuosly extending World Heritage List was initiated by the UNESCO in 1972. Its aim is the collection and preservation of cultural and natural treasures in their original condition that are signigficant and unreplacable for mankind. There are altogether eight of such places in Hungary, two of which are located in Budapest:

"The Andrássy avenue and the Heroes square"

- The track of the 2,3 km long Andrássy avenue was marked in 1872 and it was finished only 10 years following the beginning of the construction, finally in 1885.
- The most valuable building of the Andrássy avenue is the Hungarian State Opera House. However, the old Music Academy, the old Exhibition Hall and the Hungarian College of Fine Arts can be found here.
- The millennary underground runs under Andrássy avenue. It is of great importance as it was built in 1896 for the celebration of the 1000-year anniversary of the Hungarian conquest.
Furthermore, it was the second underground built in the continent, right after the tube in England. It connects the downtown with the City Park (the bustle with the tranquility). One of its stations is Heroes square where the Andrássy avenue ends.

- The Heroes square has a special atmosphere for the visitors. At the tremendous square that opens suddenly in front of our eyes we will find the Museum of Fine Arts to the left, and the Exhibition Hall to the right. The determining point of the square is the Millennium monument a part of which is a marble coloumn with Gabriel arkangel standing on the top. We can see him from a far distance aproaching the square. At the foot of the coloumn there are the statues of the 7 warriors who lead the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin in 896. There are two semi-circular collonades behind the coloumn along which we can follow the whole Hungarian history with the statues of the most significant kings, governors and princes. The square was finally finished in 1929. This was the year when the tombstone of the unknown soldier was placed in the symbolic centre of the square - it is the Monument of the National Heroes - therefore it received the name, Heroes Square.

The Castle District of Buda

The Danube bank-side panorama of Budapest and the castle district of Buda became the part of the World Heritage officially in 1987. This place is worth a half-a-day walk where we can find a whole lot of notable buildings.

Such is for example the Matthias church. The originally called Church of the Our Lady was built in the gothic style, it was rearranged many times, the present appearance was given to the church at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. King Matthias further-extended the church with the 60-metre high southern tower in 1470 that is decorated with his coat of arms with two ravens. For that matter, Matthias held both of his weddings here, this is where the more often used Matthias church name derives from. It was turned into a mosque during the Turkish domination, then it was rebuilt in the baruque style after the castle was regained. The treasury of the church and the crypts may be visited. There are regurarly held concerts as well.

The Alexander Palace is a characteristic classicist building. It was named after the count Alexander (Sándor) family. Its last owner was the legendary Alexander Mauritz, the Devilrider. After his death the family died out. At the time of the Reconciliation in 1867 the prime minister Gyula Andrássy made the building the residence of the government. This was almost continuously the office of the prime minister until the end of the war. The outside of the building that was shot to ruins at the siege and it was only restored in 1983. The Parliament passed a law on 5th November 2002 about turning the Alexander Palace the residence and office of the president of the republic.

The baroque royal palace was built in the 17th century. The royal palace used to stand here since the 1200's, however, only some of the found and restored details of the early times can be seen. At the time of war against the Turkish army the palace suffered great damages. The restoration happened in a simplified way. Today the Palace District is one of the most significant cultural centres of the capital. The National Gallery and the Budapest History Museum are located here.

The neogothic Fishermen's Bastion plays a determining role in the cityscape of Budapest. The original Fishermen's bastion was named as a middle-age tradition after the guild from Buda that defended the bastion.

The Caves of Buda are valuable formations also from the point of view of the protection of nature. The world-wide unique sinter caves were formed in the early times of the history of the Earth. The smaller cabins that were formed in the meantime were connected during the times of history for military and economic reasons so a real labirinth was formed. It served as a bunker in the 1930's while the caves of the castle functioned as a secret military object during the cold war. Eventually in 1997 the 4000 square metre labirinth was restored by which it more or less regained its original face similar its appearance before the war.