Things to Do in Budapest

Sitting high on Castle Hill on the Buda side of the Danube River, Fisherman’s Bastion was built in 1905 as part of the ongoing celebrations of the thousand-years existence of the Hungarian state. It encompasses part of the original fortified castle walls and its terraces boast the best view points over the river and across to Pest. The bastion is a step away from several of Budapest’s big-hitting attractions, including the Royal Palace with its museums and library, Matthias Church and the Hungarian National Gallery.

Festooned with Neo-Romanesque lookout towers, equestrian statues, turrets and colonnades, the T-shaped bastion has two levels and wraps itself around Matthias Church. Architect Frigyes Schulek revamped the church and designed the bastion at the same time. The wide steps leading up to the bastion are scattered with neo-Gothic statuary and provide an impressive introduction to Castle Hill.

Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe at 48 miles (77 km) by seven miles (11 km) at its widest. Lying in the Transdanubia region of landlocked Hungary, it is the summer playground for all Budapest, a great freshwater expanse in the foothills of the Bakony Mountains about an hour’s drive outside the city.

The north and south shores of Lake Balaton are entirely different in character; the southern side is well developed, with a series of modern resorts strung beadlike along the beaches, while the north is wilder and volcanic, with fewer resorts. Chief among these are Keszthely, home of the ornate Baroque Festetics Castle, and the historic spa town of Balatonfüred. The distinctive, twin-spired church at Tihany stands high on its rocky peninsula, surrounded by reed lands, and there are wineries scattered along the northern hills, some dating from the 14th century and many open for sampling the wares.

Rising 140 meters on the west side of the Danube, Gellért Hill is crowned with the fortified hulk of Citadella, which provides one of the best viewpoints in Budapest. From the ramparts there are far-reaching panoramas north to Buda Castle, and down the river to Széchenyi Chain Bridge, St Stephen’s Basilica and the Parliament House. Constructed by occupying Austrian forces in the 1840s, the citadel was loathed by the Hungarians, who tore down its fortified gates when the Austrians eventually left the city in 1897. Its 60 canon placements still remain, as do the six-meter ‘U’-shaped walls of the fort.

During World War II an air raid shelter was built in the Citadella, and this now houses a small museum about the war. In 1956, Soviet troops suppressed the Hungarian rebellion against Communism by firing heavy artillery from the fortress and Russian artillery is still scattered around the complex.

Budapest’s main opera house is a lavish neo-Renaissance confection with an interior so ornate that it could only have been built at the height of the wealthy Austro-Hungarian Empire. The opera house was designed by the Hungarian architect Mikós Ybl, while the Baroque ornamentation, sweeping marble staircases, the frescoed ceilings, vast chandeliers, rich velvets and gilded tiers of seats in the auditorium were mainly contributed by Károly Lotz and Bertalan Székely. It opened with great fanfare on September 27, 1884, in the presence of the Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph I and in time for the Millennium celebrations of 1896.

Gustave Mahler was director at the opera house between 1887-1891 and its reputation as one the world’s leading cultural houses was cemented. After decades of riding high on the international stage, the proud opera house fell into disrepair under the Communist regime in the 1970s.

The elegant boulevard of Andrássy Avenue was completed in 1885 as part of the expansion of Budapest under Emperor Franz Joseph I to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the state of Hungary. It connects the Pest-side city center at Erzsébet Square to the City Park (Városliget) and as a masterpiece of urban planning was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2002, along with Heroes’ Square.

Elegant townhouses lined the avenue and it became the preserve of wealthy bankers and the aristocracy. In order to conserve Andrássy’s architectural harmony, the city fathers decided to build a train line underneath the avenue. And so the Millennium Underground Railway opened, the first in continental Europe; it was first used to transport people from the city center to Városliget, which was the focus of the millennium celebrations in 1896.

Several bridges cross the Danube River connecting Buda and Pest, the two sides of Budapest, Hungary. The Elisabeth Bridge was named after the Hapsburg Queen Elisabeth, who was the wife of Francis Joseph I. An international competition was held in 1894 for the design of the bridge, and construction began in 1897. The bridge was inaugurated on Oct. 10, 1903, and until 1926, it was the largest chain-type bridge in the world. Unfortunately Elisabeth Bridge was bombed by German troops towards the end of World War II, and it was the only bridge in Budapest so badly damaged that it had to be completely replaced. From 1960 to 1964, nearly two decades after the original bridge was destroyed, the new bridge was built in the same place to reconnect Gellért Hill on the Buda side to Ferenciek Ter on the Pest side of the city.

The Central Market Hall is the largest indoor market in Budapest, Hungary. The ornate building is more than 100 years old and has three stories filled with stalls. The roof is still original and is covered in colorful Zsolnay tiles. There are four other markets in Budapest that were built in the same style with similar roofs, and all five opened on February 15, 1897.

The market hall is frequently visited by tourists, though many locals shop here on a regular basis as well. There are stalls selling fruits and vegetables, Hungarian meats, fish, local cheeses, Hungarian herbs and spices, Hungarian wines and spirits, clothing, purses, accessories, and souvenirs. There are also a few restaurants where you can try local dishes such as lángos, which is yeast-based dough deep fried in oil and topped with different things like sour cream, cheese, and garlic. The Central Market Hall often holds special events featuring the cuisine of foreign countries.

The colossal Vajdahunyad Castle sits next to the boating lake amid the greenery of City Park (Városliget) and displays a joyous clash of Hungarian architectural styles. It was designed by Ignác Alpár to be a gigantic folly for the Hungarian millennium celebrations in 1896, but it was such a hit with the citizens of Budapest that it was granted a reprieve and its makeshift construction was rebuilt in stone.

Running the gamut of Romanesque to Renaissance architecture, the palace is gaily encrusted with towers, turrets, Gothic flying buttresses, portcullises, bridges and courtyards, happily borrowing features from other castles around Hungary and there are scores of neo-classical statues scattered in the grounds. Today Budapest’s Agricultural Museum is housed among the marble stairs, ornate décor, stained glass and vast chandeliers of the palace interior.

Dohány Street Synagogue is the largest functioning synagogue in Europe, and one of the largest in the world, so it deserves its other title, the Grand Synagogue. Why else is it grand? The scale is matched by its decoration - the synagogue has a Byzantine feel, with gleaming onion domes and eight-pointed stars chased into the exterior walls.

The rose windows and the organ may put you in mind of a Christian church (the organ and the acoustics of the grand space make the synagogue a popular spot for concerts). But the towers that top the building - and that are meant to echo the pillars of Solomon's palace - remind you where you are. The synagogue was built on the boundaries of the Jewish Ghetto, where the Jews of the city retreated when they were banished from the city walls in the 18th century. The synagogue also played a part in the dreadful happenings of WWII, when it served as a shelter for the city's Jews, many of whom died here in the winter of 1944 - 45.

Rising 140 m (460 ft) over the western flank of the River Danube, Gellért Hill is riddled with underground cave complexes and around 130 hot springs, which feed Budapest’s famous spa baths. Formed in karstic limestone, the springs have therapeutic properties and provide 70 million liters (18.5 million gallons) of hot, calcium-rich water – temperature ranges between 70°F (21°C) and 168°F (76°C) – daily to power the seven major spa complexes in the city.

Of these, the elegant, Art Nouveau-cum-Secessionist-style Gellért Thermal Bath and Spa opened in 1918; behind its undulating exterior is a confection of magical, turquoise-and-gold, mosaic-ed saunas, steam rooms and colonnaded indoor and outdoor pools. As well as a series of plunge pools and mineral baths of differing temperatures, there’s a wave pool on the roof and a panoramic terrace for sunbathing and al fresco lunching in summer.

Szabadsag Ter, or Liberty Square in English, is a public square in the Lipótváros neighborhood of the business district on the Pest side of Budapest, Hungary. The buildings on the square are a mix of business and residential. Some of the buildings found here include the United States Embassy, the headquarters of the Hungarian National Bank, and the Hungarian State Television building. The square is picturesque and peaceful, but Hungary's turbulent history has left its mark here over the past century, from the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to communism to the start of a new regime in 1989.

In the square there is a monument commemorating the Soviet liberation of Hungary in World War II from Nazi German occupation, which is the last statue from the communist era that is still in its original place. The Soviets ordered the monument to be built, though they made Hungary pay for it.