Often touted as one of the world’s most beautiful cities, the Hungarian capital of Budapest is among the most popular and delightful destinations in Eastern Europe. The Danube runs straight through the middle of Budapest, with Buda to the West and Pest to the East. Budapest is a very large city (200 square miles!) and therefore takes some time to get around. Fortunately, most of the attractions in Budapest are concentrated in specific areas, making sightseeing easier than you might imagine. Here are a few of our favourite places to visit in each half of this amazing city:
Buda (including Castle Hill)
On the banks of the River Danube in District 1 of Buda, Castle Hill (or Varhegy in Hungarian) is the oldest part of Budapest. It houses Buda Castle (commonly called the Royal Palace), a gargantuan palace complex, parts of which date back to the 13th century, when the hill was first settled as a defensive response to a Mongol attack on the city. Most of the interiors of Budapest’s most famous castle were destroyed in WWII and what remained of the lavish ballrooms and Baroque apartments was demolished in the 1950s. Buda Castle was then turned into a cultural centre. The castle was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Sight in 1987.
Today, the complex is home to a number of museums, including the sprawling Budapest History Museum (which includes the Medieval Royal Palace, a series of rooms that showcases how palatial life was in the Middle Ages). The complex is also home to the Hungarian National Gallery, which showcases Medieval, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque statuary, carvings, coins and artefacts as well as an impressive collection of painting and sculpture from the 19th and 20th centuries. There’s even an underground labyrinth to explore with tours offered in multiple languages. Although the palatial sights are the most popular things to see on Castle Hill, there are plenty of other things to do. Don’t miss the views from the whitewashed Fisherman’s Bastion, which provides stunning views of Pest from across the Danube.
If you have the time, there are plenty of museums in Buda to check out. Be sure to check out the kitschy Marzipan Museum, which has sculptures of everything from Ninja Turtles to Michael Jackson made from thick almond paste. There’s also the Music Museum, which has some rare instruments, as well as museums dedicated to fashion, the military, the future, pharmacy and Judaism in Medieval times. Though not technically a museum, the Statue Park in the south of Buda hosts many of the statues from Budapest’s communist past, making it a quirky backdrop for a picnic.
Pest
One of the biggest sites in this part of Budapest is the neo-gothic Parliament Building (tours here are free). A visit to Parliament is not only an architectural treat–it’s also an informative way of learning about Hungary’s political system (almost) first-hand. When you’re done with this, head to the nearby Saint Stephen’s church, the most significant church and a fine example of neoclassical architecture. Then there’s the Great Synagogue on Dohany Street. This 19th century Moorish style synagogue is the largest in Europe, and can sear up to 3,000 people. The synagogue is not only a functional place of worship, but is also home to a Jewish Museum displaying relics and ritual items, a relatively small ‘Heroes Temple’, a memorial to the Hungarian Jews who lost their lives in WWI and a Jewish cemetery.
As you may have realised, there are a lot of museums in Budapest and Pest is certainly no exception. Some of the more interesting ones in this area include the Natural History Museum, the Ludwig Museum of Modern Art, the Holocaust Memorial Centre, the Museum of Transport and the Bible Museum. There’s also the depressing House of Terror, a small museum inside a former secret police headquarters that illustrates the more horrific and dismal moments of the Nazi and Communist eras. There’s even an agricultural museum inside the Vajdahunyad Vára a castle that was built for the 1898 World Fair on an island within a lake. If you get a chance to visit Budapest in the winter, you must visit the castle, if not for the museum then for the fact that in the winter, the lake is transformed into an ice rink, the largest in the city.
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