Skylines and views

If there is something that Budapest hasn't got it is an impressive skyline. Tall buildings are banned from the city center and there isn't a single skyscraper in the whole city. In return, the church towers and the ancient spires creates an ancient skyline together with the Buda Castle with the backdrop of the hills on the Buda side. The more flat Pest side is totally dominated by St Stephen's Basilica and The Hungaraina Parliament Building, the 2 tallest buildings in Budapest (both 96m to the top of the spire).

In the outskirts there are a lot of oldfashioned grey and white residential highrises from the commie times. There are many modern office buildings in Budapest, but most of them aren't very tall. The tallest highrise in Budapest is the 23-storey Semmelweiss Medical University from 1976 at a height of 89m.

Views of Buda from Pest:e and September 2003

Buda Castle.

Buda Castle at night.

Elizabeth Bridge, Danube and Gellért Hill after dark.

The red neo-gothic church in the middle is Calvinist Church, designed by József Hild and completed in the 19th century,and the one to the right St Anne's Church.

View of Elizabeth Bridge, Statue of Liberty on Gellért Hill and Danube from Chain Bridge.

The historic Citadel and the Freedom statue.

View of Buda from the Parliament.

Views from St Stephen's Basilica:

Towards the Parliament.

Towards Zrinyi ut.

Traffic jam below the basilica. Note the large number of modern cars, in contrast to the poor cars during the commie times.

Towards Ödön Lechner's former Postal Savings Bank and a mountain on Buda side.

Towards Buda and nearby commercial buildings.

Views of Pest from Buda:e a

The strand at Danube on Pest side and Liberty Bridge.

To the left is Inner City Parish church, close to our hostel.

View towards the Marriott and Vigado Concert Hall.

A skyline picture with the Funkturm TV tower and the 89m tall 23-storey Semmelweiss Medical University from 1976, the tallest highrise in Budapest in the background. Many of central Budapest's church towers in the foreground.

Towards Margaret Island (Margit-sziget), with both Pest and Buda visible on the sides. Margaret Island is a popular island with a park, an amusement park and some thermal baths. We never visited the island because of our lack of time. In the foreground you can see the Margaret Bridge.

A romantic view of Margaret Island, Margaret Bridge, the Hungarian Parliament, Danube and an oldfashioned streetlight.

Margaret Bridge and Margaret Island seen from Chain Bridge.

Famous Budapest landmarks: Chain Bridge, Danube, Gresham Palace, Gresham Square and St Stephen's Basilica all seen from the Royal Palace.

Chain Bridge, Danube, Parliament and Margaret Island.

The Calvin Church on Buda side and the Parliament on the Pest side.

The 96m tall Gothic Hungarian Parliament from Batthyany tér after dark.

Closeup of the parliament.

Views of Buda from Buda:

Views towards the mountains of Buda from Buda castle.

Towards Freedom Statue, Gellért Hill, The Citadel, Elizabeth Bridge and Freedom Bridge.

View from the plane:

Leaving Budapest Ferihegy International Airport with views of the commie blocks and villas in the outskirts.

Pest - V: The heart of Budapest

V, the 5th district, is where the center of Budapest is and some of the most famous buildings, stores, hotels and restaurants are situated there. It is also the administrative district, where both the famous Hungarian Parliament and St Stephen's Basilica is. Our hostel was also situated in district V.

The Hungarian Parliament Building, built in a Gothic Revival style, is Budapest's foremost landmark. At a height of 96m to the top of the spire, it is also the tallest building in Budapest, togethere with St Stephen's Basilica. 96 is referring to the country's millennium in 1896. Note the spruces, they are very common in Eastern Europe. On the facade, statues of Hungarian rulers and Transylvanian leaders can be seen. It was completed in 1904.

A yellow tram passing in front of the Parliament Square. The entrance is at the square, but the beautiful exterior faces Danube. Even if we planned to get inside, our time just passed away so instead we had to focus on getting to our plane on time. Note the Hungarian police car to the left; rendörség= police!

The view right outside our hotel, towards the Erzsébet Hid (Elizabeth Bridge). Szabad sajtó út is heavily trafficated.

A grandiose building at Ferenciek Tere (square) near our hotel, with a supermarket in the ground floor. Match is the most common supermarket chain in Budapest.

Váci utca (Váci Street) is the most famous pedestrian street in Budapest and is filled with tourists. Váci Street has many exclusive brand stores and hotels, but after dark guys in black suits try to drag you in to sex clubs, hidden behind the exclusive facades. A big minus in my opinion. Nothing of this can be seen from the outside.

Also Szabad sajtó út. Some beautiful buildings near our hostel. The yellow one is a library. The courtyard of the somewhat worn building where our small and friendly hostel, Jump In, was situated. This courtyard could be seen from our room. Városház út, where it crosses the much larger Szabad sajtó út. Our hostel was located to the left in this picture. The district is called Belváros (that means city center in Hungarian cities).

Erzsébet Hid (Elizabeth Bridge). Even if it was very close to our hostel we didn't visit the Buda side until the 3rd day.

One of our cloudy views of Danube, seen the first hours in Budapest.

Inner City Parish Church (Belvárosi Plébániatemplom) was a Gothic/Baroque landmark near our hotel. It was built in the early 14th century and is very rundown today as you can see.

Facades along River Danube.

My first shot of a yellow tram, captured in front of Elizabeth Bridge.

Vigadó Concert Hall. Completed in 1864, built in a mixture of architecture styles, it has now got competition from a modern concert hall in the 9th district.

Marriott, one of many de luxe hotels at the River Danube.

Roosevelt Square. Four Seasons Gresham Palace, to the left and above, is a legendaric 5 star hotel. To the right is Sofitel, another 5 star hotel, with a large atrium.

Gresham Palace is a neo-classical palace from 1827 was originally built as Gresham Life Insurance company's headquarters, but was used by Soviet soldiers during WWII and later fell into decline. In 2001 it was transformed into a luxury hotel.

A yellow tram in front of Danube and the famous Chain Bridge.

St Stephen's Basilica seen from Zrínyi Út.

A modern building in Japanese style at Roosevelt Tér.

Hungarian Academy of Science at Roosevelt Square.

Chain Bridge (Széchenyi lánchid) is Budapest's most famous bridge and an important symbol of the city. More about the bridge in the skylines section. The Royal Castle can be seen in the background.

Budapest Ethnographical Museum.

These cozy alleys is one of the things I like the most with Budapest!

Beautiful buildings near Szabadság tér.

Szabadság tér (Independence Square) is a very grandiose square with majestic buildings.

Hungarian National Television Building has a very interesting architectural style and reminds of both Egypt and India. It hosts the MTV, Magyar Televízió, that was formerly financed by licences, but now commercial in contrast to Sweden that is more oldfashioned than Hungary.

The memorial is the only remaining memorial to the Soviet union in the city since the last Lenin statue was torn down in 1989. The Parliament can be seen in the background.

Szabadság tér.

This modern office building in glass and granite is also situated by the Independence Square.

Oktober 6 utca/ Arany János utca.

Zrinyi Utca.

Szt. István Basilica (St Stephen's Basilica). It is Budapest's tallest building together with the Hungarian Parliament, both are 96m to the top of the spire. István (Stephen) was the first king of Hungary.

Details of the basilica, built in 1905.

The huge St Stephen's Basilica (not to be confused with church) is built in a neoclassical style with white marble, towers and a dome that can be recognized in several different buildings around the world.

The interior is extravagant.

We bought a ticket and walked all the stairs to the top. This is how one room on the way to the top looked like, hard to believe it is a room high inside Hungary's most famous basilica.

Something you rarely see; the inside of the dome.

The views from the top were magnificent, though it was somewhat windy when we walked outside. More of the views from St Stephen's Basilica can be seen in the skylines and views section.

View towards the top of the basilica. St Stephen's has a width of 55 m and a lenght of 87.4 m. In 1868, the dome collapsed during construction and made the building take 54 years to complete.

Former Postal Savings Bank. This is Ödön Lechner's nationalistic conribution to central European architecture with Hungarian folk motifs and Jugend elements.

At this marketplace we tried real Hungarian langos for the first time, they were both cheap and very tasty. There is also a much larger marketplace in Budapest, but unfortunately wenever went there.

Semmelweis utca. The last day I took a beer at a pub on this street near our hostel while waiting for the taxi to the airport.

A modern building near Deák Fernce Square.

Deák Ferenc Square is a major intersection in Pest were the 3 metro lines meet under the Modern and Breitner building with the "Fashion Street" shopping arcade. Unfortunately the 1910 jugend building was under reconstruction during our visit, so nothing of the exterior could be seen.

Heavy traffic in front of a very orientalic building at Deák Ferenc tér. The square borders the 5th, 6th and 7th districts.

Le Meridien, the French de luxe hotel, formerly hosted the main police office.

An inverted statue at Deak Ferenc tér.

Heavy traffic at Deák Ferenc. The buses in Budapest are blue, even though the trams are yellow. 1 Vörösmarty Square is a brand new shopping galleria (2006) in with a striking glass facade with diagonal lines. It is situated at Vörösmarty tér right in the city center and has brand stores as New Yorker and H&M.

View towards the Great Synagogue and a large Ford sign. This road departs the 5th, 7th and 8th districts.

District V after dark:

Hotel Astoria. This 4 star hotel was occupied the Nazis during WW2.

Saint Stephen's Basilica.

Neon lights on the glass office building at Astoria Station.

Another modern commercial building. Located at Deák Ference Square.

These trees almost gives a Christmas feeling in the middle of June.

Kempinsky Hotel Corvinus to the left, a modern rounded glass building from 1992. Madonna stayed here when playing Evita.

The Great Synangogue and the Ford sign after dark.

Váci Út, exclusive facades with dirty clubs behind.

Vörösmarty tér with the shopping galleria in glass.

Vigádo Concert Hall.

Buda - I

As mentioned before, is Buda situated on the left side of Danube and is a more relaxed part of the city than Pest. The district immediately at the west bank of Danube, where all the major attractions are is simply called district I. The largest landmark is the Royal Castle and its surroundings, some church spires and the Citadel, with its Freedom statue. It has more of a small town feeling than the busy Pest side. We didn't visit the Buda side until the last half of our second day, since the most tempting attractions were on the Pest side.

Immediately when we reached the Buda side, large clouds covered the whole city and it started to rain despite it was sunny when we went to a museum earlier. That was very annoying since it was very cloudy all the time until it was dark, but I think the clouds look really cool on some photos.

View of Buda from the Pest side with Chain bridge, Danube and the Buda Castle. This pictures was taken earlier the same day, before the clouds appeared.

Gellért Square (Gellért tér) is probably the most famous square in Budapest, probably because the famous spa Hotel Géllert is located there. The square is situated right by the Danube and is a major hub for trams and buses.

In Hotel Géllert you can find the Gellért Baths, that has made Budapest famous for its Turkish baths. Note the fountain in front of the hotel.

Gellért Hill Cave, also called St Ivan's Cave, is located within the hill, on the opposite side of Hotel Gellért. There is a chapel inside this cave with a glass entrance. Note the cross and the Freedom Statue to the left on the hill.

The cross looks special with this menacing sky, I got a feeling of an oil painting from the 19th century.

When it started to rain we went inside a café store. The first parts we saw of Buda after crossing the Elizabeth Bridge, just looked like a common city district.

Gellért Hill:

Gellért Hill (Gellérthegy) is a 235m high hill overlooking the square. It was named after St Gerard who was thrown from the hill and died.

As we walked upwards on Gellért Hill , we could see old beautiful buildings mixed with modernist residential buildings.

The Castle District, also called Várnegyed (or just Var), is the quarters on Castle Hill around the Royal Buda Castle.

The Royal Castle is called Buda Castle nowadays, since Hungary is a republic. However, many guides and maps still refer to it as the Royal Castle or palace.

Budapest History Museum is located in the southern wing of the palace.

The oldest part of the current palace was built by Prince Stephen, Duke of Slavonia in the 14th century. Buda Castle is together with the parliament and St Stephens Basilica the most famous symbols of Budapest. The castle is the only of them that is situated on the Buda side.

The beautiful walls that surround the palace.

Details of the statue to the left.

View from the castle towards Danube and the parliament on the Pest side. More of the views can be seen in the skylines section.

View from the castle towards the Freedom statue on Géllert Hill.

Várnegyed (the castle district) is famous for its medieval, Baroque and 19th century buildings that houses restaurants and residences.

This district is probably the most "touristy" place to be in Budapest, you can find tons of tourists, but not so many Budapest citizens. Fortunately, the weather made some of the tourists stay away.

Matthias Church (Mátyás-templom), offiicially named Church of Our Lady, is one of the most famous churches in Budapest. Several coronations of kings took place in the church and it is an important part of the Hungarian history.This late Gothic church was built in the 14th century. Unfortunately it was under renovation during our visit. It was also renovated in the 19th century. The tallest spire is 80m tall.

This is Fisherman's Bastion, a terrace in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style that I really looked forward to see. I expected it to be larger, but I still think it has a nice architecture. It consists of 7 towers and was completed in 1902 after a design by Frigyes Schulek, a man who is said to have lively fantasy, that explains the shape of the structure. Each tower represent one of the 7 Magyar tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in 896.

This is a bronze statue of Stephen I of Hungary, the country's first king.

Inside there is a panorama terrace and a restaurant with live musicians.

This steeple is the remainings of a church that was bombed during World War II.

The Castle District is very small and takes just minutes to walk around it.

Leaving the castle district, walking down a hill to a residential area. Note the spruces. They are common

in both Hungary and Poland. In Sweden for example, it is rare to see them in the streetscapes.

A really nice neighbourhood.

At the foot of the hill we got this big surprise; a really exciting cave building in stone, glass and tiles. It looks very old and modern at the same time.

The view from the entrance of the "cave building". Behind the facade there are offices and residences.

There is a restaurant inside the "cave".

The next surprise was to find this huge shopping mall with about 140 stores that opened in 1998 at Szena tér at the foot of the hill. It is called Mammut and is Budapest's most successful shopping mall together with its nearby Mammut II. Glass escalators running through the atrium filled with expensive (even with international standard) brand stores.

While walking in this area around Moskva tér, we heard a rock concert on a pub were someone made

a Metallica cover and an outdoor concert with Balkan folk music.

St Anne´s Church at Batthany tér.

Looking towards Buda Castle while walking on the Buda side of Danube after dark.

The second time we visited the Buda side we went for a stroll to the parliament, over the famous Chain Bridge, walked at the Danube side of Buda and then back to Pest side again via Elizabeth Bridge. So we actually walked in a square around the bridges.

Buda Palace seen from the Pest side. The weather was very cloudy this day, the last of our 2,5 days in Budapest.

The Citadel is the fortress on the top of Gellért Hill. We saw it many times, but didn't visit it. It was built by the Hapsburg authorities in 1854 to control the city.

After the Austrian troops left the fortress, the city of Budapest bought it. During the 1944-45 the Nazi Germans used the Citadel to keep the city under gunfire.

Today it serves as a panorama terrace and has a restaurant. In the front is Elizabeth Bridge.

The Statue of Liberty (Szabadság Szobor) on the top of Gellért Hill and is part of The Citadel. The 40 m tall (including the pedestal ) freedom statue was erected in 1947 in remembrance of Soviet's liberation of Hungary from the Nazis.

The original inscription "Erected by the grateful Hungarian Nation in memory of the liberating Russian heroes" has been changed to "To the memory of all of those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and success of Hungary" due to the fall of communism in 1989.

The statue of Queen Elizabeth with Elizabeth Bridge in the background.

A rock at the side of Gellért Hill with Liberty Bridge in the background.

St Gellért Monument. The statue of the Venetian missionary bishop St. Gerard (Gellért) that stands on the hillside of Gellért Hill. In the 11th century he died a martyr's death when he was thrown from the top of the hill at this spot by pagan Hungarians rebelling against Christianity. A beautiful waterfall and a bridge is located underneath the monument.






Leaving Buda side via Elizabeth Bridge. A yellow tram, Statue of Liberty on Gellért Hill, Danube and Liberty Bridge can be seen on the picture.

Pest - VI

District VI, the 6th district on the Pest side, is probably one of the nicest districts in Budapest with its cozy alleys and beautiful buildings. The whole Andrássy Avenue goes through this district the whole way from the Heroes Square to the 5th district. Budapest's largest train station, Nyugati, is also in the 6th district.

Nyugati Station (Western Railway Station), the first thing we saw of Budapest after arriving by train from Krakow (the one on the picture) via Czech Republic and Slovakia. The night train took 11 hours.

It is the largest and most famous train station in Budapest and was designed by Gustave Eiffel, the same man that designed the Eiffel Tower. Be sure to avoid the toilets! Many homeless people and beggars hang around around the station plus we got cheated by the taxi driver, so our first impressions of Budapest wasn't very good. We didn't go to the area around the station more than once.

On Benczúr utca and other streets around Andrássy, there are many nice alleys like this with huge trees and beautiful buildings hosting exclusive residences and offices around it. Probably some of the nicest streets in Budapest.

Andrássy út, the most famous avenue in Budapest.


This picture was taken somewhere on the northeastern part of Andrássy.

House of Terror. A neorenaissance mansion that was used as a torture center by both Hungarian facists and communist Soviets.

Notice the sign "Terror" on the roof!

The "terror" sign was added when it became a museum in 2002, made by the designer Attila F Kovács.

Oktogon. A square with 8 edges. We had a small diner at the Burger King below the Mc Donalds sign (!), but except for that we tried to eat only Hungarian, or at least not on fastfood restaurants.

Further on it is narrower and has beautiful trees that covers the top. That is the nicest part of the avenue. What I think is nice is that the avenue has both an exclusive feeling with brand stores and a more bohemian young atmosphere.

Hungarian State Opera House at Andrássy. This Renaissance building was completed in 1884 during Austria-Hungary and reconstructed in 1984.

Another grandiose building on Andrássy.

Pest - City Park and Heroes Monument

Városliget (City Park) is the largest park in Budapest. Hösök tere (Heroes Square) with its memorial and 2 museums and the end of Andrássy út, Budapest's most elegant avenue, are situated in front of the park. In the park you can find a lake, the zoo, the famous Gundel restaurant and the famous Széchenzyi Thermal Baths.

Millennium Memorial (or Millenary Monument) at Heroes Square. The monument has statues of people that founded the Magyar nation more than 1100 years ago, many of them kings and princes, and other important Hungarian people.

The monument was constructed 1896-1929.

The column is 36m high.

Palace of Art (Műcsarnok). This art museum was built in 1895 in an eclectic-neoclassical style.

Museum of Fine Arts was also built in an eclectic-neoclassical style. It was completed in 1906.

Vajdahunyad Castle at Heroes Square was built 1896-1908 and was designed by Ignác Alpár. A part of Vajdahunyad is a copy of a Transylvanian castle with the same name Today it houses the Agricultural Museum.

 

The long and elegant Andrassy Avenue seen from Heroes Square.

Városliget (City Park) is the largest park in Budapest. Unfortunately a part of the pound was temporatily drained.

To our surprise we found out that a lane in the park was named after Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister who was murdered in Stockholm in 1986.

I have also heard there is a Anna Lind memorial somewhere in the park.

Olof Palme Sétány.

ING Head Offices. Designed by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat, it is one of the most controversial modern buildings in Budapest. A building that makes you think with its sloping lines and two atrium. It consists of glass, aluminium, stone and concrete and was completed in 2004, the same year that Hungary entered the EU.. It is situated at the corner of Andrassy Avenue close to Heroes Square.

Pest - VII

The 7th district is where the Jewish Quarters with its synagogues and Blaha Lujza Square is situated.

We got a special tour in these quarters by a Hungarian woman (a friend of my friend) that could speak perfect Swedish.

Jewish Quarters:

The Great Synagogue in Dohány Street is the largest synogogue in Europe. It was completed 1859 in Moorish Revival style and is 75m long and 27m wide. The twin towers are 43 m tall each. I regret that we never went inside.

The Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs by Imre Varga in 1989.

The Orthodox Synagogue by Otto Wagner in the Jewish Quarters. Parts of it were destroyed during WW2, but it has still not been completely renovated.

Around the Jewish Quarters Budapest it feels more like a "normal" city than most parts of the Pest side, since it is more relaxed.

Many beautiful old buildings in the district has been torned down to make way for new buildings, something that some people try to prevent.

Another synagogue. You can buy kosher food and read signs in Hebrew in the Jewish Quarters.

A special nightclub/bar that was a nice and picturesque place to have a beer. Note the Trabant.

Uránia Nemzeti Filmszínház, a beautiful Venetian/Moorish cinema.

Blaha Lujza tér (Blaha Square):

On the square with this funny name we could find the legendaric New York Palace Hotel, right on the Grand Boulevard of Budapest.

Note the Swedish appearance in form of the Ikea sign.

It was originally built in 1894 to host New York Life Insurance Company and the New York Café. During the socialist times it was owned by the state and it started to fall into decay. But it was not completely renovated and reopened until 2006, 4 years after Boscolo Hotels bought it.

New York Café is famous because Bella Lugosi and some Hollywood stars used to hang out there, perhaps because of the 16 devilish fauns!

Pest - VIII

In the 8th district we visisted the Kerepesi cemetary and the National Museum.

The cemetery is presented on a separate page.

This beautiful neo gothic building is situated on the busy Károly Körút.

We passed this modern glass building at Károly Körút many times.

Wonderful building as Károly Körút, part of the Grand Avenue of Budapest.

More buildings at Károly Körút.

Hungarian National Museum (Nemzeti Muzeum). Behind this impressive neo-classical facade from 1847 by Mihály Pollack, you can witness paintings by famous Hungarian artists as Károly Lotz (Hungary's most famous painter) and Ferenc Liszt. But the most interesting section was the exhibition about communism, that gave an idea of how it was to live under the Soviet regime.

Statues at the entrance to the museum. It is bordering the 5th district.

The grande interior of the National Museum.

A modern glass building at Kálvin tér, next to the museum.

Saint Elisabeth Church (Szt. Erzsébet templom), a tall Gothic Revival church at Rózsák Tere.

Glass elements in a modern residential building.

Kerepesi Cemetery (district VIII)

Kerepesi, Budapest's answer to Père Lachaise in Paris, is the largest outdoor statue park in Europe and one of Europe's largest National Pantheons. It is located in Józsefváros in the 8th district, about 2km from the city center of Budapest, but is still the most centrally located cemetaryin the city. It was founded in 1847. We got a special tour by our friend to this cemetery, a place that most tourists aren't aware about despite its majestic graves.

A gate to the cemetery from a mausoleum.

The roof of a mausoleum.

Batthyány Lajos mausoleum.

Lajos Kossuth Mausoleum.

Ferenc Deák Mausoleum. A dome in neo classic style.




Labor Movement Mausoleum, a monument with the text "they lived for the communism and the people", one of the few commnist monuments left in public places in Budapest today. There is a 2-level crypt underneath.

A rare monument with special characteristics. If you stand on one edge, you can hear the voice of the person on the other side. And when you are talking inside this structure, you hear your voice in stereo.

This path doesn't look like it is centrally located in a city with more than 2 million inhabitants in the surroundings.

View from the cemetary towards the Buda side.

Pest - IX

The 9th district begins at the Eastern bank of Liberty Bridge and ends in the outskirts of central Budapest, where you can find the new Palace of Arts and the new national theater. The quarters between are rundown and pretty boring. And it is not possible to walk by the Danube, so the tram is recommended. The large Central Market Hall is situated here too, but unfortunately we missed to get inside it.

Palace of Arts (Művészetek Palotája) was completed in 2005. It hosts the new Bartók National Concert Hall, Festival Theater and the Ludwig Museum, a museum for modern art. We visited the Ludwig museum and watched some modern art by artists as Andy Warhol.

It covers a ground area of 10,000 m²

The new National Theatre opened in 2002 and has a stunning architecture, both loved and hated.

The backside of the new National Theatre. It is situated right next to the Palace of Arts.

Classical elements are integrated in the postmodern building, such as Greek marble statues and hanging gardens.The building reminds me of some casinos in Las Vegas, especially Caesars Palace.

Looking towards Buda. The bridge is part of the theater complex.

A modern office building that is bordering the theater complex.

'

A memorial of the old national theatre in front of the new theatre.

The gate to the theater.

One of the edges of the pound is shaped like a ship.

Note the man with the 2 bags to the right in the path, he is not real!

View towards the green Liberty Bridge (Szabadság hid) and the Freedom statue on the Buda side.