Castle Hill
 Castle
Hill is the premier destination for visitors and contains many of Budapest's
most important monuments and museums, and grand views of Pest across the
snaking Danube. The walled area consists of two distinct parts: the Old Town
where commoners lived in the Middle Ages, and the Royal Palace.
Stroll around the medieval streets of the Old Town and and take in the
odd museum or take a brief tour in one of the horse-drawn hackney cabs if
you're leg weary. The Old Town is filled with attractively painted houses,
decorative churches and the famous Fishermen's Bastion. The latter was built
as a viewing platform in 1905, named after the guild of fishermen
responsible for defending this stretch of wall in the Middle Ages. It has
commanding views over the city, and is dominated by seven gleaming turrets
(representing the seven Magyar tribes who entered the Carpathian Basin in
the 9th century) and a statue of St Stephen on horseback.
City Park
 City Park, in Pest's northeastern reaches,
makes a welcome break from the built-up inner-city area. The entrance to
City Park is Heroes' Square, which has the nation's most solemn monument -
an empty coffin representing one of the unknown insurgents from the 1956
Uprising - beneath a stone tile.
Check out the inspirational Millenary Monument, a 36m (120ft) pillar
backed by colonnades. To the north of the square is the Museum of Fine Arts,
which houses the city's outstanding foreign works (especially the Old
Masters collection), while to the south is the ornate Palace of Art.
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Gellért Hill
 Another
hill, another climb: however the panoramic views of the Royal Palace, the
Danube and its bridges are well worth the effort. At the top of Gellért Hill
is the Citadella, a fortress of sorts, and the Independence Monument,
Budapest's unofficial symbol. Below Gellért Hill lies a gush of hot springs.
The Gellért Hotel on Kelenhegyi út is a kind of Art Nouveau palace and the
city's favourite old-world hotel. It has an impressive spa open to the
public; it's like taking a soak in a cathedral. A few minutes northeast of
Elizabeth Bridge are the Rudas baths, with an octagonal pool, domed cupola,
coloured glass and massive columns, but it is restricted to males only.
Király Baths
 Budapest
rests on a network of warm thermal and cool mineral springs. As a result,
communal bathhouses, pools and spas are a house speciality. They are truly
relaxing and are the perfect salve after a day spent exploring the city on
weary feet; for many visitors the bathhouses rate among the city's greatest
delights. They're clean, safe and cheap. Some are architectural attractions
in their own right; in between Margaret Island and the Castle District,
along the Danube on the Buda bank, are the Király baths on Fő utca. It has
four pools, the main one with a fantastic skylit dome dating back to 1570.
It should be noted that the baths become a gay venue on male-only days.
Magyar Állami Operaház (Opera House)
 Take
some time to ogle the opulence of the 1884 neo-Renaissance Magyar Állami
Operaház (the Hungarian State Opera House) - arguably one of Europe's most
beautiful interiors. It's worth taking a guided tour just so you don't find
yourself distracted by the architecture during a performance.
Royal Palace
The Royal Palace has been burned, bombed, razed, rebuilt and redesigned
at least six times over the past seven centuries. It's now an 18th- & early
20th-century amalgam reconstructed after the last war. Take a majestic walk
through Ferdinand Gate, under Mace Tower, to the Turkish cemetery or relax
in the palace gardens behind the Budapest History museum.
 The
palace houses the impressive Hungarian National Gallery (with a huge
Hungarian art section), the Széchenyi National Library & the Budapest
History Museum.
Visiting the Palace should begin with a look at the exterior of the palace.
The main façade overlooking the Danube is 304 meters (334 yds.) long, with
columns arranged symmetrically, in Baroque style on both sides of the dome.
In front of the central part of the building there is a statue of Prince
Eugene of Savoy who was one of the leaders of the armies that liberated Buda
Castle in 1686. The statue at the gate of the palace garden represents the
Turul, the mythic bird of the ancient Magyars. The neo-Baroque groups of
buildings towards the south and north are simpler in style. The
fortifications of the palace date from the Middle Ages. To the south, facing
Gellért Hill, the large Round Bastion, 40 meters (44 yds.) in diameter, and
the Gate Tower with its tent roof, dominate the scene. In front of the Round
Bastion on the slope of the hill a group of excavated Turkish tombstones
presents an interesting sight. Passing through the Baroque gate cut in the
outer wall we reach the walls and passages of the fortifications. |
Grand City Sightseeing Tour of Budapest