Buda's First Permanent Bridge to Pest: A Self-Guided Walking Tour of Budapest, Castle Hill to Parliament

You are standing on Szentháromság tér, Holy Trinity Square, at the top of Castle Hill. In front of you is the west front of Matthias Church, with its tall stone tower on the right and a roof of patterned glazed tiles behind it. Also to your right, on the square, rises a white column crowded with saints and clouds. It is a plague memorial. After the epidemic of 1709, the council of Buda commissioned it from the sculptor Fülöp Ungleich, with reliefs by Antal Hörger, and it was unveiled in June 1713. The church's official name is the Church of Our Lady of Buda Castle. A charter of 1247 already mentions it as under construction. Its everyday name comes from King Matthias Corvinus, who married both of his wives here, in 1463 and in 1476. Charles Robert was crowned here in 1309. On 8 June 1867, after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, Franz Joseph and Elisabeth were crowned King and Queen of Hungary in this church. The last coronation here was in December 1916, of Charles IV and Zita. Buda was under Ottoman rule from 1541 to 1686, and the church served as the main mosque. It became a church again when Habsburg-led Christian armies retook Buda in September 1686. Most of what you see now is the work of the architect Frigyes Schulek. His restoration began in 1873 and gave the church its neo-Gothic look, and it was consecrated again in August 1896. Going inside is ticketed, and opening times change around services and weddings, so check current prices and times at the door. The square is free. When you're ready, walk round the right-hand side of the church, the south side, towards the bronze horseman on the terrace beyond. Our next stop, the Fisherman's Bastion, is about 150 metres away.

You're now in the southern court of the Fisherman's Bastion, beside the bronze equestrian statue of Saint Stephen, Hungary's first king. Beyond the white stone arcades the hill drops away to the Danube, and on the far bank you can pick out the dome of the Parliament, where this walk ends. The bastion looks medieval, but it was built around the turn of the twentieth century and finished in 1902. The architect was Frigyes Schulek, the man who restored Matthias Church behind you. He built these neo-Romanesque terraces on top of a stretch of the old castle wall as a lookout and a setting for the church. They were never meant as a real fortification. Count the pointed towers along the walls and you'll find seven. They stand for the seven Magyar chieftains of Hungarian tradition. The name comes from the fishermen's guild and from Fishtown, the old riverside settlement at the foot of the hill. The guild is said to have defended this part of the wall in the Middle Ages. Saint Stephen's statue is by Alajos Stróbl. He began work on it in 1896 and finished in 1906, and Schulek designed the stone pedestal with its carved reliefs. Behind you, the modern building with long rows of windows is the Hilton hotel. It opened in the 1970s and incorporates the remains of a medieval Dominican church, and people have argued about how it sits next to Schulek's work ever since. You can stay on these lower terraces for free whenever you like. The upper towers are ticketed during the day, so check current prices and hours at the entrance. Now go back past the church and walk south along Tárnok utca, the street leading off the square. Cross Dísz tér and carry on along Színház utca. It's about 650 metres, mostly flat, to Szent György tér.

You've reached Szent György tér, Saint George Square. The white neoclassical building with soldiers at its gates is Sándor Palace, the office of the President of the Republic. The guard at the gates is changed regularly through the day, so you may catch a changeover while you're here. Count Vincent Sándor built the palace in the first years of the nineteenth century, and one pediment carries the date 1806 in Roman numerals. From 1867 Hungary's prime ministers lived and worked here, starting with Gyula Andrássy. The building was wrecked in 1945 and stood as a ruin for decades. It was restored by 2002 and has been the President's office since 2003. Next door, to the north, is the Carmelite, the former Carmelite church and monastery. A medieval Franciscan church on this site was used as a mosque under Ottoman rule. The Carmelites completed their church in 1736. When Emperor Joseph II dissolved the order, the building was turned into the Castle Theatre, which opened in 1787. The first play performed in Hungarian was staged there on 25 October 1790, and Beethoven gave a concert there on 7 May 1800. From 2019 to 2026 the Carmelite was the Prime Minister's office. Since May 2026 it has been open to visitors by registration. On the other side of the square, the large neo-Baroque wing under scaffolding is the north wing of the Royal Palace. It is part of a reconstruction program that was halted for review in September 2026, so expect fences and cranes here for some time. From here, walk towards the river edge of the square. You'll pass a tall pillar topped by a bronze bird with spread wings. That is the Turul, the mythical bird of Hungarian legend, a statue by Gyula Donáth. Go through the ornate Habsburg Gate and down the steps to the terrace below, about 250 metres in all.

You're on the Savoy Terrace, in front of the Danube side of the Royal Palace, beside a bronze rider on a rearing horse. In front of you is the whole river: the Chain Bridge just to your left, the Pest bank opposite, and further to the left, upstream, the Parliament, where we finish. The green-domed building behind you is the palace. Kings of Hungary have had palaces on this hilltop since the thirteenth century. The medieval palace was destroyed in the siege of 1686, when Buda was retaken from the Ottomans. A new Baroque palace went up between 1749 and 1769. At the end of the nineteenth century the architect Alajos Hauszmann enlarged it on a huge scale, and the extended palace was inaugurated in 1912. It was badly damaged in the siege of Budapest in the winter of 1944 to 1945, and under the communist government it was rebuilt in a simpler form. The dome and much of the facade you see date from that rebuilding. The rider is Prince Eugene of Savoy, the Habsburg commander who defeated an Ottoman army at Zenta in 1697. The statue is by József Róna. It was first meant for the town of Zenta itself, which could not afford it, and so it ended up here on the terrace that now carries the prince's name. Today the palace holds museums and the national library, all ticketed if you want to go in later. The terrace and its view across the river are free, and you can stay as long as you like. Take a last look along the river. Now head down to the riverbank. Follow the path and steps through the Castle Garden, signed Király lépcső, down to Clark Ádám tér, the square at the Buda end of the Chain Bridge. It's about 575 metres, all downhill. If you'd rather avoid the steps, the funicular runs down from Szent György tér, and it's ticketed.

You're on Clark Ádám tér, the busy square at the Buda end of the Chain Bridge. In the small green island in front of you stands a large stone zero, a little taller than a person, on a low base. Behind it, the road runs straight into the hill through a tunnel. To one side, two small cars of the funicular climb a steep track up to the palace. The stone zero is the Zero Kilometre Stone, by the sculptor Miklós Borsos, unveiled on 4 April 1975. It marks the symbolic point from which road distances from Budapest are counted. When a Hungarian road sign gives the distance to Budapest, it is measured, in principle, to this spot. The square takes its name from Adam Clark, the Scottish engineer who supervised the building of the Chain Bridge. Hungarians put the family name first, so here he is Clark Ádám. After the bridge he built the tunnel you can see, which takes traffic under Castle Hill to the other side. Digging began on 10 February 1853. People on foot could use it from 1856, and it opened officially on 30 April 1857. The funicular, the Budavári Sikló, opened on 2 March 1870. It was destroyed in the Second World War and did not run again until 4 June 1986. The track is 95 metres long and climbs 51 metres, and a ride takes about a minute and a half. It's ticketed, so check current prices at the lower station if you want to ride up later. Look at the bridge itself as you walk onto it. The two stone towers carry the chains, and the lions at each end have guarded the crossing since 1852. When you're ready, cross to the bridge and walk out along the left-hand footway, the north side, facing upstream. Stop at about the middle of the bridge, some 300 metres from here, where the view opens up to the Parliament.

You're standing near the middle of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, on the upstream side. Below you the Danube runs north to south. Looking upstream, on the Pest bank to your right, the neo-Gothic Parliament stretches along the water. Behind you on the hill are the palace and Matthias Church, where we began. Above your head the iron chains swing down from the stone arches and rise again towards Pest. Before 1849 there was no permanent bridge between Buda and Pest. This one, when it opened that year, was the first permanent bridge across the Danube in Hungary. Count István Széchenyi, the reformer whose name it carries, pushed for it. The English engineer William Tierney Clark designed it, and the Scottish engineer Adam Clark, no relation, supervised the building. Its central span, 202 metres, was one of the largest in the world at the time. On the Pest side a plaque links it to Tierney Clark's other surviving bridge, the smaller suspension bridge over the Thames at Marlow in England. The stone lions at both ends are by János Marschalkó and were put in place in 1852. Budapest children grow up hearing that the lions have no tongues. They do, but you can't see them from the ground. On 18 January 1945, during the siege of Budapest, retreating German troops blew up the bridge, and only the two stone towers were left standing. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1949. Its most recent renovation ran from 2021 to 2023. From here you can see the whole first half of the walk behind you and the second half ahead: the embankment on the Pest side runs north to the Parliament, and that is where we're going. Keep walking towards Pest. Pass the lions at the far end and step into the square straight ahead, Széchenyi István tér. Stop in the park, facing the Art Nouveau building at the head of the bridge. It's about 300 metres.

You're in the park on Széchenyi István tér, at the Pest end of the Chain Bridge. In front of you, facing the bridge, is a long Art Nouveau building with ironwork, mosaics and a tall central gateway. That is Gresham Palace. To the north, at the far end of the park, is the Renaissance-style building of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In front of it stands a statue of Count István Széchenyi. At the southern end of the park is a statue of Ferenc Deák, the statesman behind the 1867 Compromise. Gresham Palace was built between 1904 and 1906 for the Gresham Life Assurance Company of London. The lead architect was Zsigmond Quittner. The company named it after Sir Thomas Gresham, the sixteenth-century English financier who founded the Royal Exchange in London. After the Second World War the Red Army used it as barracks, and later it was split into flats. It reopened as a Four Seasons hotel in 2004. The Academy goes back to 1825. At a session of the Diet that year Széchenyi offered one year's income from his estates to found a learned society for the Hungarian language and the sciences. The building in front of you, by the Berlin architect Friedrich August Stüler, opened in 1865. Széchenyi's statue, by József Engel, was unveiled in 1880, and Deák's in 1887. The square's names tell its history. It became Franz Joseph Square in 1867, the year of the coronation. In 1946 it was renamed Roosevelt Square, and since 2011 it has carried Széchenyi's name. Our next stop is a Holocaust memorial on the riverbank. Walk north along the embankment with the river on your left. At a pedestrian crossing, cross the road and the tracks of tram 2, watching for trams, to reach the lower quay. The memorial is on the edge of the quay, about 525 metres from here.

You're on the lower quay, at a long, low stone bench. Along the edge of the embankment in front of it stand sixty pairs of shoes cast in iron: men's work boots, women's shoes with heels, and small children's shoes, some upright and some fallen over. At three points along the bench are cast-iron signs. They read, in Hungarian, English and Hebrew: “To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944–45.” The memorial was conceived by the film director Can Togay and made with the sculptor Gyula Pauer. It was unveiled on 16 April 2005. Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944. That spring and summer, Jews from the Hungarian provinces were deported to Auschwitz in mass transports, with the help of the Hungarian authorities. In October 1944 the Arrow Cross Party took power in Budapest. Through the winter of 1944 to 1945, Hungarian Arrow Cross militiamen killed Jews across the city. Many people were brought to the Danube embankment, made to take off their shoes, and shot so that the river carried their bodies away. The memorial stands for the whole embankment, not for a single spot. Some people were saved. On the night of 8 January 1945, Károly Szabó, who worked for the Swedish legation, arrived with armed police and led a group of people from a Swedish-protected house back from the riverbank. Yad Vashem has recognised him, and the police officer Pál Szalai, who also helped, as Righteous Among the Nations. Visitors often leave flowers and candles inside the shoes. Please don't stand in or among them. If you'd like a few minutes here in quiet, pause the audio now and start it again when you're ready. When you're ready, carry on north along the quay with the river on your left. Follow it round the southern end of the Parliament to the big square on its far side, about 480 metres.

You're on Kossuth Square, facing the east front of the Hungarian Parliament. The main entrance, with a lion on each side of its staircase, is in front of you. Above the long rows of pointed windows and pinnacles rises the dome. It is 96 metres high, a figure chosen to recall the year 896. Hungary celebrated the thousandth anniversary of that year in 1896. Budapest became one city in 1873, and a few years later parliament decided to build itself a new home facing the Danube. The architect Imre Steindl won the competition with a neo-Gothic design that owes a good deal to the Houses of Parliament in London. Building began in 1885. The Parliament was inaugurated in 1896, the keys were handed over in 1902, and the work was finished around 1904. Steindl did not live to see it complete. The building is 268 metres long, and since 2000 the Holy Crown of Hungary has been displayed in the hall under the dome. Visits are by timed guided tour from the Visitor Centre beneath the north end of the square. They're ticketed, so check current prices and book ahead if you can. Two dates belong to this square in particular. On 23 October 1989, Mátyás Szűrös proclaimed the Republic of Hungary from the balcony facing it. On 25 October 1956, during the revolution, troops opened fire on unarmed demonstrators on this square. Who fired first, and how many were killed, has never been settled. The memorial below the square shows 300 symbolic grave markers, 71 with names. Its entrance is at the south end of the square, near the equestrian statue of Ferenc Rákóczi II. This is the end of our walk. We've come about 3.2 kilometres from Matthias Church. The M2 metro and tram 2 both stop at Kossuth Lajos tér, at the south end of the square.