Insight Guides Pocket Budapest

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight Guides
• ISBN:
  9781786718631
• Topic: Crescita personale
• Subtopic: Viaggi

Insight Pocket Guides: ideal itineraries and top travel tips in a pocket-sized package. Now with free eBook, and a pull-out map.

Compact, concise and packed with essential information about Where to Go and What Do, this is an ideal on-the-move companion when you're exploring Budapest
Covers Top Ten Attractions, including Parliament, the Royal Palace and the Szchenyi Baths, and Perfect Day itinerary suggestions
Offers an insightful overview of landscape, history and culture
Contains an invaluable pull-out map, and essential practical information on everything from Eating Out to Getting Around
Includes an innovative extra that's unique in the market - all Insight Pocket Guides come with a free eBook
Inspirational colour photography throughout
Sharp design and colour-coded sections make for an engaging reading experience

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides has over 40 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture together create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

Where To Go

Getting around Budapest should not be a problem, as the majority of sights are clustered in the central areas. Castle Hill is well set up for walking, as are many of the wide city boulevards such as Andrássy út and the pedestrianised Váci utca. Most parts of town are served by the metro (subway), or by buses, trolley-buses, trams and the HÉV suburban railways.

Hungary’s vast Parliament exhibits the crown jewels of St Stephen, the country’s founder

iStock

For the most part, this section of the guide follows the natural layout of the city, starting on the western bank with Buda, Óbuda (Old Buda, just north of Buda) and the Buda Hills (further northwest), then crossing the Danube to Pest, on the eastern bank. Then there is Margaret Island, which divides the Danube, excursions in the city suburbs and trips further afield.

Buda’s Castle Hill and Old Town

The best place to begin a city tour is Castle Hill 1 [map] (Varhegy – hegy means hill), a steep limestone outcrop that rises some 50–60 metres (165–200ft) above the Danube. Castle Hill overlooks Pest from a long, narrow plateau divided into two sections. The southern part is occupied by the enormous former Royal Palace (where the original castle once stood), while the northern district consists of the Vár, or Old Town. This part of Budapest has seen waves of destruction from invaders over the years, from Turks and Habsburgs to the Nazis and the Soviets, and many of its sites have been rebuilt more than once. Nowadays, however, the only invaders are tourists, who come to admire the picturesque, historic streets of an area that has been protected as a World Heritage Site since 1988.

Impotent pigeons

You might notice that pigeons are somewhat less common in Budapest public squares than in other cities. It is rumoured that the city authorities have contraceptive pills ground up in the bird food.

There are various ways of getting up to Castle Hill. The most popular method is aboard the 19th-century funicular (sikló; daily 7:30am–10pm), which begins just beyond the end of the Chain Bridge and rises to the Royal Palace. As you approach the sikló terminus, notice the strange, oval-shaped structure beside the path. This is not a modern art installation, but the kilometre stone, from which all distances in Hungary are measured.

If you don’t want to use the funicular, there are alternatives, including the bus service (Várbusz) that goes up Castle Hill on its way between Széll Kálmán tér (Moszkva tér from 1951 to 2011) to the west and Deák Ferenc tér on the other side of the river in central Pest. You can also go up the hill on foot, but cars are generally not allowed unless you are staying at the Hilton.

The Royal Palace

Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications

The Royal Palace

The Royal Palace 2 [map] (Budavári palota), which dominates Castle Hill’s southern skyline, is to the left as you emerge from the funicular. Begun in the 13th century as Buda Castle (Budai Vár), the palace reached its zenith in the 1400s under King Mátyás, when it was considered the equal of any Renaissance palace in Europe. By the 16th century, sturdy ramparts had been erected for defence. The Turks took Buda by trickery, not by siege, but under the Ottoman Empire the palace fell into disrepair. The siege of 1686 saw it recaptured and placed under Habsburg rule, but the castle was almost wholly demolished, and the area became a backwater.

Turul birds

Turul birds are mythical eagles, sometimes shown carrying the flaming sword of God. They are a powerful symbol to Hungarians. The bird is said to have sired both Attila the Hun and Almos, father of Árpád, who led the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century. The link with Attila gave Árpád the right to reconquer his lands. The best-known example of a turul is probably the one at Szent Gyórgy tér, next to the upper terminal of the Budavári Sikló (funicular). You can spot four more on top of the Liberty Bridge.

In the 18th century, the baroque town developed, and after the War of Hungarian Independence in 1849, the new government established its administrative centre in the castle district. After World War I, the country’s regent, Miklós Horthy, had the run of the palace. When his reign came to an end during the next war, the German forces took over, and made the palace their headquarters during their final stand in 1945. It therefore became the target for devastating Soviet shelling from across the river. During the communist era that followed, the palace has been rebuilt – mostly in the 1950s and 1960s – to house some of Hungary’s most important museums.

If you are climbing Castle Hill, the best approach to the palace is from the steps at the southern tip of the hill beside the Semmelweis Medical History Museum (for more information, click here). The stone path climbs through gardens to the rear entrance of the castle and the only surviving turreted tower, the Buzogány (Mace) Tower. Steps lead up through the castle gardens to the entrance of the Museum of Budapest History (Budapesti Történeti Múzeum; www.btm.hu; Mar–Oct daily 10am–6pm, Nov–Feb daily 10am–4pm) in Wing E of the Royal Palace. The museum charts the development of the city from the 5th century onwards.

St Martin and the Beggar at the Hungarian National Gallery

Getty Images

Hungarian National Gallery

The palace and its collections are vast, and too extensive to see in a single day. Wings B, C and D house the Hungarian National Gallery 3 [map] (Magyar Nemzeti Galéria; www.mng.hu; Tue–Sun 10am–6pm), which has fine collections of medieval and Gothic art as well as displays of Hungarian Impressionism and 20th-century works (Wings C and D). Several rooms on the first floor are dedicated to Mihály Munkácsy, a 19th-century painter who became famous in Paris. His pictures are dark and gloomy in theme and became literally more dark and gloomy as a result of the bitumen he mixed with his paint. Look out also for the works of Hungarian painters József Rippl-Rónai and Károly Lotz, as well as János Vaszary’s pivotal Golden Age and the odd but striking works of Tivadar Kosztka Csontváry.

The Ludwig Collection

Anybody interested in contemporary art should head for the Ludwig Collection – Museum of Contemporary Art (Kortárs Művészeti Múzeum; www.ludwigmuseum.hu; permanent exhibition Tue–Sun 10am–6pm, temporary exhibitions until 8pm) in the Palace of Arts (Művészetek Palotája) on the east bank of the Danube to the south of the Belvaros near the Lágymányosi Bridge, in Komor Marcell utca 1. Established in 1991 by Peter and Irene Ludwig, a German couple with collections in Aachen, Cologne and Vienna, it includes works by leading members of the American Pop Art movement – Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg. The Ludwigs also amassed a huge collection of works by Picasso; several are exhibited here.

The southern palace courtyard includes Wing F, which houses the two million volumes of the Széchenyi National Library (Széchenyi könyvtár Bibliothek; www.oszk.hu).

Mátyás Church

The Old Town essentially consists of four parallel streets, packed with colourful houses, historic m...