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Design terminal or DT for short, opened up in 2011 after many a halt.

The monumental building is located at Erzsébet Square, and a restaurant as well as a design shop is planned to be built next to it. The rooms and halls on the upper floors are suitable for housing conferences and exhibitions. DT has become a collector of contemporary design, urbanistics and civil projects. From time to time, the place hosts exciting exhibitions, one should pop in on a regular basis to check what’s going on in there. The Terminal considers it its major role to foster design in Hungary, to support young homeland designers and pulling the profession together. Conferences and seminars will be organized so that the fledging designers be equipped with sufficient legal and entrepreneurial knowledge and thus stand a better chance at domestic and international contests.

The National Theatre, which is located next to Müpa, was built under a record short period, in fifteen months.

It is surrounded by leafy spaces, which are coherent parts of the building with their peculiar microclimate. The floorspace of the theatre – including the outdoor stage- is 20 844 m2. The park on the river bank has a trimmed labyrinth hedge. There is also a zikkurat, reminiscent of the Tower of Babel or the Maya Sun-pyramids. The road drawing a spiral going upwards leads to a pair of royal thrones at the top. Inside the theatre, blue, old gold and dark bronze are the prevailing colors. The architects used natural materials wherever they could: lime stone, granite, wood, woollen and glass.

The Palace of Arts (Művészetek Palotája, or MÜPA for short) is a unique institute in Central Europe: you will find in the region no other building that is so sophisticated and comprises of such manifold cultural functions.

A new cultural European centre was envisioned and finally took shape on the banks of the Danube, part of the UNESCO World Heritage, which is capable of housing a great variety of arts. The group of buildings consists of three main parts: Bartók Béla National Concert Hall in the centre, Ludwig Museum (LUMU) closer to the Danube, and Festival Theatre on the other side. What programs are on the palette? Classical and popular music, world music, jazz, opera, theatre, movie theatre, dance, exhibition, family and youth programs. The building is dressed in special lighting in the evenings. All in all, MÜPA was rightly awarded with the Oscar Prize of the architectural world, the “FIABCI Prix d’Excellence 2006”.

Sándor-palota, located at Szent György Square in the Buda castle district, was built in 1806 in classicist style.

It is doubtful whether it was build based on the plans by the Hungarian architect Mihály Pollack or Johann Aman from Vienna. It was named after the Sándor Earls who owned and lived in it. After 1867 (the year of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise) Earl Andrássy (a famous statesman) chose the abandoned palace as the seat of the prime minister, and it went on to be the office of the Hungarian prime minister until the end of World war II. The palace was badly damaged in the war and remained in that poor state for a long time. Its reconstruction began in 1983 and saw the final touches in 2002. It has been the seat of the Office of the President ever since. Palace guards took over the protocollary guarding duties from the Republic Guard Regiment starting from January 1st 2012.

CET (Hungarian word for ‘whale’ referring to the shape of the building) is a cultural and shopping centre under construction in Budapest.

For the time being it is the outer appearance of the building that counts as an attraction but it is definitely worth a visit. Its shape, or rather, its shape differing from the closely neighboring buildings, divides people. It’s been built on the bank of the Danube among the Public Store Houses. It runs parallel with the river and shapes a glass-and-metal whale. Unfortunately its opening has been postponed, yet the place is well-worth a visit: the special contrasting harmony with the adjacent brick buildings is a gem of modern architecture and urban planning in Budapest.

Vörösmarty Square is located in the fifth district. It is quite a popular destination for tourists with its abundant sights in a relatively small area.

It is very close to the famous Váci Street and Vigadó Square on the bank of the Danube. The square was re-arranged in 1989 as well as the surrounding streets were converted into pedestrian streets. This square is the centre of the annual Book Week Festival. This place has been the host of the Christmas fair for over ten years now. There are at least 50 little wooden houses selling all kinds of goods: you can buy handcrafts, folk art goods, but also traditional food and sweets, as well as hot drinks such as mulled wine. A renown sight from older times is the Gerbeaud confectionary. A new attraction of the square is the Glass Palace, a modern building with different functions. Some parts are offices, others are shops, while some parts serve as event venue.

The Parliament had had numerous seats during the past millennium when the idea came in the second half of the 1800’s that it should be moved to Pest-Buda as the city was called at the time.

The tender in 1882 was won by Imre Steindl, whose plan was born under the egis of historic eclectics, with a baroque delineation, baroque measures and neo-Gothic style regarding its details. Its style with its richly ornamented walls covered by decorative stones that form a stone lace when looked at from a distance can be linked to the Gothic Revival started at the 1830’s in England. This was the style in which the Parliament in London was also built. The Hungarian architect was not scared of innovations: He placed a dome in the focus of his creation, an element virtually unknown in Gothic style. The main façade is from the riverside, while the official entrance opens from Kossuth square. There are altogether 242 statues inside and on the building, the walls and ceilings are decorated by frescos and paintings of significant artists. The Holy Crown and the other Crown jewels (except for the royal mantle) are kept and exhibited in the Parliament. Other things to see here:

Decorative staircase hall, dome foyer, Glass paintings and mosaics made by Miksa Róth, and paintings by Hungarian painters. Some impressive numbers: its floorspace is 18 000 m2, it has 27 gates, 29 stairhalls within, 13 elevators, over 200 offices.

The biggest green spot in downtown is Erzsébet tér (Elizabeth Square). It has a classic well – Danubius well – in its centre.

In 1997 the National Theatre was planned to be built here but (preliminary) construction works were stopped in 1998 and the theatre was finally built at a completely different part of the city. The place was used for the construction of an underground parking place and an entertainment facility, the so called Gödör Club (Pit Club) was opened at the spot. Gödör is a central spot for sizzling summer evenings: many come here just to laze the afternoon away, for chatting, cramming for exams, watching people, or at the tables placed on the stairs and in the actual pit listening to concerts and sipping “fröccs”, a typical Hungarian drink made from wine and sparkling water. Behind Gödör there is a skatepark, but you can also find a dog walk and a playground in Erzsébet tér.

Western Railway Station is one of the most frequently used meeting points in Budapest, on the line of tram 4-6, in the vicinity of West End shopping center.

The station building – first called Budapest then Western Railway Station—follows the architectural tradition of the French renaissance as well as that of the contemporary French station architecture. The architecture plans were made by Gustave Eiffel’s office in Paris – which later became famous for the building of the Eiffel Tower. Based on these plans, the building was built between 1874-77. The glass façade looking at the street is its best-known feature, with the typical French railway station pentagon shape. The station connects Budapest with the rest of the country, and also there are direct trains to the Budapest Liszt Ferenc Airport as well.

Margaret island is one of the islands on the River Danube in Budapest, an extremely popular part of the city.

It was named after the daughter of Béla IV of Hungary in the 14th century. It boasts numerous landmarks and other sights: the ruins of a Dominican convent, the grave of St. Margaret, Palatinus water park (the largest open-air swimming complex in Budapest), Alfréd Hajós national swimming stadium, Water Tower, Music Fountain, Music Well, Open air theater, a small Japanese garden, a tiny zoo, two hotels, (open-air) bars and gardens. The island is a major spot for runners with its built running tracks (for the so-called island-rounds). Traffic is limited to a bus-line and taxis, so you could sasy that Margaret island is the biggest park in Budapest. Instead of travelling in a car, you can walk, ride a bike, roller-skate or rent a “bringóhintó” (four-person cycle cars).