Budapest Photos

The Hall is 44 meters wide, 188 meters long and 31.5 meters high- quite impressive.

Built under the egis of historic eclecticism, its style is Renaissant, and was opened in 1884. Cast iron ornaments, inside works of famous painters embellish this monument. You will find the statue of Gábor Baross, former minister of transport, in front of the building. Actually, It’s been there since 1898. Today, the space around most of the station is in a hectic state due to the construction works of the new metro line 4.

Central Market Hall (Great Market Hall, or Nagycsarnok in Hungarian) is a monument building in Vámház körút, and this is the biggest market hall in the city.

The floorspace of the building is about 10 000 m2. It was built at the end of the 19th century at the bank of the Danube. At the time, the scows packed with goods swam right under the market place through underground channels. It was built together with the neighboring University of Economics based on the plans of Samu Pecz professor at the university,, and was finished in 1897. It is covered by quite a huge iron roof, which is covered by the colored tiles from the famous Zsolnay factory in Pécs. The building itself is one of the most beautiful examples of historical brick architecture in Hungary, and following its reconstruction it won the most eminent international prize in architecture, the FIABCI Prix d’Excellence in 1999. The market hall offers the most inviting goods and the biggest selection, starting from fresh vegetables through meats to spices and real home-made dried pasta. In addition, there are various programs, such as weeks of different nationalities when their products gain emphasis and you can see singers, dancers and other related programs as well in the course of your shopping on a Saturday morning here.

Liberty Square is located downtown, district V Lipótváros, in the the business district.

This is one of the most beautiful squares in Budapest: whichever direction you look from this multiple-angled square, you will see magnificent buildings, most of which are freshly renovated or cleaned. At the roof level there are sculptures, nicely decorated facades, on the pavement level there are police wardens and running-by dogs and a playground, below there is a four-level carpark. The latest installment at the square are an interactive fountain and a statue of Ronald Reagan erected in 2011. The interactive fountain is extremely popular: one can walk in its flat square-shaped territory and the water jets up when stepping off certain stones and stops when stepping on them.

The funicular of Castle Hill is a special railway in the 1st district of Budapest, one of the ways to get to the Castle.

A major part of the Danube vista in Budapest, it is listed on UNESCO world heritage. The bottom terminal is right at the Buda end of Széchenyi Chain Bridge, next to the Tunnel, while the upper terminal is between the Castle and Sándor Palace. The first inclined railway was built in 1862 in Lyon, and the one in Buda was built based on this model only eight years later. The tracks are 95 meters long and the total difference in levels is 50 meters. The Budavári Funicular was first operated by steam engines, and after recovering damages suffered during World War II, it re-opened in 1986, now operated by electricity.

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.