Széchenyi Lánchíd (Chain Bridge)

Széchenyi Lánchíd (Chain Bridge) Review

This is the oldest and most beautiful of the seven road bridges that span the Danube in Budapest. When lit up at night, it captures Budapest's radiance as do few other scenes. Before it was built, the river could be crossed only by ferry or by a pontoon bridge that had to be removed when ice blocks began floating downstream in winter. It was constructed at the initiative of the great Hungarian reformer and philanthropist Count István Széchenyi, using an 1839 design by the English civil engineer William Tierney Clark. This classical, almost poetically graceful and symmetrical suspension bridge was finished by the Scotsman Adam Clark (no relation to William Tierney Clark), who also built the 383-yard tunnel under Castle Hill, thus connecting the Danube quay with the rest of Buda.

After it was destroyed by the Nazis, the bridge was rebuilt in its original form (though widened for traffic) and was reopened in 1949, on the centenary of its inauguration. At the Buda end of the Chain Bridge is Clark Ádám tér (Adam Clark Square), where you can zip up to Castle Hill on the Sikló funicular.