19 Best Sights in Budapest, Hungary

This fascinating complex comprises the reconstructed, extremely evocative remains of a Roman settlement dating from the first century AD. Careful excavations have unearthed a varied selection of artifacts and mosaics, providing a tantalizing inkling of what life was like in the provinces of the Roman Empire. A gymnasium and a central heating system have been unearthed, along with the ruins of two baths and a shrine once operated by the mysterious cult of Mithras. The Aquincum múzeum (Aquincum Museum) displays the dig's most notable finds: ceramics; a red-marble sarcophagus showing a triton and flying Eros on one side and on the other, Telesphorus, the angel of death, depicted as a hooded dwarf; and jewelry from a Roman lady's tomb. There are reconstructed Roman board games, interactive video games, and a reconstruction of an ancient Roman musical organ in the basement level. The museum also manages the Thermae Maiores or 'Great Bath' complex as part of the Roman Baths Museum, an ancient spa now incongruously located in a pedestrian underpass by Flórián tér station. It's free to visit.

At the foot of Gellért Hill, the gorgeous Gellért Baths has beauty and history in spades, with hot springs that have supplied curative baths for nearly 2,000 years. The entrance to the spa is on a side street to the right of the palatial Danubius Hotel Gellért, although the pair are no longer run by the same company. These baths are unsurprisingly popular among tourists so you will want to book ahead online. Budapest's baths, once segregated, are now primarily co-ed (with special hours for segregated bathing for some baths), and it's the same story here. Men and women can now use all steam and sauna rooms as well as both the indoor pool and the outdoor wave pool—a Jazz Age classic that claims to be one of the first wave pools in the world—at the same time. Come for the lovely tiles, architecture, and painted glass, and stay for the range of treatments (some of which require a doctor's prescription).

On the 60th anniversary of the closing off of Budapest's Jewish ghetto, April 15, 2004, Hungary's first major center for Holocaust research and exhibits opened in the presence of Hungarian statesmen and the Israeli president. The stone facade of this one-time synagogue is an eerily high, windowless wall; the entrance comprises two tall, massive iron doors. Just inside the courtyard is a black wall bearing the names of all known Hungarian victims of the Holocaust, including both Jews and many Roma (Gypsies). From there you go downstairs into a cellar, where you proceed through a compelling and haunting blend of family and individual stories told through photos, films, original documents, personal objects, and touch-screen computers (with all text also in English). You are taken from 1938, when the Hungarian state first began depriving Jews and others of their rights; to 1944, by which time these people were being systematically deprived of their freedom and their lives; to liberation in 1945.

On reaching the final space, a small synagogue, you can still hear the wedding music from the first rooms: a poignant reminder of the pre-Holocaust era. Unlike the Terror háza (House of Terror), which honors victims of both Nazism and communism, nothing at all about this feels forced. It is just right. This is a moving and dignified testament to genocide.

The permanent collection here takes you on a stimulating journey into the everyday Hungarian experience, from the recent to the more distant past. Among the highlights are the 20th-century exhibit, including an early movie theater replete with films of the era, an old schoolroom, a 1960s apartment interior, and a host of historical posters—all of which brings you right up to the end of communism and the much-celebrated exodus of Russian troops. Older attractions including masterworks of cabinetmaking and woodcarving (e.g., church pews from Nyírbátor and Transylvania); a piano that belonged to both Beethoven and Liszt; and goldsmithing treasures. The museum often hosts interesting temporary installations as well, such as the World Press Photo exhibition housed here every fall.

This bath on the riverbank boasts perhaps the most damatically beautiful interior of all of Budapest's baths, with the original Turkish pool the star of the show. A high, domed roof admits pinpricks of bluish-green light into the dark, circular stone hall with its austere columns and arches. The central octagonal pool catches the light from the glass-tiled cupola and casts it around the surrounding six pools, capturing the feeling of an ancient Turkish hammam. The Rudas's highly fluoridated waters have been known for 1,000 years---and the baths themselves date back to the 16th century. The baths vary in temperature from 16 to 42 degrees Celsius, and you can also drink the water from three springs in the 'drinking hall'. The thermal part is open by day Monday and Wednesday to Friday to men only, Tuesday to women only, and weekends to both sexes. A less interesting outer swimming pool is also co-ed. A 20-minute massage costs 7000 HUF. Soak after-hours here on Friday and Saturday nights from 10 pm to 4 am.

Handsome and massive, this is one of the chief landmarks of Pest and the city's largest church—it can hold 8,500 people. Its very Holy Roman front porch greets you with a tympanum bustling with statuary. The basilica's dome and the dome of Parliament are by far the most visible in the Pest skyline, and this is no accident: with the Magyar Millennium of 1896 in mind (the lavishly celebrated thousandth anniversary of the settling of the Carpathian Basin in 896), both domes were planned to be 315 feet high and to this day city codes specify that no downtown Pest building may exceed this height.

The millennium was not yet in sight when architect József Hild began building the basilica in neoclassical style in 1851, two years after the revolution was suppressed. After Hild's death, the project was taken over in 1867 by Miklós Ybl, the architect who did the most to transform modern Pest into a monumental metropolis. Wherever he could, Ybl shifted Hild's motifs toward the neo-Renaissance mode that Ybl favored. When the dome collapsed, partly damaging the walls, he made even more drastic changes. Ybl died in 1891, five years before the 1,000-year celebration, and the basilica was completed in neo-Renaissance style by József Kauser—but not until 1905.

Below the cupola is a rich collection of late-19th-century Hungarian art: mosaics, altarpieces, and statuary (what heady days the Magyar Millennium must have meant for local talents). There are 150 kinds of marble, all from Hungary except for the Carrara in the sanctuary's centerpiece: a white statue of King (St.) Stephen I, Hungary's first king and patron saint. Stephen's mummified right hand is preserved as a relic in the Szent Jobb Kápolna (Holy Right Chapel); press a button and it will be illuminated for two minutes. You can also climb the 364 stairs (or take the elevator) to the top of the cupola for a spectacular view of the city. Extensive renovation work here has, among other things, returned the cathedral from a sooty gray to an almost bright tan. Small-group guided tours in English are offered between 9:30 and 3, but must be reserved in advance.

Just below the southern edge of the Citadella and visible from many parts of the city, the 130-foot-high Szabadság szobor (Liberty Statue) was originally planned as a memorial to a son of Hungary's then-ruler, Miklós Horthy, whose warplane had crashed in 1942. However, by the time of its completion in 1947 (three years after Horthy was ousted), it had become a memorial to the Russian soldiers who fell in the 1944–45 siege of Budapest; and hence for decades it was associated chiefly with this.

A young girl, her hair and robe swirling in the wind, holds a palm branch high above her head. During much of the communist era, and for a couple of years after its close, she was further embellished with sculptures of giants slaying dragons, Red Army soldiers, and peasants rejoicing at the freedom that Soviet liberation promised (but failed) to bring to Hungary. Since 1992 her mood has lightened: in the Budapest city government's systematic purging of communist symbols, the Red Combat infantrymen who had flanked the Liberty Statue for decades were hacked off and carted away. A few are now on display among the other evicted statues in Szobor Park in the city's 22nd district, and what remains memorializes those who fought for Hungary's freedom.

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Calvin Square takes its name from the neoclassical Hungarian Reformed (Calvinist) church that tries to dominate this busy traffic hub; this is a hard task, what with the dull-as-can-be glass facade of the Kálvin Center office building across the square. The Kecskeméti Kapu, a main gate of Pest, once stood here, as well as a cattle market that was a notorious den of thieves. At the beginning of the 19th century this was where Pest ended and the prairie began.

The grandiose, imperial-looking station was built in 1884 and was considered Europe's most modern until well into the 20th century. Its neo-Renaissance facade, which resembles a gateway, is flanked by statues of two British inventors and railway pioneers, James Watt and George Stephenson.

The neighborhood to the south of Széchenyi István tér has regained much of its past elegance—if not its architectural grandeur—with the erection of several luxury hotels. Traversing past and continuing well beyond them is the riverside korzó, a pedestrian promenade lined with park benches and appealing outdoor cafés from which one can enjoy postcard-perfect views of Gellért Hill and Castle Hill directly across the Danube. Try to take a stroll in the evening, when the views are lit up in shimmering gold lights.

At the southern end of Margaret Island, the Margaret Bridge is the closer of the two island entrances for those coming from downtown Buda or Pest. Just north of the Chain Bridge, the bridge walkway provides gorgeous midriver views of Castle Hill and Parliament. The original bridge was built during the 1840s by French engineer Ernest Gouin in collaboration with Gustave Eiffel. Toward the end of 1944, the bridge was blown up by the retreating Nazis while crowded with rush-hour traffic. It was rebuilt in the same unusual shape—forming an obtuse angle in midstream, with a short leg leading down to the island—and has been refurbished in recent years, now sporting a bike path on the north-facing side that pedestrians, joggers, and bicyclists all share on their way to the island.

After the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Hungarians were understandably keen to rid Budapest of the symbols of Soviet domination. The communist memorials—including huge statues of Lenin, Marx, and Hungarian puppet prime minister János Kádár—that once dotted Budapest's streets and squares have been moved to this open-air "Disneyland of Communism." Somewhat tacky but amusing souvenirs are for sale, and songs from the Hungarian and Russian workers' movements play on a tiny speaker system. To get there, take the recently completed Metro 4 to Kelenföld vasútállomás (Kelenföld train depot) then, from the adjoining bus depot, catch the 101 or 150 bus in the direction of Budatétény vasútállomás (Campona). It’s best to tell the driver when you get on that you want to get off at Memento Park. The park also operates its own bus from Deak tér daily at 11 am. There is a guided tour in English at 11:40 am daily during peak season; call ahead to confirm. You can also schedule a guide in advance for an additional fee (15,240 HUF).

Seating 3,000, Europe's largest synagogue was designed by Ludwig Förs and built between 1844 and 1859 in a Byzantine-Moorish style described as "consciously archaic Romantic-Eastern." Desecrated by German and Hungarian Nazis, it was painstakingly reconstructed with donations from all over the world; its doors reopened in the fall of 1996. While used for regular services during much of the year, it is generally not used in midwinter, as the space is too large to heat; between December and February, visiting hours are erratic (so call ahead).

In the courtyard behind the synagogue a weeping willow made of metal honors the victims of the Holocaust. Liszt and Saint-Saëns are among the great musicians who played the synagogue's grand organ. A museum upstairs displays items from Hungarian Jewish religious life.

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Immediately north of Erzsébet híd (Elizabeth Bridge) is Budapest's best-known shopping street and most unabashed tourist zone, Váci utca, a pedestrian precinct with electric 19th-century lampposts and smart shops with credit-card emblems on ornate doorways. No bargain basement, Váci utca gets its special flavor from the mix of native furriers, tailors, designers, folk-craft shops, china shops, bookstores, and internationally known boutiques. On Régi Posta utca, just off Váci utca, you'll find Hungary's first McDonald's, which opened in 1988. Váci utca's second half, south of Kossuth Lajos utca, was transformed into another pedestrian-only zone in the 1990s. On both halves of Váci utca, beware of inflated prices and pickpockets. With it's high end retail shops, "Fashion Street," between Vörösmarty tér and Deák tér, now competes with Váci for shoppers' attention.

Downtown revitalization since the early 1990s has decentralized things somewhat, but this large, handsome square at the northern end of Váci utca is still the heart of Pest's tourist life in many respects. Street musicians, sidewalk cafés, and ice-cream-toting tourists make this one of the liveliest places in Budapest and a good spot to take it all in. At its center is a white-marble statue of the 19th-century poet and dramatist Mihály Vörösmarty, and nearby is an elegant former pissoir—today a lovely kiosk displaying gold-painted historic scenes of the square's golden days. Stores and businesses occupy the perimeter, and as of this writing a grand new "multifunctional" building was rising on the square' west side. In June the square plays host to Budapest's annual "Book Week" and in the run-up to Christmas it is awash with gift stands selling handmade, traditional crafts items.

Weather-beaten but beautifully baroque with a pleasingly pink second-floor facade, the 18th century Zichy Mansion is deep in a courtyard at the exalted if neglected-looking address of Fő tér 1. A little cluster of museums in this historic spot make it a de facto cultural center. Permanent exhibitions at the cheerful Óbudai Múzeum include a popular tribute to toys, as well as an immersive tour through Óbuda's history. The mansion is also home to the Kassák Múzeum, which honors the literary and artistic works of a pioneer of the Hungarian avant-garde, Lajos Kassák. Completing the trio, the Vasarely Múzeum is a rambunctious collection of the work of the grandfather of 'op art', Victor Vasarely, who pioneered the funky, geometric patterns that trick the eyes and raise the spirits. The museums host gallery talks and other cultural programs.

Keep an eye out in the adjacent square, Szentlélek tér, for a group of sculptures by Imre Varga, one of Hungary's leading sculptors. If the group of slightly concerned-looking women with umbrellas whets your appetite, the Imre Varga Collection is just behind the square.