27 Best Sights in Budapest, Hungary

The city’s premier market hall, with a stunning gilded exterior, is a treasure chest of Hungarian produce and foodstuffs. This is the oldest (over 125 years) and largest market in town, and a great place to wander and sample specialties like Mangalica ham (Hungarian white swine), Szarvaskolbász (deer sausage), Kovászos uborka (fermented cucumber), and a variety of local handmade cheeses, honeys, Hungarian paprika, and other delectables. Follow your nose upstairs to its market eateries for lángos, a Hungarian deep-fried flatbread, and peach strudel from the popular rétes stand. You can stock your suitcase with vacuum-packed products, and look for additional souvenirs on the second floor, where you'll find a mix of lovely and kitsch Hungarian handicrafts, hand-carved chess sets, and Rubik's Cubes.

Beside the City Park’s lake stands Vajdahunyad Vár, a fantastic medley of Hungary’s historic and architectural past, starting with the Romanesque gateway of the cloister of Ják, in western Hungary. A Gothic castle whose Transylvanian turrets, Renaissance loggia, baroque portico, and Byzantine decorations are all guarded by a spooky bronze statue of the anonymous medieval “chronicler,” who was the first recorder of Hungarian history. Designed for the millennial celebration in 1896, the permanent structure was not completed until 1908. This hodgepodge houses the surprisingly interesting Mezogazdasági Múzeum (Agricultural Museum), which touts itself as Europe’s largest such museum and offers regular arts and crafts events for kids. Plan ahead for tickets to the Vajdahunyad Castle Summer Music Festival featuring some of Hungary's most popular musicians. If time permits, stroll around the castle to spot the Mermaid fountain and the bust of legendary Hollywood B-movie actor and Hungarian-American Béla Lugosi that was placed in an alcove along the southeast corner in 2003; its origins remain a mystery today.

Turn-of-the-century Andrássy út links Erzsébet Square with the Városliget and makes for one of Budapest's most pleasant walks, with lots of places to stop along the way. Modeled after Paris' Champs-Élysées, from its starting point at Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út, you can see all the way up to its end at Hősök tere. Lined with spectacular neo-Renaissance mansions and town houses featuring fine facades and interiors, but also shady green trees, it was recognized as a World Heritage Site in 2002. Today, it’s a high-end promenade filled with cafés and restaurants, embassies, and hotels. It's no accident that the city's oldest metro line goes all the way up it, with direct stops at the Opera House and other significant sites in its vicinity.

This lovely square (well, triangle) at the northwestern end of Castle Hill is home to some fine baroque and rococo houses. It's dominated by the enormous neo-Romanesque headquarters of the Országos Levéltár (Hungarian National Archives), a cathedral-like shrine to paperwork built in the 1910s, but there are other gems here, too: check out the house at number eight, with its pink-and-white striped facade and unusual curved windows. Nearby is the medieval stone gateway (rebuilt in 1936) that marks the northern entrance to Castle Hill, and after which the square is named. Literally translated as "Vienna Gate," the archway once sat at the end of a highway that connected Buda Castle to the Austrian capital.

Carl Lutz, a Swiss diplomat, is renowned for saving over 60,000 Jews during WWII. Leveraging his diplomatic status, he issued critical documents, established safe houses, and converted buildings into neutral territories, thus earning the title "Righteous Among the Nations." This striking tribute to his memory is nestled in a corner of the Jewish district, just streets away from the area's synagogues and the former ghetto. It portrays Lutz as a golden angel descending from the heavens, reaching out to rescue a victim, with an inscription that reads, "Whoever saves a life is considered to have saved an entire world."

The sweeping views of Budapest from this fortress atop the hill were once valued by the Austrian army, which used it as a lookout after the 1848–49 Revolution. Some 60 cannons were housed in the citadel, and while never used on the city's resentful populace, they were briefly, ominously, pointed down towards the citizens below after the 1956 uprising. The building is closed, but you can walk around it (keep an eye out for bullet holes from the various battles it has witnessed) and the view from the hilltop still makes it a worthy visit, especially at night when the entire city and its bridges are illuminated. Avoid the tacky, overpriced tourists stalls.

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.

This small square on Fő utca is a lovely, leafy place to take a break during a day's sightseeing. While home to a few monuments and a nice little café, Corvin tér is most notable for its eye-catching buildings at either end: to the north, a turn-of-the-20th-century masterpiece that contains the Hungarian Heritage House and Budai Vigadó concert hall; and to the south, a church that was converted from a Turkish mosque at the end of the 17th century and rebuilt in the romantic style in the mid-1800s.

This site pays tribute to the Jewish population herded into the ghetto during WWII, where thousands died of famine. The ghetto's walls ran along today's Rumbach, Király, Kertész, and Dohány streets. The memorial is easily accessed on the street, detailing the Jewish struggle with a map, historical summaries, and religious verses. The small section of the wall itself is located inside the apartment building's courtyard; you can try and peek at it through the gate or wait until a resident opens the door to view it.

A picturesque spot that is also one of the farthest north sites of Islamic pilgrimage in the world, this octagonal tomb houses Gül Baba, an Ottoman-era poet and dervish who took part in, and died shortly after, the Turkish conquest of Buda. He's known as 'Father of the Roses' in Hungary, hence the beautiful rose garden recently renovated using partial funding from the Turkish government.

Near the main Aquincum ruins—but functioning separately—a fine third-century Roman dwelling, Hercules Villa, takes its name from the myth depicted on its beautiful mosaic floor. The ruin was unearthed between 1958 and 1967 and now stands, rather incongruously, among a large housing estate. Worth popping your head in after the Aquincum visit if you feel the need for more ruins; admission is free.

Andrássy út ends in grandeur at Heroes' Square, with Budapest's answer to Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. Cleaned and refurbished in 1996 for the millecentenary (1100th anniversary), the Millenniumi emlékmű (Millennial Monument) is a semicircular twin colonnade with statues of Hungary's kings and leaders between its pillars. Set back in its open center, a 118-foot stone column is crowned by a dynamic statue of the archangel Gabriel, his outstretched arms bearing the ancient emblems of Hungary. At its base ride seven bronze horsemen: the Magyar chieftains, led by Árpád, whose tribes conquered the land in 896.

Before the column lies a simple marble slab, the Nemzeti Háborús Emléktábla (National War Memorial), the nation's altar, at which every visiting foreign dignitary lays a ceremonial wreath.

In 1991 Pope John Paul II conducted a mass here. Just a few months earlier, half a million Hungarians had convened to recall the memory of Imre Nagy, the reform-minded communist prime minister who partially inspired the 1956 revolution. Little would anyone have guessed then that in 1995, palm trees—and Madonna—would spring up on this very square in a scene from the film Evita (set in Argentina, not Hungary), or that Michael Jackson would do his part to consecrate the square with a music video.

Just like Vajdahunyad Castle, the portal of this church is a replica. The original, located in the village of Ják, is Hungary’s best example of a Romanesque Church from the 12th century. Featuring a gorgeous facade filled with medieval gothic biblical motifs, statues, and stonework, the chapel is a working Catholic church with regular services, concerts, and the occasional lavish wedding.

This historic square at the northwestern end of Castle Hill is named after St. John of Capistrano, a 13th-century Italian friar who recruited a crusading army to fight the Turks who were threatening Hungary; you can find a statue of the honored Franciscan here. The square is also home to the remains of the 12th-century Gothic Mária Magdolna templom (Church of St. Mary Magdalene). With most of church destroyed by air raids during World War II, the main feature still standing is its tower: you can pay to climb its 172 steps for stunning city views. Also on the square is the Hadtörténeti Múzeum (Museum of Military History), set within a former barracks that still has cannonballs from the 1849 siege lodged in its walls. The exhibits, which include collections of uniforms and military regalia, trace Hungary's military history from the original Magyar conquest in the 9th century through the period of Ottoman rule to the mid-20th century.

Kerepesi Cemetery functions as a burial ground, national memorial space, and outdoor art gallery.  Founded in 1847, this beautiful and impressive cemetery is one of the oldest in Hungary and certainly the most well-known in Budapest, being the final resting place of Hungary's greatest artists, statesmen, and inventors. Maps are available at the entrance with descriptions of the most famous residents, including Mihály Vörösmarty, Attila József, Endre Ady, Mor Jókai, Janos Arany, Lajos Kossuth, Ferenc Erkel, Gyorgy Faludy, Miklós Jancsó, and Imre Kertész, to name a few. Wander the tree-lined avenues past the ornate tombs and mausoleums of this stunning graveyard, such as the grandiose lion-guarded one for Lajos Batthyány, or the mausoleum of Ferenc Deák or Lajos Kossuth. The communist-era mausoleum for the Labour movement, designed in 1958 by Olcsai-Kiss Zoltán, may still stir conflicting feelings, but it merits a stop. At 56 hectares (138 acres), this is one of the largest National Pantheons in Europe so you'll want to spend a while. You can also visit the Salgotarjani Street Jewish Cemetery ( see its Sights listing), which occupies the eastern corner—technically part of Kerepesi Cemetery but accessible via a separate entrance.

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 1870s by French engineer Ernest Gouin in collaboration with Gustave Eiffel. Toward the end of 1944, the bridge was accidentally 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.

Erected in 2014, the Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation commemorates the Hungarian victims of the German Nazis in WWII. Germany, represented by an eagle, attacks Archangel Gabriel, Hungary's patron saint. Jewish and opposition leaders have criticized the statue as an attempt to absolve the Hungarian state and Hungarians of their collaboration with Nazi Germany and their complicity in the Holocaust. They have even created their own protest counter-memorial next to it: a collection of Holocaust original and symbolic memorabilia (shoes, suitcases, photos) and a statement in a range of languages asking people to also remember the victims of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party (Nyilaskeresztes Párt), under whose reign in 1944-1945 thousands of civilians were murdered in Hungary and thousands more sent to concentration camps in Austria and Germany.

Nyugati Pályaudvar, constructed by the Eiffel Company, is considered the city’s most elegant train station. The station has been featured in a number of Hollywood productions over the years. To its right, what was once part of the station is perhaps the world's fanciest McDonald’s, with booths fit for kings. Nyugati is currently nearing the completion of an extensive refurbishment, but the Royal Waiting Room is worth seeing if it's open, maintained in the same splendor as when it was first presented to Emperor Franz Joseph at the turn of the 20th century.

Probably dating from the second century AD, Óbuda's Roman military amphitheater once held some 16,000 people and, at 144 yards in diameter, was one of Europe's largest. A block of dwellings called the Round House was later built by the Romans above the amphitheater; massive stone walls found in the Round House's cellar were actually parts of the amphitheater. Below the amphitheater are the cells where prisoners and lions were held while awaiting confrontation.

Dating from 1874, Budapest’s oldest Jewish cemetery is technically part of the huge Kerespesi Cemetery but is separated by a tall stone wall. These serene grounds are the resting place of aristocratic Jewish Hungarian families and prestigious individuals, with a section dedicated to victims of the Holocaust. Stonemasonry by Hungary’s premier architects of the day provide exquisite examples of the conversation between popular artistic movements, such as Szecesszió (Hungarian Art Nouveau), and Jewish cultural history and identity. The cemetery doors are often closed to keep away the neighborhood's unsavory types, but if you knock on the gate, the guard will let you in.

Wander the riverside, just north of the chain bridge, and a simple but powerful memorial presents itself: 60 pairs of 1940s-style men's, women's, and children's shoes cast in iron standing along the riverbank. Shoes on the Danube Bank, designed by film director Can Togay and sculptor Gyula Pauer, was erected in 2005 to honor the memory of the countless and nameless victims of the Hungarian Arrow Cross party massacres. It is estimated that between 1944 and 1945 as many as 20,000 Hungarian Jews were taken from the Budapest ghettos by the "Nyilas," lined up on riverbank spots close to this one, sometimes several people deep, and shot at point-blank range. This haunting tribute to this horrific time in history is appropriately not far from Hungarian Parliament.

The sprawling Liberty Square has represented the pursuit of liberty for Hungarians since its days as the site of a massive troop barracks and the execution of Prime Minister Lajos Batthyány following the failed revolution against the Habsburg Dynasty in 1848. The square is dominated by Exchange Palace, the former stock exchange building, immortalized as Harrison Ford's hideout in Blade Runner 2049. Across from it is a solemn-looking neoclassical shrine, the Nemzeti Bank (The Hungarian National Bank). The bank's Postal Savings Bank branch, adjacent to the main building but visible from behind Szabadság tér on Hold utca, is another exuberant Art Nouveau masterpiece of architect Ödön Lechner, built in 1901 with colorful majolica mosaics, characteristically curvaceous windows, and pointed towers ending in swirling gold flourishes.

In the square's center remains a gold hammer and sickle atop a white stone obelisk, one of the few monuments to the Russian "liberation" of Budapest in 1945 that has not been banished to Memento Park. There were mutterings that it, too, would be pulled down, which prompted a Russian diplomatic protest; the monument, after all, marks a gravesite of fallen Soviet troops, but also a reminder of how close the city was to falling into Nazi hands.

As if in counterbalance, a memorial statue of Ronald Reagan---one of five that Reagan commissioned himself in his will---was erected in the summer of 2011, standing just left of the Soviet liberation monument. Next to it, at Szabadság tér 12, Stars and Stripes flying out in front and with a high-security presence, stands the United States Embassy. One of the square's most popular stories is how Cardinal József Mindszenty, fearing religious persecution, lived here as a guest of the U.S. government for 15 years during communism. On the south side of the square another monument appeared amid controversy in 2014. The Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation is a state-commissioned statue that commemorates the Hungarian victims of the German Nazis in WWII. Germany, represented by a vicious eagle, is attacking the peaceful form of the Archangel Gabriel, Hungary's patron saint. Jewish and opposition leaders have criticized the statue as an attempt to absolve the Hungarian state and Hungarians of their collaboration with Nazi Germany and complicity in the Holocaust. The latest addition is on the other side of the Soviet obelisk, a statue of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush erected by the Hungarian government in October 2020 to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe. A political location from its historical beginnings, but a center of leisure life in the city, too, Szabadság tér is also simply a great place to walk or take a break from sightseeing, with a lovely café in its center. During major football championships, like the World Cup, it is turned into an outdoor screening area and is packed to the gills with locals. It also regularly hosts various culinary and seasonal festivals.

This atmospheric church built into a cave—one of several in the hill—lies just north of the Gellért Thermal Baths. Mass is still held here (the church is run by the Pauline monks) and worth attending if so inclined, but it is also worth a look for its novelty value. Note: it was rebuilt in faux-cave style in the '90s so it is not quite as authentic as it could be.

This eye-catching, glass-covered building, designed in 1906 by architects Henrik Böhm and Ármin Hegedűs, proudly displays Budapest's largest outdoor mosaic. Can't see it? Take a few steps back and crane your neck until you have a good view of the facade's upper gable. It's there you will find the Seccessionist-style mosaic by Hungarian master Miksa Roth, which depicts the Virgin Mary wearing the country's royal crown and wielding a sword before a veritable who's who of Hungarian heroes.

This romantic tree-lined promenade, often overlooked by sightseers, follows the castle's ramparts southeast from Capistrano Square toward the Royal Palace. It offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the matte-pastel baroque houses that face Úri utca, with their regal arched windows and wrought iron gates. On a late spring afternoon, the fragrance of the cherry trees and the sweeping view of the quiet Buda neighborhoods below may be enough to revive even the weariest. About halfway along the route is a staircase leading down to Sziklakórház (Hospital in the Rock), a subterranean World War II medical facility turned Cold War nuclear bunker that's part of the extensive Castle Hill caves network. Although fascinating, entry to Sziklakórház (including an English-speaking tour) costs a hard-to-justify €25.

Running south from Vörösmarty Square to Elizabeth Bridge is Váci utca, Budapest's best-known shopping street and most unabashed tourist zone. This pedestrian precinct with electric 19th-century lampposts has a lot of chain outlets, souvenir stores, and overpriced cafés, but also springs the odd surprise with high-quality china shops, independent bookstores, and folk-craft emporiums. Most notable of all is the architecture, which is consistently beautiful: look out for Philanthia Virág at number 9, a tacky flower and gift shop set within a beautiful Art Nouveau building blessed with original tiles, frescoes, and arches. Other notable Art Nouveau buildings along Váci utca include the four-story Thonet House (no. 11/A) by renowned architect Ödön Lechner, and—somewhat surprisingly—the McDonald's on the corner of Régi posta. It was Hungary's first, and remains one of Europe's most beautiful.

It may look centuries old, but this beautiful complex of palatial riverside buildings was actually only constructed in the late 1800s by architect Miklos Ybl; the use of neobaroque and neo-Renaissance architecture was very fashionable at the time. The buildings are today home to everything from theaters and art exhibitions to restaurants and shops, but the complex's highlights are the spaces in between, including the manicured ornamental gardens and the lovely, strollable footpaths. You can take an elevator and escalator from here up to the top of Castle Hill for free.

A self-described "open community cultural space" located in a beautiful former pump house on the banks of the Danube, this cool little gallery and art space has rotating exhibitions of modern art. Access is through FELIX Kitchen&Bar, an elegant (and pricey) stop for a coffee, cocktail, or sumptuous meal.