7 Best Sights in Budapest, Hungary

A majestic monument akin to Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, the Millennium Monument at the gateway to the city's playground, Városliget, was commissioned to celebrate the country's 1,000th birthday in 1896 but wasn't completed until 1906. Above it all, standing on a 118-foot-tall column, Hungary's patron saint the Archangel Gabriel holds the Hungarian crown in one hand and the apostolic double cross in the other. At the base of the column, the imposing figures of Hungary's founding fathers stand guard on horseback: these are the mythical leaders of the seven tribes whose descendants will one day become the Hungarian nation. Behind them are the full figure statues of their more modern, but equally awe-inspiring counterparts: Hungary's most important rulers since AD 1000, when Szent István allied with the Holy Roman Empire and founded the modern European state of Hungary. The line-up starts on the left with Saint István himself. This square is meant to inspire reverence and it is no coincidence that you can see it from the other end of Andrássy út. The square is a popular meeting point for locals, and is always busy with skateboarders and museum patrons lingering before or after a visit to the surrounding museums. Beware of little old ladies selling imitation furry hats next to the coffin-like memorial for the fallen soldiers of WWI in the middle of the square. However entertaining they may be, their wares are illegal and not the deal they appear to be.

If you are here in the early fall, look out for the Nemzeti Vágta (National Gallop), a horse race around the square featuring equestrian shows throughout the day. You can purchase grandstand tickets for around 4,000–5,000 HUF or just stand to the side for free.

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."

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.

Hungary's Prime Minister at the time of the 1956 Revolution, Imre Nagy was executed by the Russians for his lenience towards the revolutionaries and buried as a traitor. On June 16, 1989, the anniversary of his execution, Nagy was rehabilitated and reburied with full honors, one of the events marking the change in regime. The removal of his statue from Vértanúk tere (Matryrs' Square) in 2018 to make way for the reconstructed Monument of National Martyrs was the talk of the town for months (opposition parties accused Viktor Orbán's right-wing government of historical revisionism). District 13 volunteered to adopt it, placing it here in Jászai Mari tér overlooking the Danube.

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.

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.

This giant, multilevel monument halfway up the hill adds to the general fairy-tale feel on the Buda side of the river. The figure is St. Gellért, Hungary's first missionary, whose preaching didn't sit very well with the locals. Legend has it he was thrown off the hill on this very spot in 1046. The monument is best viewed from the Pest side of the river, or you can walk up the hillside path from Erzsébet híd for a close-up view.