187 Best Sights in Hungary

Gracing the corner of Görög utca (Greek Street) and Szentendre's main square, Fø tér, the so-called Görög templom is actually a Serbian Orthodox church that takes its name from the Greek inscription on a red-marble gravestone set in its wall. This elegant edifice was built between 1752 and 1754 by a rococo master, Andreas Mayerhoffer, on the site of a wooden church dating to the Great Serbian Migration (around AD 690). Its greatest glory—a symmetrical floor-to-ceiling panoply of stunning icons—was painted between 1802 and 1804 by Mihailo Zivkovic, a Serbian painter from Buda.

Fittingly, this museum is lodged in a former barracks on the northwestern corner of Kapisztrán tér, cannonballs from the 1849 siege still lodged in the 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. You can arrange an English-language group tour (up to 20 people) in advance for 8,000 Ft; for larger groups the cost is 12,000 Ft.

The Kisvonat, a miniature tram on wheels that looks like a train, leaves from Dobó tér every hour on the hour for an approximately 40-minute tour of Eger's historical sights.

The museum displays the work of János Kmetty, a pioneer of Hungarian avant-garde Cubist painting.

The gallery has an excellent collection of local contemporary art and changing exhibits of international art.

Heroes' Square is the gateway to a square kilometer (almost ½ square mile) of recreation, entertainment, beauty, and culture. A bridge behind the Millennial Monument leads across a boating basin that becomes an artificial ice-skating rink in winter; to the south of this lake stands a statue of George Washington, erected in 1906 with donations by Hungarian emigrants to the United States. You can soak or swim at the lovely, turn-of-the-20th-century Széchenyi Fürdő, jog along the park paths, or marvel at the art nouveau buildings and beasts of the Budapest Zoo.

In the eastern quarter of the park, former leisure-time youth center and major concert hall Petőfi Csarnok is slated for demolition but as of mid-2016 still hosts a weekend fleamarket in its back lot. The Gundel restaurant charms diners with its turn-of-the-20th-century ambience. Fair-weather weekends, when the children's attractions are teeming with youngsters and parents and the Széchenyi Fürdő is brimming with bathers, are the best times for people-watchers to visit the park; if you go on a weekday, the main sights are rarely crowded.

Beside the City Park's lake stands Vajdahunyad Vár (Vajdahunyad Castle), a fantastic medley of Hungary's historic and architectural past, starting with the Romanesque gateway of the cloister of Jak, in western Hungary. A Gothic castle whose Transylvanian turrets, Renaissance loggia, baroque portico, and Byzantine decorations are all guarded by a spooky modern (1903) bronze statue of the anonymous medieval "chronicler," who was the first recorder of Hungarian history. Designed for the millennial celebration in 1896, it was not completed until 1908. In 2003, a bust of legendary B-movie actor Béla Lugosi was placed in an alcove along the southeast corner, its origins a mystery even today.