2 Best Sights in Hungary

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.

Built between 1892 and 1896 by Ödön Lechner in the Hungarian Art Nouveau style that he created, the Városház (Town Hall) is one of its finest examples. Window frames are arched here, pointed there, and the roof, peppered with tiny copper- and gold-color tiles, looks as if it has been rained on by pennies from heaven. In typical Lechner style, the outlines of the central facade make a curving line to a pointed top, under which 37 little computer-driven bells in a screened-in balcony of sorts add the finishing visual and aural touch: every hour from 9 am to 4 pm (hours may vary on Friday and weekends), they flood the main square with the ringing melody of the “Rákóczi March,” a patriotic 18th-century tune later orchestrated by Berlioz and adapted by Liszt in one of his Hungarian Rhapsodies. Note also the goat occupying center stage in the city’s coat of arms on the building’s facade. The building’s Dísz Terem (Ceremonial Hall), on the second floor, is a spectacular palace of glimmering gold-painted vaulted ceilings, exquisitely carved wooden pews, colorful frescoes by Bertalan Székely (who also painted the frescoes for Budapest’s Matthias Church), and a gorgeously ornate chandelier that floats above the room like an ethereal bouquet of lights and shining brass. The hall is open only to tour groups that have made prior arrangements.