Historic sights in Budapest
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Fő Utca
Fő utca is the arrow-straight ‘Main St’ running from Clark Ádám tér through Víziváros; it dates from Roman times. At the former Capuchin church, used as a mosque during the Turkish occupation, you can see the remains of an Islamic-style ogee-arched door and window on the southern side. Around the corner there’s the seal of King Matthias Corvinus – a raven with a ring in its beak – and a little square with the delightful Lajos Fountain (Lajos kútja; 1904) called Corvin tér. The Eclectic building on the north side at No 8 is the Buda Concert Hall. To the north the Iron Stump is the odd-looking tree trunk into which itinerant artisans and merchants would drive a nail to mark…
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Óbuda
Ó means 'ancient' in Hungarian; as its name suggests, Óbuda is the oldest part of Buda. The Romans established Aquincum, a key military garrison and civilian town north of here at the end of the 1st century AD, and it became the seat of the Roman province of Pannonia Inferior in AD 106. When the Magyars arrived, they named it Buda, which became Óbuda when the Royal Palace was built on Castle Hill and turned into the real centre.
Most visitors on their way to Szentendre on the Danube Bend are put off by what they see of Óbuda from the highway or the HÉV commuter train. Prefabricated housing blocks seem to go on forever, and the Árpád Bridge flyover splits the heart of t…
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Víziváros
Watertown is the narrow area between the Danube and Castle Hill that widens as it approaches Óbuda to the north and Rózsadomb (Rose Hill) to the northwest, spreading as far west as Moszkva tér, one of Buda's main transport hubs. Under the Turks many of the district's churches were used as mosques, and baths were built, one of which is still functioning. Víziváros begins at Clark Ádám tér, leading east from the square.
The street was named after the 19th-century Scottish engineer who supervised the building of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge (Széchenyi lánchíd). Clark also designed the all-important tunnel (alagút) under Castle Hill, which took eight months to carv…
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Northern Inner Town
Northern Inner Town, more accurately called Lipótváros (Leopold Town), is full of offices, government ministries, 19th-century apartment blocks and grand squares. Its confines are, in effect, Szent István körút to the north, V József Attila utca to the south, the Danube to the west and, to the east, V Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út, the arrow-straight boulevard that stretches from central Deák Ferenc tér and Nyugati tér, where Nyugati train station (Nyugati pályaudvar) is located.
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