World Travel Images - Budapest - Pest

Pest - V: The heart of Budapest

V, the 5th district, is where the center of Budapest is and some of the most famous buildings, stores, hotels and restaurants are situated there.
It is also the administrative district, where both the famous Hungarian Parliament and St Stephen's Basilica is.
Our hostel was also situated in district V.

The Hungarian Parliament Building, built in a Gothic Revival style, is Budapest's foremost landmark. At a height of 96m to the top of the spire, it is also the tallest building in Budapest, togethere with St Stephen's Basilica. 96 is referring to the country's millennium in 1896. Note the spruces, they are very common in Eastern Europe. On the facade, statues of Hungarian rulers and Transylvanian leaders can be seen. It was completed in 1904.

A yellow tram passing in front of the Parliament Square.

The entrance is at the square, but the beautiful exterior faces Danube. Even if we planned to get inside, our time just passed away so instead we had to focus on getting to our plane on time.
Note the Hungarian police car to the left; rendörség= police!

The view right outside our hotel, towards the Erzsébet Hid (Elizabeth Bridge). Szabad sajtó út is heavily trafficated.

A grandiose building at Ferenciek Tere (square) near our hotel, with a supermarket in the ground floor. Match is the most common supermarket chain in Budapest.

Váci utca (Váci Street) is the most famous pedestrian street in Budapest and is filled with tourists.

Váci Street has many exclusive brand stores and hotels, but after dark guys in black suits try to drag you in to sex clubs, hidden behind the exclusive facades. A big minus in my opinion. Nothing of this can be seen from the outside.

Also Szabad sajtó út.

Some beautiful buildings near our hostel. The yellow one is a library.

The courtyard of the somewhat worn building where our small and friendly hostel, Jump In, was situated. This courtyard could be seen from our room.

Városház út, where it crosses the much larger Szabad sajtó út. Our hostel was located to the left in this picture. The district is called Belváros (that means city center in Hungarian cities).

Erzsébet Hid (Elizabeth Bridge). Even if it was very close to our hostel we didn't visit the Buda side until the 3rd day.

One of our cloudy views of Danube, seen the first hours in Budapest.

Inner City Parish Church (Belvárosi Plébániatemplom) was a Gothic/Baroque landmark near our hotel. It was built in the early 14th century and is very rundown today as you can see.

Facades along River Danube.

My first shot of a yellow tram, captured in front of Elizabeth Bridge.

Vigadó Concert Hall. Completed in 1864, built in a mixture of architecture styles, it has now got competition from a modern concert hall in the 9th district.

Marriott, one of many de luxe hotels at the River Danube.

Roosevelt Square. Four Seasons Gresham Palace, to the left and above, is a legendaric 5 star hotel. To the right is Sofitel, another 5 star hotel, with a large atrium.

Gresham Palace is a neo-classical palace from 1827 was originally built as Gresham Life Insurance company's headquarters, but was used by Soviet soldiers during WWII and later fell into decline. In 2001 it was transformed into a luxury hotel.

A yellow tram in front of Danube and the famous Chain Bridge.

St Stephen's Basilica seen from Zrínyi Út.

A modern building in Japanese style at Roosevelt Tér.

Hungarian Academy of Science at Roosevelt Square.

Chain Bridge (Széchenyi lánchid) is Budapest's most famous bridge and an important symbol of the city. More about the bridge in the skylines section. The Royal Castle can be seen in the background.

Budapest Ethnographical Museum.

These cozy alleys is one of the things I like the most with Budapest!

Beautiful buildings near Szabadság tér.

Szabadság tér (Independence Square) is a very grandiose square with majestic buildings.

Hungarian National Television Building has a very interesting architectural style and reminds of both Egypt and India. It hosts the MTV, Magyar Televízió, that was formerly financed by licences, but now commercial in contrast to Sweden that is more oldfashioned than Hungary.

The memorial is the only remaining memorial to the Soviet union in the city since the last Lenin statue was torn down in 1989. The Parliament can be seen in the background.

Szabadság tér.

This modern office building in glass and granite is also situated by the Independence Square.

Oktober 6 utca/ Arany János utca.

Zrinyi Utca.

Szt. István Basilica (St Stephen's Basilica). It is Budapest's tallest building together with the Hungarian Parliament, both are 96m to the top of the spire.
István (Stephen) was the first king of Hungary.

Details of the basilica, built in 1905.

The huge St Stephen's Basilica (not to be confused with church) is built in a neoclassical style with white marble, towers and a dome that can be recognized in several different
buildings around the world.

The interior is extravagant.

We bought a ticket and walked all the stairs to the top. This is how one room on the way to the top looked like, hard to believe it is a room high inside Hungary's most famous basilica.

Something you rarely see; the inside of the dome.

The views from the top were magnificent, though it was somewhat windy when we walked outside.
More of the views from St Stephen's Basilica can be seen in the skylines and views section.

View towards the top of the basilica. St Stephen's has a width of 55 m and a lenght of 87.4 m.
In 1868, the dome collapsed during construction and made the building take 54 years to complete.

Former Postal Savings Bank. This is Ödön Lechner's nationalistic conribution to central European architecture with Hungarian folk motifs and Jugend elements.

At this marketplace we tried real Hungarian langos for the first time, they were both cheap and very tasty. There is also a much larger marketplace in Budapest, but unfortunately wenever went there.

Semmelweis utca. The last day I took a beer at a pub on this street near our hostel while waiting for the taxi to the airport.

A modern building near Deák Fernce Square.

Deák Ferenc Square is a major intersection in Pest were the 3 metro lines meet under the Modern and Breitner building with the "Fashion Street" shopping arcade. Unfortunately the 1910 jugend building was under reconstruction during our visit, so nothing of the exterior could be seen.

Heavy traffic in front of a very orientalic building at Deák Ferenc tér. The square borders the 5th, 6th and 7th districts.

Le Meridien, the French de luxe hotel, formerly hosted the main police office.

An inverted statue at Deak Ferenc tér.

Heavy traffic at Deák Ferenc. The buses in Budapest are blue, even though the trams are yellow.

1 Vörösmarty Square is a brand new shopping galleria (2006) in with a striking glass facade with diagonal lines. It is situated at Vörösmarty tér right in the city center and has brand stores as New Yorker and H&M.