The Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden is more than 150 years old. Its first giraffe was received from King Franz Joseph I of Hungary, with the encouragement of his wife, Queen Elizabeth! Most of its ornate buildings, including the main entrance decorated with animal sculptures and covered with Zsolnay tiles, were erected about a hundred years ago.
The most powerful church in Budapest is the St. Stephen's Basilica, and it is even the second tallest building in the city after the Parliament. During the great flood in Pest, hundreds of people found refuge in the place where the Basilica stands today because it stood out a bit from the Pest Plai
The 139-metre-high Gellért Hill was named after Bishop Gellért, who, according to legend, was rolled down the hill by pagan rebels in a two-wheeled wheelbarrow in 1046. His statue stands on the Danube side of Gellért Hill, at the height of the Erzsébet (Elisabeth) Bridge.
The Church of Mary Magdalene served the population in the northern part of the castle district for nearly 700 years, until a bomb hit it during the Second World War. The church was never completely restored from its ruins, only its Gothic tower was reconstructed.
There was probably a church on the site of the Matthias Church for a thousand years. Today it is referred to as the Matthias Church, because the building won its brilliant splendor under King Matthias.
During the Second World War, in 1945, the retreating German army, together with the other Danube bridges in Budapest, blew up the Freedom Bridge. Shortly afterwards, the Soviets began to remove the damaged parts and, as a temporary solution, added a so-called pontoon bridge to the remaining part. Restoration of the Freedom Bridge began in 1946.
From the bank of the Danube, you can get up to the Buda Castle District in just a few minutes with a very special, rope-tow railway vehicle: the funicular. Two of its cars, Gellért and Margit, are on a shuttle service: while one is being pulled up by a cable to the Sándor Palace, the other is being lowered to...
The Hungarian poet, Ferenc Kölcsey, wrote the lyrics of the national anthem. It is a prayer asking God to help the Hungarian people to have a happier life. It is a soft, slow and sad melody.
