Castle District - Budapest - page 102

Neighbourhood Top Five
Comprehending Budapest's long and often convoluted story by visiting the revamped
Castle Museum and then viewing many of the events captured forever by some of the na-
tion's greatest artists at the Hungarian National Gallery .
Enjoying views of the Danube, Gellért Hill and Pest from the landmark Fishermen's
Bastion .
Reliving the WWII siege of Budapest by descending into the Hospital in the Rock deep
below Buda Castle.
Savouring a Dobos torta (a layered chocolate-and-cream cake with a caramelised
brown-sugar top) at the famous Ruszwurm Cukrászda .
Soaking the travel-weary blues away at the Király Baths , another legacy of the Turkish
occupation.
Explore: Castle District
Castle Hill (Várhegy), also called the Castle Quarter (Várnegyed), is a 1km-long limestone
plateau towering 170m above the Danube. The premier sight in the capital and high on Un-
esco's World Heritage list, it contains Budapest's most important medieval monuments and
museums.
The walled area consists of two distinct parts: the Old Town to the north, where common-
ers lived in the Middle Ages (the present-day owners of the coveted burgher houses are any-
thing but 'common'); and the Royal Palace, the original site of the castle built in the 13th
century, now housing important sights, to the south.
There are many ways to reach Castle Hill, but the most fun is to board the Sikló , a funicu-
lar railway built in 1870 that ascends from Clark Ádám tér at the western end of Chain
Bridge to Szent György tér near the Royal Palace.
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 Széll Kálmán tér, Buda's most important transport hub. In the Middle Ages
those involved in trades, crafts and fishing lived here. Many of the district's churches were
used as mosques under the Turks, who also built bathhouses here, including the Király
Baths.