Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Újlipótváros
SQUARE
JÁSZAI MARI TÉR
The gateway to both Margaret Island and Újlipótváros, Jászai Mari tér is split in two by the
foot of Margaret Bridge. The modern building south of the square, nicknamed the
White
House
, was once the headquarters of the Central Committee of the ruling Hungarian Social-
ist Workers' Party. It now contains offices of the members of Hungary's parliament.
To the north of the square is an elegant apartment block forming part of the
Palatinus
Houses
, built in 1912 and facing the Danube. They contain some of the most expensive flats
for sale or rent in Budapest.
PARK
SZENT ISTVÁN PARK
St Stephen Park contains a
statue of Raoul Wallenberg
doing battle with a snake (evil) that
was erected in 1999. It is titled
Kígyóölő
(Serpent Slayer) and replaces one created by
sculptor Pál Pátzay that was mysteriously removed the night before its unveiling in 1948.
Facing the river is a row of Bauhaus apartments, which were the delight of modernists when
they were built in the late 1920s.
NOTABLE BUILDING
COMEDY THEATRE
1-329 2340;
http://vigszinhaz.hu/
; XIII Szent István körút 14;
4, 6)
The attractive little building on Szent István körút roughly halfway between the Danube and
Nyugati tér is where comedies (including Shakespearean ones in translation) and musicals
are staged. When it was built in 1896 it was criticised for being too far out of town.
CHURCH
LEHEL CHURCH
If you look north up XIII Váci út from Nyugati tér you'll see the twin spires of this 1933
copy of a celebrated 13th-century Romanesque church (now in ruins) at Zsámbék, 33km
west of Budapest. Just beyond it is
Lehel Market
,
a great traditional market housed in a
hideous boatlike structure designed by László Rajk, son of the communist minister of the in-
terior executed for 'Titoism' in 1949. They say this building is his revenge.
