Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Across the road from the Municipal Circus, the
Széchenyi Baths
could be mistaken for a
palace, so grand is its facade. Outside is a statue of the geologist Zsigmondy Vilmos, who
discovered the thermal spring that feeds its outdoor pool and Turkish baths. This is perhaps
the best venue for mixed-sex bathing, and in one of the large outdoor pools you can enjoy
the surreal spectacle of people playing
chess
while immersed up to their chests in steaming
water - so hot that you shouldn't stay in for more than twenty minutes. The best players sit at
tables around the pool's edge (the late former world champion
Bobby Fischer
among them
in the 1980s); bring your own set if you wish to participate.
The stadium district
The
stadium district
, 1km south of Vajdahunyad Castle, is chiefly notable for the
Ferenc
Puskás Stadium
(Puskás Ferenc Stadion), where league championship and international
football
matches, and
concerts
by foreign rock stars are held. Originally known as Népstadi-
on (“People's Stadium”) and built in the early 1950s by fifty thousand Budapestis who “vo-
lunteered” their labour, on Soviet-style “free Saturdays”, it was renamed in 2002 after the
legendary footballer Ferenc Puskás (1927-2006), who captained the Mighty Magyars in their
remarkable 6-3 victory over England at Wembley Stadium in 1953 (a team that went un-
beaten for a world record of 32 consecutive games), before defecting to forge a second career
at Real Madrid.
Tothewestofthestadiumisthesmaller
Kisstadion
,whichiscommonlyusedforicesports,
while to the east Stalinist statues of healthy proletarian youth line the court that leads to
the indoor
Papp László Sportaréna
(or Aréna), a mushroom-shaped silver structure which
hosts both concerts and sporting events - Papp was the first boxer to win three Olympic gold
medals (1948, 1952 and 1956). The
Stadion bus station
completes this concrete ensemble.
Geological Institute
Földani Intézet • XIV, Stefánia út 14 • Thurs, Sat & Sun 10am-4pm • 500Ft • 1 251 0999,
mfgi.hu
• Trol-
leybus #75 from Puskás Ferenc Stadion metro station or from City Park
On Stefánia út, beyond the stadiums, you can admire the
Geological Institute
, one of the
major edifices in Budapest designed by Ödön Lechner. Much of the original design has been
preserved simply because the institute has never had enough money to make major changes.
The exterior is as striking as his
Post Office Savings Bank
and
Applied Arts Museum
, with
a gingerbread facade, scrolled gables and steeply pitched Transylvanian roofs patterned in
bright blue tiles, crowned by four figures supporting a globe on their backs. Lechner put nu-
merous geological references into the design and originally planned to put dwarves holding
up the globe. The institute has a small
Geological Museum
, but the helpful staff will hap-
pily show visitors round the building itself, with its gingerbread stucco and faux lapis lazuli
stairways. (Ernő Rubik, the man behind the famous cube, left his mark here: he designed the
