Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(daily 8am-8pm; free) on the summit offers a panoramic view of the city and the Buda Hills.
The tower was designed by Frigyes Schulek, who also designed the Fishermen's Bastion -
the similarity is clear. It takes its name from Empress Elizabeth, the
Queen of Hungary
,
who
visited this spot in 1882 and came back on two other occasions.
By the buffet below the summit is the upper terminal of the
chairlift
or
Libegő
, meaning
“floater” in Hungarian, which wafts you down over trees and gardens to the suburb of
Zugli-
get
(daily: May-Sept 9am-7pm; Oct-April 10am-3pm; closed every other Mon; 850Ft)
Hárshegy and Hűvösvölgy
Wildboar,whichprefertoroamduringtheeveningandsleepbyday,areoccasionally sighted
in the forests above
Hárshegy
, one stop before the terminus at
Hűvösvölgy
. This is also
a great place for
mushrooms
- most big markets, such as the
Fény utca market
by Széll
Kálmán térhavestalls whereyoucangetyourmushroomschecked(
gombavizsgáló
).
Hűvös-
völgy
(Cool Valley) is a vast suburb spreading into the hills and valleys beyond. It has always
been a popular destination for Budapestis, trundling out on the old tram #56. Wicked tongues
say that after the riots of 2006, the Socialist Party decided to change the numbering of the
tram (with its connotations of 1956) to #61. The
Arts and Crafts bus terminus
, with its
covered stairways leading to the train station, has been restored to its original elegance.
The Bartók Memorial House and Napraforgó utca
Bartók Béla Emlékház • II, Csalán utca 29 • Tues-Sun 10am-5pm, closed for three weeks in Aug • 1200Ft •
1 394 2100,
bartokmuseum.hu
• Chamber music concerts 2000-3000Ft (includes entry to museum) are
held here from Sept until June • Bus #29 from the Szemlőhegyi Cave to the Nagybányai út stop, or bus #5 from
Ferenciek tere in Pest or Széll Kálmán tér to the Pasaréti tér terminus, and then a 10min walk uphill along Csévi
utca (follow it round to the left at the first corner)
The
BartókMemorialHouse
, located in a leafy suburb below Láto-hegy, was the residence
of Béla Bartók, his wife and two sons from 1932 until their emigration to America in 1940,
by which time Bartók despaired of Hungary's right-wing regime.
Now a museum, it keeps an extensive range of Bartók memorabilia, though there's very
little by way of English translation or information: the three rooms on the second floor are
much as they would have looked when Bartók lived here, with his piano, cupboards and writ-
ing desk, as well as the phonograph he used to make field recordings during his ethno-mu-
sical research trips to Transylvania with Zoltán Kodály. In the attic, you can also see folk
handicrafts Bartók collected on his travels and the shirt cuff on which he wiped his pen-nibs
when composing scores, many of which were completed here and are on show. The shop,
meanwhile, sells CDs, books and scores of Bartók's music.
