Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BUDAPEST ADDRESSES
Finding your way around Budapest is easier than the welter of names might suggest. Dis-
tricts and streets are well signposted, and those in Pest conform to an overall plan based on
radial avenues and semicircular boulevards.
Budapest is divided into 23 districts, numbered using Roman numerals. Except when ad-
dressing letters, a Budapest
address
always begins with the district number, a system used
throughout this topic. On letters, a four-digit
postal code
is used instead, the middle two
digits indicating the district (so that 1054 refers to a place in the V district). For ease of
reference, we list below the district numbers you're most likely to encounter, along with
the areas within those districts that you'll probably spend most time in.
I - The Vár and Viziváros
II - Rószadomb and Hűvösvölgy
III - Óbuda and Aquincum
IV - Újpest
V - Belváros and Lipótváros
VI - Terézváros
VII - Erzsébetváros
VIII - Józsefváros
IX - Ferencváros
X - Kőbánya
XI - The area south and east of Gellért-hegy
XII - The area from the Vár west into the Buda Hills
XIII - Újlipótváros and Angyalföld
XIV - Városliget and Zugló
XXII - Budafok and Nagytétény
As a rule of thumb,
street numbers
ascend away from the north-south axis of the River
Danube and the east-west axis of Rákóczi út/Kossuth utca/Hegyalja út. Even numbers
are generally on the left-hand side as you head outwards from these axes, odd numbers
on the right. One number may refer to several premises or an entire apartment building,
while an additional combination of numerals denotes the floor and number of individual
apartments
(eg Kossuth utca 14.III.24). Confusingly, some old buildings in Pest are des-
ignated as having a half-floor (
félemelet
) or upper ground floor (
magas földszint
) between
the ground (
földszint
) and first floor (
elsőemelet
) proper - so that what the British would
call the second floor, and Americans the third, Hungarians might describe as the first. This
stems from a nineteenth-century taxation fiddle, whereby landlords avoided the higher tax
on buildings with more than three floors.
