Things to see and do Budapest

According to legend, it is this almost mythological bird among Hungarians, the symbolic "turul", that led Árpád, the ancestor of the Magyars, to the Carpathian basin. It is not clear what type of bird it was, probably an eagle or a falcon. In any case, the word is of Turkish origin (where it simply means little bird). The representation of the turul is omnipresent in Hungary around historic sites.

In the Middle Ages, the Vienna Gate was known as the "Saturday market", i.e. the market for non-Jewish merchants. Its current form dates back to 1936, and symbolically links the castle to the city of Buda. Once through the gate, the eye is immediately drawn to the palace of the National Archives, a building with decorated ceramic tiles by Zsolnay and a historicist style as intended by its architect Samu Pecz, who also designed the Grand Market.

The official Budapest Card citypass offered by the Budapest Festival and Tourism Center offers 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 hour solutions to discover the Hungarian capital. The Budapest Card is valid for one person with discounted rates such as the 72-hour Junior Card for young people aged 6 to 18. It includes a free shuttle to and from the airport, a cruise on the Danube River, as well as free admission to the Lukács Baths, the National Gallery, the Robert Capa Center of Photography, and two guided tours in English.

The tower is the remnant of the Church of Mary Magdalene, built in the 13th century, completed in the 15th and a place of worship for the Hungarian population in the Middle Ages. During the Turkish reign, it was spared a time of conversation as all other churches were transformed into mosques, and welcomed Catholics and Protestants before finally being used as a mosque. Entirely destroyed during the Second World War, only its panoramic tower remains.

A shopping mall, a subway station with dizzying escalators, a streetcar hub, the former Moscow Square, which has undergone a long urban rehabilitation, is functional again, its architecture has become neutral, worthy of a modal node of public transport without asperity. The renominational madness of István Tarlós, conservative mayor of Budapest from 2010 to 2019, has taken over Moszkva tér to give it back its pre-communist name.

Located in the north of Budapest, after Margarita Island, Óbudai-hajógyári Sziget wakes up in the summer from its long winter lethargy. This former shipbuilding site is the ideal place to host an event such as the gigantic Sziget music festival. It's a pity that the island is not more enhanced the rest of the year (there is not really a developed park but you can still walk, cycle...).

In 1760, the first synagogue was built in Buda, although the community's presence dates back at least to the 14th century. Five years later, the Zichy family gave the Jewish community a plot of land on which the new synagogue was built. It was not until 1820 that the building was rebuilt in a classic style. After having once housed television studios, since 2010 and after renovation, the building has once again become a place of Jewish worship.

Around 90 AD, the Romans conquered part of present-day Hungary, which they called Pannonia. The city of Aquincum developed in the 2nd and 3rd centuries to become the capital of Lower Pannonia and had 14,000 inhabitants at its peak. The ruins of Aquincum reveal all its splendours. An exhibition evokes the cult of Mithra. The garden between the ruins has preserved the remains of the Roman forum, the public baths and the market.

Now that it has been cleared of its fences linked to the work on the automatic metro (line 4), Place Kálvin is more than ever the epicentre of student and festive Budapest. It owes its name to Pastor Calvin, and this is where the city's two eastern gates, destroyed in 1796, were located. Hotel Mercure Korona hides the remains of one of them. To the west of the square stands the Calvinist temple of Budapest (Budapesti Kálvin Református Templom).

The square is named after a great Hungarian actress of the ^19th century nicknamed the "National Nightingale". It is the nerve center of the city and has benefited from major works until 2022 to give it back its letters of nobility. One of the most prestigious theaters of Budapest was located on this square. It was unfortunately destroyed in the 1960s; a stele pays tribute to it. It is also a metro stop ideally located at the intersection of lines 2, 4 and 6.

A theatre of very violent clashes during the revolution of 1956, of which they were the headquarters, the old barracks (or barracks Kilián) no longer bear the marks of the impact of the bullets they were victims of.

Plot 301 of the new municipal cemetery is very famous. It was in this mass grave that the body of Imre Nagy, the great organizer of communist reformism, was dumped anonymously after he and his supporters were tried by a special court in 1958. It was only on June 16, 1989 that a national funeral was organized. The cemetery is partly Jewish: do not miss the mausoleum of Bela Lajta. The graves can be reached from Kozma Street.

One must enter Rumbach Street to admire this so-called " status quo" synagogue (meaning neither Reform nor Conservative, in reference to a schism in the Jewish community at the end of the 19th century). Hidden between two buildings, its Moorish style (1872) is reminiscent of the Great Synagogue. Its remarkable interior has just been restored to its original condition after years of closure. The synagogue houses an exciting little museum floor.

Gábor, Agi and their team have more than one trick up their sleeve to help you discover Budapest. Are you more interested in the "communist past", the Jewish quarter (meeting at 10:30 or 14:30 depending on the day) or an evening stroll to dive into Budapest's nightlife (17:30)? The visit is, in any case, well done! Please refer to their website for exact times and meeting places. Possibility to ask for a guided tour in French.

Very central, just off the Deák Ferenc metro station, the largest of the capital's tourist offices. Very professional welcome and many brochures in French. There are two other offices worth mentioning, one on the castle hill (Tárnok utca 15, 9am-7pm) and the other at the entrance to the skating rink in the town woods (Olof Palme Setány 9am-7pm). Two other offices at the airport, Terminal 2A (8am-10pm) and Terminal 2B (9am-9pm). The other tourist offices you might come across are not official and are there to sell excursions.

We can only welcome the return of the Touriform from the Hill Hill, a time spent in private hands.

In the middle of a garden, the yellow facade of this charming church evokes the Baroque style. The building as it stands today was built by Serbian immigrants at the end of the 18th century. Inside, the structure obeys the ordinance of the Greek Orthodox churches, a pity that it is rarely accessed... At the corner of Szerb Street and Veres Pálné utca, we notice a very pretty ceramic medallion representing Saint George, to whom the church is dedicated.