The Hungarian State Opera is a neo-Renaissance building capped by a row of stone statues representing sixteen great composers. Emperor Franz Joseph I funded its construction, but he attached a strict condition: the building could not…
Andrássy Avenue
Stroll down Budapest’s grand, UNESCO-listed boulevard, designed in the late 19th century to rival the elegance of Paris. You will view beautiful neo-Renaissance palaces, the magnificent State Opera, and historic mansions before finishing at the monument-filled Heroes' Square.
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1. Hungarian State Opera
2. Drechsler-palota
The Drechsler Palace is the yellow building on the corner of Andrassy Avenue with a roofline of sharp, copper-green gables and dormers. Designed by Odon Lechner and Gyula Partos in the late nineteenth century, it served as the home for the…
3. Lotz-terem
The Lotz-terem inside the Paris Department Store in Budapest holds a ceiling fresco that Károly Lotz finished in eighteen eighty-four. It shows the triumphs of art and science painted in gold and deep blues. Before this grand ballroom…
4. House of Terror Museum
The House of Terror displays a black steel frame protruding from its roof, casting the word TERROR onto the sidewalk in large, jagged shadows. This building served as the headquarters for both the Arrow Cross Party and the communist secret…
5. Kodály körönd
The circular plaza at Kodály körönd features four identical Renaissance-style palaces that frame the intersection like the petals of a flower. In the nineteenth century, city planners designed this intersection as an elegant, star-shaped…
6. Alice Hotel
The Alice Hotel sits behind a wrought iron fence, distinguished by the pale yellow plaster and white stone ornamentation of its Neo-Renaissance facade. Originally built in eighteen seventy-three as a private villa for the Luthier family,…
7. Heroes' Square
The Millenary Monument at the center of Heroes' Square features a column topped by the Archangel Gabriel, who holds the Hungarian crown and a double cross. Below, seven bronze chieftains sit on horseback, representing the tribes that…