A 235-metre dolomite hill with a fortress the Habsburgs built to point its guns at the city below.
The hill is named for Bishop Gellért, an Italian missionary brought in by King Stephen to convert the Hungarians, and killed during the pagan uprising of 1046 — sealed in a barrel, according to the tradition, and rolled off this cliff into the Danube. A large statue of him now stands on the slope above Elizabeth Bridge with his arm raised, looking across at the city that did it.
The Citadella
The fortress on top was built by the Habsburgs in 1851, immediately after they put down the Hungarian revolution of 1848–49 with Russian help. Its guns faced the city rather than any external enemy, and everyone understood the message. It never fired on Budapest, but it did not need to.
It has been a barracks, an anti-aircraft position in the Second World War, and for a long stretch of the communist period a somewhat neglected tourist attraction. It has been closed for a lengthy reconstruction in recent years and its opening status changes; the views from the terraces around it do not depend on getting inside.
The Liberty Statue
The 14-metre bronze woman holding a palm frond, visible from most of Pest, went up in 1947 to mark the Soviet liberation of Budapest from German occupation. The original inscription thanked the liberating Soviet heroes and there were Red Army soldiers at the base. After 1989, the soldiers were removed to Memento Park and the inscription was rewritten to honour all who gave their lives for Hungary’s independence. The statue itself stayed, which was the pragmatic Hungarian solution.
The climb
There are several paths. From Szent Gellért tér, by the Gellért Hotel and baths, a switchback path climbs through the trees and takes about twenty-five minutes at an unhurried pace. From the Elizabeth Bridge side the route is steeper and shorter. There are benches and a good deal of shade.
The view from the top is the widest in Budapest — the whole sweep of the river, all the bridges at once, Castle Hill below you rather than beside you, and the Pest grid running out to the horizon. Sunset is the obvious time and you will not be alone.
More Landmarks
The Hungarian Parliament Building
The third-largest parliament building in the world, put up for a country that was about to lose two-thirds of its territory.
Fisherman's Bastion
A neo-Romanesque viewing terrace that has never defended anything, built purely so that Budapest could be looked at properly.
Széchenyi Chain Bridge
The first permanent bridge between Buda and Pest, and the thing that made them one city.