Liberty Bridge (Szabadság híd)
Why is it significant?
Walk out to the middle of the bridge and stop. Around you, a green lacework of steel; above, on the tops of the four masts, bronze birds with spread wings, perched on golden balls. Behind you, the cliff of Gellért Hill and the woman with the palm leaf; ahead, the Pest bank.
Key Facts
| Place | Liberty Bridge (Szabadság híd) |
|---|---|
| Address | Szabadság híd, 1093 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.48570, 19.05490 |
| Part of Walk | Hot Springs and a Hilltop: Budapest's Tabán, Gellért Hill and the Thermal Baths |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk out to the middle of the bridge and stop. Around you, a green lacework of steel; above, on the tops of the four masts, bronze birds with spread wings, perched on golden balls. Behind you, the cliff of Gellért Hill and the woman with the palm leaf; ahead, the Pest bank.
The birds are turuls, the mythical falcon of the ancient Magyars, which legend says guided them to their homeland. The bridge opened in 1896, for the millennium, and it was first named after Franz Joseph. The emperor came in person to the opening and, so the story goes, drove in the last rivet himself, a silver one with his monogram, at the Pest end.
In January 1945 this bridge, like every other in Budapest, was blown up by retreating German troops. But it was the first to be rebuilt. It reopened in 1946 with a new name, Szabadság híd, Liberty Bridge, and for a city of ruins and pontoons, its green girders spanning the river again were a sign that life would go on.
In recent summers, the bridge has had a second life. During tram works in 2016 it was closed to cars, and people simply took it over: they climbed onto the low girders, spread blankets on the tracks, played music and watched the sunset. In several summers since, it has been opened to pedestrians on weekends, and Budapest picnics on its bridge.
So look back one last time at the hill you have walked. At its feet, the springs that fill the Rudas and the Gellért, warmed deep in the rock. Above them, the slopes that once were vineyards, the bishop with his cross, the fortress built to frighten a city, and the woman holding up her palm leaf. Few capitals have a wild hill and hot springs in their very centre. Budapest has both... and you have just walked them, from a vanished quarter to the middle of the Danube.