Buda Castle Funicular & Royal Palace: Seat of Hungarian Monarchs

Why is it significant?

Step off the funicular onto the panoramic Castle Terrace and gaze across the sweeping ribbon of the Danube toward the Neo-Gothic Parliament building shimmering on the Pest riverbank.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Step off the funicular onto the panoramic Castle Terrace and gaze across the sweeping ribbon of the Danube toward the Neo-Gothic Parliament building shimmering on the Pest riverbank. Behind you rises the majestic green dome and limestone colonnade of the Royal Palace, seat of Hungarian monarchs since King Béla the Fourth fortified this ridge in twelve forty-seven following the devastating Mongol invasion.

Notice the giant bronze bird perched on the balustrade with wings outstretched and a ring in its beak: this is the Turul, the mythical falcon of ancient Magyar folklore that according to legend guided nomadic Hungarian tribes from the steppes of Central Asia into the Carpathian Basin in eight ninety-six.

The palace beneath your feet was besieged, burned, and rebuilt thirty-one times across eight centuries. Deep below the stone courtyards stretches a natural labyrinth of limestone caves where King Matthias Corvinus once imprisoned Count Dracula, the historical Vlad the Impaler.

Walk north along the cobbled spine of Úri Utca into Holy Trinity Square.