The Széchenyi Chain Bridge: The Iron Link Between Buda and Pest

Why is it significant?

Stand at the western bridgehead on Clark Ádám Square and gaze up at the colossal triumphal stone arches and heavy wrought-iron chains of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge.

Key Facts

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Stand at the western bridgehead on Clark Ádám Square and gaze up at the colossal triumphal stone arches and heavy wrought-iron chains of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. Before this masterpiece opened in eighteen forty-nine, the twin cities of Buda on its rocky hills and Pest on the flat plains were completely cut off every winter when floating ice chunks clogged the swift current of the Danube. Look closely at the monumental stone lions carved by sculptor János Marschalkó guarding the abutments. An enduring Budapest urban legend claims that the sculptor leaped to his death into the Danube during the grand opening ceremony when a spectator taunted him that the lions had no tongues. In truth, Marschalkó lived for decades afterward and playfully pointed out that lions' tongues lie naturally flat in their jaws! Count István Széchenyi, the Great Hungarian who championed the bridge, was driven by personal tragedy: in December eighteen twenty, he missed his father's funeral in Vienna because icy blizzards stopped all ferry crossings across the Danube for an entire week. Turn toward the hillside and step onto the yellow carriage of the historic Buda Castle Funicular.