Tour Details
Duration
3 hours
Product Type
Tour
Venues
- Andrassy Avenue
- Heroes' Square
- Vorosmarty Square
Photos & Highlights
- Take a step back in time to Budapest’s golden age in this architecture tour
- Led by an architect or historian
Select a date
Tour Description
During this 3-hour Budapest architecture tour with a local architectural historian, we'll discover the city's Belle Epoque, or golden age, when, at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Hungarian capital flourished as a center of art and learning. Together, we’ll stroll down the city’s stately avenues and dig deeply into the stories of this brief but transformative time, along the way seeing some of the most stunning examples of Hungarian Art Nouveau architecture.
Budapest Architecture Tour
The central theme of our tour is how Budapest was recast as a center of culture; today, the city is protected as a World Heritage Site, due in no small part to the stunning, eclectic mix of neo-Renaissance and Art Nouveau buildings that came together rapidly at the turn of the 20th century, drastically changing the face of the urban landscape. We’ll spend time on and around Andrassy Street, a central axis of the reviving city. Beginning with an overview of the geopolitical events that motivated Hungary’s rise from its humble origins, we will look at how Budapest became a booming economic hub, drawing inspiration for its design and culture from Vienna.
"Learned more about Hungarian history in the first hour than in trying to read any guidebook."
Hungarian Art Nouveau
Along the way, we’ll visit the Opera House and the Academy of Music. We’ll look at how changing social conditions and the rise of a bourgeoisie, similar to that in Paris and other cities, stimulated new aesthetics and new ideas for the city. We’ll consider the 1890s subway that runs beneath the avenue, the first on the continent, and how urban areas such as Lipot-town were developed with a new emphasis on entertainment and culture.
Interested in learning more about the rise of Budapest's Jewish citizenry through the granting of equal civic rights to minorities during the Golden Age? Take a look at our Budapest Jewish Tour.
Interested in learning more about the rise of Budapest's Jewish citizenry through the granting of equal civic rights to minorities during the Golden Age? Take a look at our Budapest Jewish Tour.
Take Aways
By the time we wrap up, we will have gazed up at Budapest’s finest architectural relics of this cultural renaissance and learned the context behind the facades. We will emerge from the walk with a stronger understanding of how Budapest exploded in a very short time, advancing from an isolated town mired in feudal economics into an innovative, major European metropolis. To learn more about how that momentum still affects Hungarian society today, take our Budapest Politics Tour.
Where You'll Start
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149 Reviews
Reviews can only be left by Context customers after they have completed a tour. For more information about our reviews, please see our FAQ.
Eniko was thoughtful, engaged and knowledgable, and we were fortunate to have a personal tour. We recently did a longer tour in South America with a seasoned, professional tour guide who was loaded with anecdotes and detailed human stories of places we visited. That element wasn't strong on this tour, though architectural and city history were excellent.
The only suggestion for the structure of the walk is to make it clear ahead of time that it ends as far out as Independence Square. We felt a bit stranded; it was a long walk to get back into the old town, and the alternative was to get another subway ticket to get back.
Thank you for a good experience.
Dan and barbara
Reviewed on:
Sep 19, 2013
Sofia has a gift. You can tell that she is a teacher. She invites the group into an ongoing discussion of the events that are part of the tour. Her English is impressive. Her ability to communicate her talking points made the tour so worthwhile. We covered many diverse areas of the city. She made a point of tying the various time periods together. That was very important to me as a first time visitor to Budapest. She is a wonderful representative of her city.
Gibson
Reviewed on:
Aug 7, 2013
Eniko was very helpful as we were her only clients that day. She was exceptionally well-informed and helpful, tailoring the walk to our interests while showing us this part of Budapest.
William
Reviewed on:
Aug 4, 2013
