Before and after the concert
A Castle Hill evening
How to fit an hour of music into an evening on Buda Castle Hill: the Fisherman's Bastion, the Holy Trinity Column, the funicular and the way back down.
Book a seat on Castle Hill ↗Quick answer
A concert in Matthias Church lasts about an hour, which leaves room for the rest of Castle Hill. The Fisherman's Bastion stands beside the church, the Holy Trinity Column in front of it, and the funicular links the hill to the river. Dinner is best booked after the concert, and the way down is worth deciding before you go up.
The Fisherman's Bastion
The Fisherman's Bastion is a terrace of white towers beside Matthias Church, built by Frigyes Schulek between 1895 and 1902 in a neo-Romanesque style on the base of a stretch of the Buda Castle walls. Its seven towers represent the seven Magyar tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in 895. From its terraces you look over the Danube, Margaret Island, Gellért Hill and Pest, which makes it the best place on the hill to watch the city change as the light goes.
The Holy Trinity Column
In front of the church stands the Holy Trinity Column, a plague memorial erected in 1713. It gives the square its name, Szentháromság tér. The column and the church are close together, so the two are easy to take in as one picture, particularly after dark, when the church is floodlit and the stone glows. A few minutes on the square before the concert is time well spent, and it costs nothing. The name Szentháromság tér simply means Holy Trinity Square, so the column and the square share a name.
The Castle Quarter
UNESCO inscribed the Buda Castle Quarter in 1987 as one part of its Budapest World Heritage listing, which also covers the Danube banks and Andrássy Avenue. The quarter sits behind the old walls, north of the palace, and holds medieval, baroque and neoclassical houses, churches and monuments. It is a place to walk slowly rather than to cross, and an evening is a good time to do so, once the day's crowds have thinned. Down at the river's edge, the Neo-Renaissance Várkert Bazár, built between 1875 and 1882 to designs by Miklós Ybl, marks one of the old approaches to the hill. Museums and the national library fill the palace at the southern end, which shows how much of the hill is given over to culture.
The funicular
The funicular went into service in 1870 and runs between Clark Ádám tér, beside the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, and the Castle. The Second World War destroyed it, and it reopened in 1986. Because it carries a special fare and has its own operating hours, check both for your date before planning your return around it, and keep the walk down as your fallback.
Fitting dinner in
A concert of about an hour is short, so it does not replace dinner. Booking a table for after the concert avoids arriving at the church flustered, and a walk back down the hill follows naturally. If you prefer to eat first, leave a margin so that you reach the church before the start, and remember that the ticket does not cover food or a transfer: both are yours to arrange.
Coming down the hill
Decide your route before you go up. The funicular is a short ride if it is running, the river lies below the hill on foot, and a taxi is another option. Keeping the plan simple matters more than the choice itself, since you will leave a quiet church with a head full of music, so the way home should already be settled. Decide before the concert, then enjoy the walk.
Frequently asked questions
How much of the evening does the concert take?
The concert runs about an hour, so most of the evening is free before or after.
Can I visit the Fisherman's Bastion?
It stands beside the church. Check its current access rules for your date before planning around it.
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