About this experience
During the tour, you will find ancient and most valuable buildings in terms of history and architecture that have survived to this day in Pest, and you will also see its urban core. Along the way, I will tell you about the most important and interesting pages in the city's history.
Visitors to Budapest stroll along the famous pedestrian street Váci, but they do not suspect that they are on the oldest territory of the city. This old part of Pest is somewhat hidden from the eyes of tourists, and its history is not very well-known even to the majority of the city's native residents. It is not easy to spot the hoary antiquity among the buildings of the late XIX — early XX century.
In the late XIX century, a plan emerged to build a new, fourth bridge connecting the two parts of the city: Pest and Buda. For this purpose, the historical core of the city was destroyed; 120 houses were demolished, five squares disappeared, and the meandering narrow streets of old Pest were forever lost.
What survived as a result of the realization of this project? The city in the Middle Ages was surrounded by fortress walls that stood until the end of the XVIII century. Their fragments can still be seen today. In some places, even freely standing sections of these walls are visible. I will help you find them and tell you what they meant in the past and how they are connected to the city's history.
What to expect
We will walk along the line of former city walls, peek into the courtyard of a residential building to take a closer look at a fragment of the old city wall, and also see freely standing sections that are lost among modern city buildings. I will tell you the history of these walls, once guarding the city. You will also learn where the former city gates stood and why they were positioned in that way. I will accompany my narrative with copies of engravings and photographs of old Pest.
We start the tour from Vörösmarty tér, where Váci Street begins. We finish at the opposite end of the same street at the Central Market Hall (Nagycsarnok). To avoid confusion, keep in mind that the route of our walk will not cover the entire length of Váci Street; during the tour, we will be crossing it, inspecting the adjacent streets.
