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Budapest Shines with Grand Castle Complex Overlooking Danube
By Tom Kagy | 17 Jun, 2025
Hungary's bright and majestic capital deserves the title Grand Duchess of the Danube.
Our drive from Bratislava to Budapest roughly followed the Danube's southeasterly flow through some of the greenest, lushest fields we had ever seen. By the time it reaches Budapest the Danube is a broad, majestic presence worthy of its role as the grand city's visual center.
The Szechenyi Chain Bridge, opened in 1849, is Hungary's oldest permanent bridge across the Danube.
To the west of the Danube is the broad ridge on which Buda perches magnificently, its spires and bastions shining like CGI alabaster in some medievalist sci-fi fantasy. To its east is the flat expanse of Pest with the stunningly intricate white Hungarian Parliament building providing a worthy lowland reply to Buda's elevated castle complex.
Mattias Church, a basilica that forms the most spectacular presence at the Fisherman's Bastion, has been rebuilt and renovated numerous times since it was first built in the 11th century.
It was mid afternoon when we exited the M1 expressway and navigated to the riverside drive on the Buda side of the Danube to pull up in front of Park Plaza Budapest, a four-star hotel located at the base of Castle hill and almost directly across the Danube from Országház, the Hungarian Parliament.
This view of the northern section of Fisherman's Bastion is afforded through the archway at the center of the Bastion.
Our room wouldn't be ready for another forty minutes so we walked across the lobby to the hotel lounge bar where two other tables of hotel guests awaited their rooms. Not wanting to fill our bellies with hotel lounge food which, we presumed, would be devoid of local authenticity, we ordered a club sandwich and a caesar salad. The food arrived after twenty-five minutes which seemed too long for such basic fare. We were impatient to get settled in and make full use of the rain-free daylight hours to explore.
This cafe astride the ramparts of Fisherman's Domain is one of two dining options in the mile-long Buda Castle complex with spectacular views of Budapest.
When we were led up to our room we were impressed by the inspiring view across the river to the government center and Parliament complex which was glowing a warm brilliant white in the afternoon sun.
We decided to walk up the steep streets leading up to Halászbástya, Fisherman's Bastion, which we could see through the window of the elevator lobby. It was perched directly across from us, less than three hundred yards away and perhaps a hundred feet elevated relative to our vantage point. Cinematically, it would have made a great City of Oz, so picturesque and multifarious were the ornamentation of its multiple spires and turrets.
Busker Fun Zhi from China's Yunnan province enthralled us with his memorable rendition of "Hey, Soul Sister" as the Fisherman's Bastion's evening crowd began thinning.
We were intrigued and mystified that a complex perched on a ridgeline high above the river would be deemed a bastion of fishermen. To understand the name, we had to understand the word "bastion" in its literal sense, not in the figurative sense in which it's commonly used by us non-medieval folk.
A bastion is a defensive fortification jutting away from the main line of a fortress wall to give defenders the advantage of subjecting attackers to crossfire. And that particular imposing bastion with multiple turrets, built in a neo-romanesque style, had been assigned to the city's fishermen's guild to man in the event the city was invaded.
In fact, Buda — overlooking the mighty Danube and all that rich farmland — was invaded a number of times since Buda Castle 1.0 was put up in the 10th century by the Scythian King Magog (thus "Magyars" to denote Hungarians). First came the Mongols in 1241 to conquer Hungary and set King Béla to flight before abruptly withdrawing in 1242. Then the Ottoman Turks took a couple of turns at Buda, once in 1526 and again in 1541. And of course the terrible Siege of Budapest toward the end of World War II when Russian and Romanian forces surrounded the city for 50 days, resulting in 38,000 civilian deaths through starvation and mass executions of Jews by far-right Hungarian nationalists allied with Hitler.
By the time Budapest fell on Feb 13, 1945 everything on castle hill had been badly damaged. So the beautiful structures we admired at Fisherman's Bastion, the adjoining spectacularly multifarious Mattias Church, and the stately Buda Castle, during our two-day stay in the city had all been rebuilt by the national government between 2005 - 2015. Since the palace and the church had been renovated a number of times over the past millennium, everything our eyes beheld on that hill was most likely version 4.0 or higher.
We wandered around the parapet and turrets of Fisherman's Bastion enjoying the silent communion with hundreds of visitors from everywhere, especially China, Germany, France, the UK and the US. Yes, Budapest is a major tourist magnet. But unlike Prague's Charles Bridge, the tourist crowds are well dispersed over the expansive areas of castle hill. Aside from the dazzling view of Budapest from the Bastion's ramparts, the most spectacular sight at the Bastion is Mattias Church aka Buda Castle Church of the Assumption.
The church was originally built in 1015 in a romanesque style. Few traces of that structure remain today due to numerous renovations and reincarnations, including being turned into a mosque in 1541 during the second invasion of Ottoman Turks. Its current popular name comes from King Mattias Corvinus, who took the throne at the age of 14 and had a wildly successful reign. Mattias I, as he later became known, brought various parts of today's Czechia, Slovakia and Croatia under his rule, reclaimed parts of Hungary from the Ottomans, and built the soaring bell tower that marks the church's southwest corner, making it a memorable sight for future visitors from afar like us.
Today's Mattias Church is mostly in a florid late Gothic style, adorned with a fantastic variety of decorative elements and colors on its steeple and towers. After the Mongol invasion ended King Béla expanded it into a three nave structure, turning it into a basilica. After Buda was retaken from the Ottomans in 1686, the church fell under Franciscans, then Jesuits. In early 1700s it was incorporated into a big complex, losing its original medieval ornamentation. It wasn't until 1893 that the Church attained its present structure, though severe damage during the Siege of Budapest required extensive repairs. Since 1999 Mattias Church has belonged to the Catholic Church for the first time.
We were intrigued and mystified that a complex perched on a ridgeline high above the river would be deemed a bastion of fishermen.
The Hungarian Parliament is the most imposing presence along the Danube River in Budapest.
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