Fisherman's Bastion

Interesting facts

On the pedestal of King Stephen's statue, sculptor Alajos Stróbl portrayed the ageing architect Schulek as the bearded, kneeling master builder.

Schulek first planned a domed hall around the statue of Saint Stephen, but the budget allowed only a free-standing monument in the open courtyard.

Halls for the seven chieftains were dropped from the plan; the idea was realised instead in Pest, in the Millennium Monument on Heroes' Square.

Construction finally cost 1,165,000 forints, well above the first budget of 800,000 forints.

A lion relief from a Romanesque church, unearthed during the rampart works, was built into the lower gate of the main stairway.

Nearby stands a bronze copy of the 14th-century Saint George and the Dragon at Prague Castle, originally cast by the Hungarian Kolozsvári brothers.

A statue nearby honours Friar Julian, the Dominican who set out in 1235 to find the Magyars who had stayed in their eastern homeland.

The statue of John Hunyadi, unveiled in 1903 on a pedestal designed by Schulek, shows the general in a raven helmet above captured Turkish flags.

Beneath the main northern tower stand statues of the chieftains Előd and Álmos, together with a lion holding a shield and a dragon.

Building the Hilton hotel directly behind the bastion in the 1970s, around the ruins of a Dominican church, sparked long-running controversy.

Why it is worth it

On the edge of Castle Hill in Buda, a terrace of white stone arcades, staircases and conical turrets runs for about 140 metres along the slope above the Danube. From its parapets the view crosses the river to the Hungarian Parliament and the rooftops of Pest. The seven pointed towers stand for the seven Magyar chieftains traditionally credited with founding Hungary in 895, and the whole ensemble wraps around the sanctuary of Matthias Church.

The bastion is the work of the architect Frigyes Schulek, who designed it in Neo-Romanesque style as a setting for his restoration of Matthias Church. It was built between 1895 and 1902 on a stretch of the old castle walls, which had been rebuilt in the 18th century after the Rákóczi uprising, and it was handed over to the city in 1905. The name is usually linked to the guild of fishermen who, by tradition, defended this section of the walls in the Middle Ages, or to Fishtown, their settlement at the foot of the hill. Once the castle lost its military role in 1874, Schulek was free to open the ramparts towards the river and turn them into a promenade: covered arcades follow the line of the old battlements, broad stairs climb from below past statues of 10th-century warriors, and the southern courtyard holds an equestrian statue of King Stephen by Alajos Stróbl, made between 1896 and 1906.

The bastion was badly damaged during the siege of Budapest in the Second World War and restored by 1953. Since 1987 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site that covers the Buda Castle Quarter and the banks of the Danube. Budapest spreads across both banks of the Danube, with hilly Buda on the west and flat Pest on the east; the bastion stands in the old castle town on the Buda side, the seat of Hungarian kings in the Middle Ages.

Getting there

The bastion is in the Castle District of central Budapest, a short walk from Buda Castle. The Castle Hill Funicular, opened in 1870, climbs from Clark Ádám Square at the Chain Bridge. Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD) is about 19 km away.

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Fisherman's Bastion

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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