Fisherman's Bastion

Seven white neo-Romanesque turrets along the edge of the Castle Hill, one for each of the Magyar tribes that arrived in the Carpathian Basin in 896.

Despite appearances it was never a fortification. Frigyes Schulek built it between 1895 and 1902 as a viewing terrace and a decorative frame for Matthias Church behind it, on the site of a stretch of medieval wall that the fishermen's guild was said to have defended — hence the name. It is architecture pretending to be older than it is, and it does the job so well that most visitors assume it is medieval.

The view is straight across the river to the Parliament, which was being finished at the same time and to a matching silhouette. The two buildings were designed to be looked at from each other.

The upper terraces are ticketed during the season; the lower ones are free and the difference in view is marginal. What is not marginal is the hour: between about ten in the morning and six in the evening the terraces belong to tour groups arriving by the busload. Before nine or after seven it is a different place entirely, and after dark, with the Parliament lit across the water, it is the best free thing in Budapest.