Óbuda & Aquincum

What it is

District III, and the oldest of the three towns that merged into Budapest in 1873. Óbuda means, literally, Old Buda.

The Romans got here first. Aquincum, the capital of the province of Pannonia Inferior, stood on this ground with a civilian town, a military camp and two amphitheatres. Substantial remains survive in the open.

What is here

The Aquincum Museum and archaeological park, with the ruins of the civilian town. The military amphitheatre, sitting in the open beside a modern road junction. Fő tér, a small Baroque main square that feels like a provincial town centre dropped into a capital. The Vasarely Museum and the Kiscelli Museum. Along the river to the north, Római part, a strip of riverside beaches and open-air restaurants that is a Budapest summer institution.

What it is like

Genuinely residential and genuinely quiet. Large sections were rebuilt as prefabricated housing estates in the 1970s, and the historic core survives as islands within that — which is disconcerting the first time and part of what makes it interesting.

Very few visitors come this far north, which is most of the appeal.

Practical

The HÉV suburban railway from Batthyány tér is the fastest way here, and it continues to Szentendre — which makes Óbuda an easy stop on the way to or from that day trip.

Cheaper accommodation than anywhere central, at the cost of a real commute into town.