Citadella Tours and Activities

Rising 140 meters on the west side of the Danube, Gellért Hill is crowned with the fortified hulk of Citadella, which provides one of the best viewpoints in Budapest. From the ramparts there are far-reaching panoramas north to Buda Castle, and down the river to Széchenyi Chain Bridge, St Stephen’s Basilica and the Parliament House. Constructed by occupying Austrian forces in the 1840s, the citadel was loathed by the Hungarians, who tore down its fortified gates when the Austrians eventually left the city in 1897. Its 60 canon placements still remain, as do the six-meter ‘U’-shaped walls of the fort.

During World War II an air raid shelter was built in the Citadella, and this now houses a small museum about the war. In 1956, Soviet troops suppressed the Hungarian rebellion against Communism by firing heavy artillery from the fortress and Russian artillery is still scattered around the complex. Today the fortress encompasses an open-air history exhibition and is one of Budapest’s best free visitor attractions; a mini-village of bars, souvenir stores and restaurants has grown up around it, while the military barracks have been converted into a hotel. 

Other sights on UNESCO-listed Gellért Hill include the vast steel Statue of Liberty, built by the Russians in Socialist-Realist style to celebrate victory over the Nazis in the late 1940s. When the Communists finally departed Budapest in 1989, city fathers elected for the statue to remain as a symbol of the Hungary’s troubled past. Halfway up the slope, the underground Cave Church (Sziklatemplom) was built by monks in the 1920s and was requisitioned as a hospital in World War II. It opened again in 1992 after the fall of Communism. Tucked in at the foot of the hill are the famous Gellért spa baths, Secessionist in design and dating from 1918, although a spa has existed on this spot since the mid-17th century.