Budapest Guide
Józsefváros and Ferencváros
Józsefváros
Part of the Kiskörút, Múzeum körút separates the Belváros and Józsefváros. Aside from being curved rather than straight, it resembles Andrássy út in miniature, lined with trees, shops and grandiose buildings. Immediately beyond the East– West Business Centre by the Astoria junction stands the old faculty of the Eötvös Loránd Science University (known by its Hungarian initials as ELTE). It's named after the physicist Loránd Eötvös, whose pupils included many of the scientists who later developed the US atomic bombs at Los Alamos, including Edward Teller, "Father of the Hydrogen Bomb".
Across the street, on Ferenczy utca, you can see a small crenellated section of the medieval wall of Pest. Originally 2km long and 8m high, the walls gradually disappeared as the city was built up on either side, but fragments remain here and there – a larger freestanding chunk lurks in the courtyard of no. 21.
Staying on the outer edge of Múzeum körút, you'll find the Múzeum at no. 12, which was one of the earliest coffee houses in Pest. Its original frescoes and Zsolnay ceramic reliefs dating from 1885 still grace what has long since become a restaurant. From here, you can wander down Bródy Sándor utca, which runs along the garden of the Hungarian National Museum. The Renaissance-style mansion at no. 8 housed the lower chamber of the Hungarian Parliament from 1867 until its present building was completed, and is now home to the Italian Institute. Diagonally across the street at nos. 5–7 is the Radio Building, from which ÁVO guards fired upon students demanding access to the airwaves, an act which turned the hitherto peaceful protests of October 23, 1956 into an uprising against the secret police and other manifestations of Stalinism.