Budapest Guide
The Belváros
Váci utca
Váci utca has been famous for its shops and korzó (promenade) since the eighteenth century. During the 1980s, its vivid streetlife became a symbol of the "consumer socialism" that distinguished Hungary from other Eastern Bloc states. Since 1989 it has been a tourist haunt, with endless souvenir shops and rip-off bars where unsuspecting visitors would be tricked into paying huge bills. Today the northern half of the street, down to Ferenciek tere, has at least gained a touch of style from a number of outlets for big Western designer names. A few landmarks along the way might catch your eye: the scantily-clad Fisher-girl fountain on Kristóf tér; the Pest Theatre (no. 9) on the site of the Inn of the Seven Electors, where the 12-year-old Liszt performed in 1823; and the former Auction House (no. 11A), with its neo-Gothic facade of majolica tiles and toothy wrought-ironwork.
An underpass further south brings you out on Március 15 tér, where a weird stone monument resembling a giant cactus flower commemorates the 125th anniversary of the unification of Buda and Pest. Beyond here, the pedestrianized continuation of Váci is infested with tourist-trap restaurants and shops, but retains some imposing architecture: worth a look are the prewar Officers' Casino (no. 38) guarded by statues of halberdiers (now a bank's headquarters), and the sculptural plaque on the wall of no. 47, commemorating the fact that the Swedish King Charles XII stayed here during his lightning fourteen-day horse-ride from Turkey to Sweden, in 1714. Further along at nos. 62–64 looms the griffon and majolica-encrusted Old Budapest City Hall, where the city council still meets.