Budapest Guide
The Városliget and the stadium district
The Városliget
The Városliget (City Park) starts just behind Hősök tere, where the fairy-tale towers of Vajdahunyad Castle rear above an island girdled by an artificial lake that's used for boating in the summer and transformed into a splendid outdoor ice-rink in winter. Like the park, the castle was created for the Millenary Anniversary celebrations of 1896, proving so popular that the temporarystructures were replaced by permanent ones. Vajdahunyad is a catalogue in stone of architectural styles from the kingdom of Hungary, incorporating parts of two Transylvanian castles and a replica of the Romanesque chapel at Ják (May– Sept daily 10am–8pm; 100Ft), with a splendidly carved portal and a Renaissance courtyard that makes a romantic setting for evening concerts from July to mid-August.
In the main wing of the castle, the Agriculture Museum (Mezőgazdasági Múzeum; Tues– Sun 10am–5pm; 500Ft; www.mezogazdasagimuzeum.hu) traces the history of hunting and farming in Hungary. Its most interesting sections relate to the early Magyars and such typically Hungarian breeds of livestock as long-horned grey cattle (favoured for their draught power rather than their milk) and woolly pigs. Upstairs, the hunting section is notable for a prehistoric dugout boat carved from a single piece of oak, which was found at Lake Balaton southwest of the capital, and antique crossbows and rifles exquisitely inlaid with leaping hares and other prey.
Even if you decide to skip the museum, don't miss the hooded statue of Anonymous outside. This nameless chronicler to King Béla is the prime source of information about early medieval Hungary, though the existence of several monarchs of that name during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries makes it hard to date him (or his chronicles) with any accuracy. Further into the park roughly midway between the Castle and the Timewheel, a monument to George Washington erected in 1906 by immigrant Hungarians attests to the patriotism of the Magyar diaspora.