Fisherman's Bastion

Look around you: conical turrets, round arches, stairways running down towards the city. It all looks like a medieval rampart, yet Fisherman's Bastion was built between 1895 and 1902. It was never meant to defend anything. It was built for looking.

1A stage set for the millennium

It was designed by Frigyes Schulek, the architect who restored Matthias Church, as a great neo-Romanesque viewing terrace to frame the church. It went up during the fever of the 1896 millennium, when Hungary was celebrating a thousand years since the arrival of the Magyars. Hence the seven towers: one for each of the seven Magyar tribes that, according to tradition, settled in the Carpathian Basin.

2Why "Fisherman's"?

The name goes back to the Middle Ages. It's often said that the fishermen's guild defended this stretch of the walls. Other historians link it to Halászváros, "Fishertown", the district that spread along the river at the foot of the hill. Both explanations live side by side.

The bastion was badly damaged in the Second World War and restored in 1953. Its Danube front is about 140 metres long.

From here, Budapest makes sense at a glance: Buda above, Pest opposite, the Danube in between.

3What to look for

• The seven towers with conical roofs: count them.
• The equestrian statue of St Stephen by Alajos Stróbl, unveiled in 1906, holding the double-barred apostolic cross.
• Parliament, across the river: the most photographed view in the city.