Parliament and Kossuth Square

In front of you stretches the Hungarian Parliament: 268 metres of neo-Gothic façade, pinnacles and statues. It is the largest building in the country and one of the largest parliaments in the world. But here the ground beneath your feet matters as much as the building.

1A palace for the millennium

In 1881 a competition was launched for a parliament worthy of a nation that, after the Compromise of 1867, was once again governing itself. Imre Steindl, an admirer of the Palace of Westminster, won. Work began in 1885; the two chambers first met here on 8 June 1896, in the middle of the celebrations for the thousandth anniversary of the Magyar arrival, and the building was completed in 1904. Steindl never saw it finished: he died in 1902. Since 2000 the Holy Crown of Hungary has been kept inside.

2Bloody Thursday

On 25 October 1956, in the first days of the revolution against the communist regime, an unarmed crowd gathered in this square. Around midday, gunfire was opened on them from the surrounding rooftops and from Soviet tanks. Official records speak of dozens killed and some two hundred wounded; the true toll has never been established, nor who gave the order. Ten days later, the Soviets crushed the revolution.

This is Hungary's political heart, and the site of one of its deepest wounds.

3What to look for

• The metal imitation bullets set into the façade of the Ministry of Agriculture, opposite Parliament: they mark the bullet strikes of 1956.
• The central dome, 96 metres high, the same as St Stephen's Basilica.
• The statues on the façade: rulers, chieftains and warriors from Hungarian history.