Underground and out of town: four sights beyond the six main ones
A museum in a former secret-police building, a hospital carved into rock, a park full of removed statues and a market hall tiled in Zsolnay ceramics — four places that do not make the six main sights.
- House of Terror
- Andrássy út 60, museum opened 2002
- Hospital in the Rock
- 15 m below Buda Castle
- Memento Park
- Opened 1993
Two cellars, a cave and one edge of town hold what the six main sights don't cover: the House of Terror keeps the cellar used by two secret police forces, the Hospital in the Rock was both a wartime surgery and a nuclear shelter, Memento Park holds the statues removed from the city after 1989, and the Great Market Hall is the city's oldest market, under a roof of Zsolnay tiles.
Gellért Baths are deliberately not on this list: they have been closed for a major renovation since October 2025, the indoor halls until the end of 2028 and the outdoor pools and a new spa until summer 2029. Anyone after a thermal soak before then should head to Széchenyi Baths, already on the main list of sights.
House of Terror — two cellars, two secret police forces
The Neo-Renaissance palace at Andrássy út 60 went up in 1880 as a family home; in 1944 it became the headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party, Hungary's Nazi collaborators, who tortured and killed Jews and political opponents in its cellars. After the war the same basement cells were taken over by the communist secret police, first the ÁVO then the ÁVH, and stayed in use until 1956. The museum opened in 2002, in the same building.
Hospital in the Rock — from wartime surgery to nuclear shelter
Natural caves beneath Buda Castle were converted, from 1939, into an emergency surgical hospital, finished in 1944. It treated the wounded during the Siege of Budapest in 1944–45 and again during the 1956 uprising, in a space built for two hundred and fifty beds. Between 1958 and 1962 the hospital was rebuilt as a nuclear shelter, kept secret until 2002; the museum opened in 2008, fifteen metres underground.
Memento Park — the statues after 1989
Budapest's city council decided in 1991 to remove communist-era statues from the city centre and gather them in one place; the park, designed by architect Ákos Eleőd, opened on 27 June 1993, two years after the last Soviet troops left. Among the statues are Lenin, Marx and Engels, and several Hungarian communist leaders — monuments that once stood on city squares now stand side by side on the southern edge of town.
The Great Market Hall — the city's oldest market
Nagycsarnok was built 1894–1897 to a design by architect Samu Pecz and opened on 15 February 1897; the idea came from Budapest's first mayor, Károly Kamermayer. The roof is tiled in Zsolnay ceramics from Pécs, known for their glaze and colour. The building was damaged in the Second World War and stood neglected until a thorough renovation in 1991. Free to enter.
An order that makes sense
The House of Terror sits along Andrássy út, on the way to the Pest sights — an add-on to Day 1 or a morning of its own. The Hospital in the Rock sits right below Buda Castle, so it naturally follows on from Day 3. Memento Park is further out, on the edge of town, and needs its own trip; the Great Market Hall is in central Pest, close to everything else.
The rest depends on how the edge of town is reached, and in which season:
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
Why isn't Gellért Baths on this list?
It has been closed for renovation since October 2025 — indoors until the end of 2028, the outdoor pools until summer 2029. Széchenyi Baths is the alternative.
What is Memento Park?
A park on the edge of the city holding communist-era statues removed from the centre after 1989 — opened in 1993, designed by architect Ákos Eleőd.
Is the House of Terror the same building for both regimes?
Yes. The same cellar at Andrássy út 60 was used by the fascist Arrow Cross in 1944 and by the communist secret police afterwards, until 1956.
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Where to next
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How well does Budapest suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
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