The Castle Hill: Várnegyed and the funicular down
The palace, Matthias Church, the Fishermen's Bastion, and the funicular down to the Chain Bridge. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Budavári Sikló (the funicular)
Start at the bottom station on *Clark Ádám tér*, by the Chain Bridge. The 1870 funicular climbs the cliff in under a minute on two wooden carriages. You can walk up the stepped path beside it for free; ride it down at the end instead, when your legs have earned it.

2. Buda Castle (the Royal Palace)
The vast palace on the southern spur, rebuilt so many times it's really a museum of Hungarian history in stone. The courtyards and the terrace over the Danube are free and open; the *Vármúzeum* and National Gallery want tickets. Walk out to the Savoyai terrace for the river.

3. Szentháromság tér and Matthias Church
The heart of the *Várnegyed*, around the plague column on Holy Trinity Square. *Mátyás-templom* — Matthias Church — wears a roof of glazed Zsolnay tiles in zigzag colour. Step inside for the painted interior; it's unlike any other church in the city.

4. Halászbástya (the Fishermen's Bastion)
The white neo-Romanesque terrace behind the church, its seven turrets standing for the seven Magyar tribes. The lower walkways are free and give you the whole of Pest — Parliament dead ahead across the water. The upper towers charge a small fee; the view from below is the same shape.

5. Úri utca and the old town lanes
Turn off the crowds into *Úri utca* — Gentlemen's Street — and the quiet cobbled lanes of the medieval quarter. Look for the Gothic sedilia, the carved niches set into the doorways, survivors from the 14th century. Almost nobody walks these.

6. Bécsi kapu tér (the Vienna Gate)
The northern gate of the quarter, where the road once ran to Vienna. The square is calm and residential, with the national archives looming over it. Loop back along the western rampart for the Buda Hills view, then down to the funicular.

The Castle Hill: Várnegyed and the funicular down