Széll Kálmán tér used to be the bad-tempered heart of Buda — a transit knot everyone passed through and nobody stayed in. Two things changed it: the square's 2016 rebuild, and the Millenáris park that grew out of an old factory just up the hill. Together they make a short, satisfying walk through Buda's reinvention.
Start in the square, freshly clean and finally usable, then walk north into the Millenáris. The park sits inside the former Ganz electrical-instrument works, and the best of it is that the brick halls were kept and reglazed rather than demolished — walk through the Fogadó hall and look up at the riveted steel roof. Behind the halls, a chain of ponds with a boardwalk, koi and the odd heron; beyond them a wooden playground and an open lawn. Slip out the north side to Marczibányi tér, a leafy local square with a market hall, for a coffee.
Loop back past the Mammut — the great shopping centre on the corner — and down to Széll Kálmán tér for the M2.
