Városliget: Heroes' Square and the City Park
The Millennium colonnade, a castle of borrowed styles, and the great thermal baths in the park. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Hősök tere
Start at Heroes' Square, where Andrássy út ends in a sweep of colonnade. The Millennium column carries the archangel Gabriel; the seven mounted chieftains stand at its base, the kings and statesmen in the curved arcades behind. Stand back at the open end to take in the whole composition before you walk in.

2. Museum of Fine Arts
The grand columned building on the square's north side, holding the old-master collection — the El Grecos are the reason to go in. You don't have to; the portico alone anchors the square. Reopened after a long restoration, so the rooms are at their best.

3. Vajdahunyad Castle
Cross into the park to the castle built for the 1896 millennium exhibition — a deliberate jumble of Romanesque, Gothic and baroque, copying buildings from across old Hungary, meant to last a season and kept because the city loved it. Walk the courtyard; the hooded statue of Anonymous, the medieval chronicler, sits inside.

4. The boating lake
The lake curls round the castle — pedal boats in summer, an ice rink in winter when it freezes over and fills with skaters. Walk the bank for the reflection of the castle in the water. The bridge across gives the best line on it.

5. Széchenyi Baths
The great yellow neo-baroque bath complex in the middle of the park, fed from a thermal spring, its outdoor pools steaming even in winter. The men playing chess on floating boards in the hot pool are the photograph everyone takes. Bring a towel if you mean to go in; book ahead at weekends.

6. Vajdahunyad to the Timewheel
End near the giant Timewheel sandglass at the park's edge by the baths, then the M1 at *Széchenyi fürdő* takes you straight back down Andrássy út. Walk the last stretch under the plane trees; this corner of the park is the calmest.

Városliget: Heroes' Square and the City Park