Petőfi Bridge
Blown up by retreating German troops in WWII, rebuilt, renamed for a poet — this Danube crossing layers two distinct histories into a single 514-metre walk.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Budapest offline.
Designed by Hubert Pál Álgyay and completed in 1937, the bridge originally honoured governor Miklós Horthy. After wartime destruction and a full rebuild, it reopened in November 1952 under its current name — Sándor Petőfi. It is Budapest's second southernmost public bridge, linking the tail of the Grand Boulevard to the Budapest University of Technology campus on the Buda side.
What to look for
- Boráros tér at the Pest end — the southern terminus of the Grand Boulevard and the Csepel HÉV commuter rail line
- The 25.6 m deck width of the bridge
- Goldmann György tér on the Buda side, where the Budapest University of Technology and Economics campus sits directly at the foot of the bridge
Start from the Pest side at Boráros tér, the southern terminus of the Grand Boulevard and the Csepel HÉV commuter rail line.
Petőfi Bridge is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Budapest, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Budapest pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Budapest
- Hungarian Parliament BuildingA political manifesto in stone: Hungary's parliament was built to look like Westminster, on purpose, with 40 kg of gold inside.
- Buda CastleA palace first raised in 1265, severely damaged in the Siege of Budapest during World War II, and rebuilt by a communist government — the scars and the seams are the story.
- Széchenyi Chain BridgeThe bridge that stitched Buda and Pest into one city — designed in Britain, shipped in sections, and opened in 1849 as one of the world's longest spans.
- Heroes' SquareAt the far end of Andrássy Avenue, a monument built in 1896 fixes the Magyar conquest of 896 AD in stone — seven founding chieftains, national leaders, and the plaza where Hungary reburied Imre Nagy in 1989.
- AquincumMarcus Aurelius is believed to have written parts of the Meditations here — on the Roman empire's frontier, not in Rome.
- St. Stephen's BasilicaThe first King of Hungary's mummified right hand sits in a reliquary here — and the dome above you had to be torn down and rebuilt from nothing after it collapsed in 1858.