In our previous story, we began at the Zero Kilometre Stone — the symbolic starting point of all Hungarian roads.
Now we continue from here, at the Buda end of the Chain Bridge, and rise step by step toward Castle Hill – just as the city itself once grew upward from the banks of the Danube.

Few modes of transport in Budapest are as practical and as symbolic as the Budavári Sikló, the Castle Hill Funicular.
The line connecting the Chain Bridge’s Buda bridgehead with the top of Castle Hill opened on 2 March 1870, and in its day was considered a true technical marvel.
In Europe, it was the second of its kind after the Montmartre funicular in Paris (1863) – serving both everyday commuters and visitors seeking to enjoy the city panorama.

The idea came from Count Ödön Széchényi, son of István Széchenyi, who had seen the Montmartre funicular during his time in Paris and suggested that Buda should have a similar one.
The project was financed by Count György Sina, and through their collaboration one of the earliest mechanized transport systems of the Hungarian capital was born.

At the same time, Ödön Széchényi was a pioneer in another vital field of urban life: he founded Budapest’s first fire brigade, which he also led as its president — a story we will return to in a later article.

The Castle Hill Funicular quickly became one of the city’s attractions.
By the turn of the century, beyond local residents and government clerks, more and more tourists were taking the short ride, and photographers often visited for the splendid view.
It continued to operate through the First World War, but was destroyed in 1945 during the siege of Budapest.
For decades it lay in ruins — the rails were removed, and the hillside grew over with grass.

It was only in 1986, forty years later, that the funicular came back to life – this time with electric traction, but faithfully preserving its original look.
Its reconstruction was not just a technical project but an emotional restoration: Budapest regained a beloved piece of its historic cityscape.

Today, the Budavári Sikló is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, and while it carries hundreds of tourists every day, it also acts as a kind of time machine — showing what travel must have felt like in 19th-century Budapest at the dawn of modernity.

It doesn’t hurry, it doesn’t flash — it simply jolts softly and begins its quiet ascent toward the Castle.