If you walk across the Chain Bridge from Pest to Buda, you get to Clark Ádám tér – a roundabout between the Chain Bridge and the tunnel under the Castle Hill. On the left side of the tunnel is a small park with a stone stylized in a shape of zero, from which all the distances in Hungary are measured. From here you can either walk to the castle or take a funicular (sikló). The funicular started to operate in 1870 and still runs every day between 7.30am and 10pm, except on the first, the third and the fifth (if it exists) Monday of the month, when it is closed for maintenance.
If you wish to explore the Royal Palace and its environs thoroughly you can easily spend a day. The most important parts of the palace are the following:
The Turul: a huge bronze mythological bird of the ancient Magyar tribes protecting the entrance into the palace. You can spot its gigantic spread-out wings even from the Pest side of the Danube.
Hungarian National Gallery (Magyar Nemzeti Galéria) has a big collection of Hungarian pieces of art created in the period from the middle ages to the 20th century. Web: www.mng.hu
The Mátyás Fountain was made by Alajos Stróbl in 1904 and it depicts a legendary event from the life of king Mátjás Corvinus. One day while hunting he met a beautiful young lady, Szép Ilonka. She fell in love with Corvinus at first sight. However, once she found out that he was a king she died of grief knowing that there was not way for her love to come through. Mátjás stands at the top of the fountain, Ilonka is at the right.
Széchenyi Library serves as Hungarian National Library where copies of all publications ever published in Hungary are kept. The library is in the so called Ybl's wing of the Royal Palace, built according to plans of Miklós Ybl. He also made plans for the Budapest opera house. Ybl's wing of the Royal Palace doesn't face the river, thus it was not heavily damaged during the battle with the Red Army in 1945. Thus Ybl's wing gives the best impression of how the palace used to look like during the time of Franz Joseph. Web: www.oszk.hu
History Museum. The museum keeps all those rare artefacts that were not destroyed in all the wars and battles raging around the Royal Palace. While looking at the exhibits you still need plenty of imagination if you would like to imagine how rich and lavishly decorated the palace used to be.
Ottoman tombstones in the park at the southern edge of the Royal Palace are the only remains of a Turkish cemetery.
Sándor palota. The palace you will identify by the barricades, uniformed guards and limousines parked in front of it was built in 1806 and is the palace of the Hungarian president today. Web: www.keh.hu
Former Ministry of Defence is the only building which was not renovated after the battle between the Nazis and the Red Army in 1945. The bullet riddled building gives a good impression of how most of the palace looked like in 1945.