Budapest, the ‘Pearl on the Danube’, meanders along both sides of the river and is divided into the flat Pest and the somewhat hilly Buda. Visitors will find all the main sights on the banks of the Danube - the famous Gellért Hotel with its thermal baths, the castle hill with its royal palace, the university or the rocky Gellért Hill with its Statue of Liberty and citadel. In the south of Pest, the Palace of Arts was built in 2005 and is home to the Museum of Modern Art with works by Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol as well as the Bela Bartók Concert Hall, which has since made a name for itself with its excellent acoustics.
The magnificent State Opera House, opened in 1884 by Franz Joseph I as the Royal Hungarian Opera House, was ordered by the king to remain smaller than the Vienna State Opera - but he allegedly forgot to specify that it should not be any more beautiful than its Viennese counterpart.