Elizabeth Square (Erzsébet tér) is one of the largest green spaces in central Pest, a park between Deák Ferenc tér and Vörösmarty tér in Budapest's District V. In three centuries it has been a cemetery, a market, a park with a café, the country's main bus station and the building site of a National Theatre that was never finished. The hole dug for the theatre is now a club beneath a glass-bottomed pool.
Elizabeth Square at a glance
- Where: District V, between Deák Ferenc tér and Vörösmarty tér, next to Deák Ferenc tér station, where three metro lines meet.
- Created: laid out as a park from 1854; it was the first public square named after Empress Elisabeth, the Habsburg empress and Hungarian queen.
- What it is today: a park with lawns, a fountain, a playground and sports courts, the Budapest Eye Ferris wheel, the Akvárium Klub underground and a bar in the former bus station.
- Time needed: 20–30 minutes to walk round, longer if you ride the wheel or stop for a drink.
Cemetery, market, bus station, pit
In the 17th century the site was a cemetery, later turned into a marketplace. A temporary German theatre that stood here burned down in 1847, and from 1854 the city planted thousands of saplings to create a park. A neo-Renaissance kiosk with a café followed in 1870 and an iron fence in 1872. The square was named after Elisabeth, the empress known for her fondness for Hungary. In 1907 the kiosk was rebuilt in Art Nouveau style for the National Salon, an exhibition hall, which was pulled down in 1960.
In 1949 the square received the largest bus terminal in the country, a functionalist building by the architect István Nyiri, influenced by the Bauhaus. As newer stations opened it lost its role, and the buses left in the early 2000s. In 1996 a competition was held for a new National Theatre here; building began in 1998 but stopped the same year, and the theatre was later built elsewhere, by the Danube. The excavation, nicknamed the National Pit (Nemzeti Gödör), became the Gödör cultural centre. The park was redesigned in 2006, and the space under the pool is now the Akvárium Klub.
What to look for
- The Danubius Fountain: designed by Miklós Ybl and built in 1880–1883, with Danubius, god of the Danube, standing on a dolphin above three women who stand for its tributaries, the Tisza, the Drava and the Sava. The sculptors were Béla Brestyánszky and Leó Feszler. It first stood on Kálvin tér.
- The former bus station: the low modernist building in the square, a protected monument from 1948–1949, now home to a bar with a terrace.
- The glass-bottomed pool: the long, shallow pool whose bottom is the roof of the club below, which gave the Akvárium (Aquarium) its name.
- The Budapest Eye: a Ferris wheel more than 60 metres high, first set up on the square in 2013 after being used at the Sziget Festival.
- The lawns and terraces: the 2006 redesign used granite, gravel and wooden decking, and on warm days the grass and the steps around the pool fill with people.
The Michael Jackson tree
In 1996 Michael Jackson performed in Budapest and stayed at the Kempinski hotel, which overlooks the square. Fans gathered beneath his windows, and a tree in the park became their meeting point. After his death in 2009 it turned into an informal memorial, and fans still hang photos, notes and flowers on the tree now known as the Michael Jackson Tree.
Tips for your visit
- Come on a summer evening, when young people sit on the grass and around the pool and the wheel is lit up.
- Ride the Budapest Eye around sunset for views over the rooftops to the dome of St Stephen's Basilica.
- The Akvárium Klub hosts concerts and club nights; check its programme if you want to catch a show.
- Use the square as a break between sights: it is right next to Deák Ferenc tér metro station.
Nearby
- Deák Ferenc tér: the transport hub next door, where three metro lines meet, with the Lutheran church on the square.
- Vörösmarty tér: the square at the start of Váci utca, with the Gerbeaud café and, in winter, a Christmas market, a few minutes' walk west.
- St Stephen's Basilica: Budapest's largest church, a few minutes' walk north, with a viewing terrace around the dome.
- Andrássy út: the grand boulevard leading to Heroes' Square, which starts just north of the square.
See Budapest with World City Trail
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Facts checked in October 2026.