Ideas for a couple of art-filled hours in this charming town outside Budapest.
Note that I planned, wrote, and recorded several Budapest tours on VoiceMap. The app uses your location to play audio automatically at the right time and place – you can put your phone away and roam the city with me, so to say. My tours: City Center, Jewish Quarter, Andrássy Avenue.
What is Szentendre and what happens there?
Szentendre is a small town along the Danube located 40-minutes away from Budapest by public transport. This proximity to the capital together with Szentendre’s Mediterranean vibes, lively art scene, and plentiful gift shops make it a popular destination for locals and tourists. Szentendre’s food scene is what you would expect from a small city, but I included below cafés and restaurants that are unlikely to disappoint.
How do I get to Szentendre from Budapest?
The quickest and cheapest way to reach Szentendre from Budapest is via the HÉV suburban rail line. The Batthyány tér or the Margit híd, budai hídfő stations are usually most convenient to get on the train. You will need a valid Budapest public transport ticket (€1.50) and an extension ticket called "Békásmegyer-Szentendre" (€1.50), both of which you can buy from the machines at the stations. By HÉV, the trip takes about 40 minutes.
The train, which is old-school and rickety and kind of adorable, passes a couple of landmarks along the way: the remains of Aquincum, a once-thriving Roman town from the 2nd century AD, and the ancient aqueduct that runs along the rails between the Kaszásdűlő and Aquincum stations. At arrival, don't let the dreary buildings near the Szentendre train station break your spirit and instead head straight toward the old town through the underpass.
Another option is the more scenic river cruise, which operates from April to September (€10 for one-way, €15 for a round trip). The schedule changes seasonally, but the boats usually leave from downtown's Vigadó Square at 10:30 a.m. and return from Szentendre at 5:00 p.m. during peak season. The docking station is outside Corner restaurant in Szentendre. The journey upriver, toward Szentendre, takes an hour and a half, but only an hour on the way back to Budapest. For more schedules and ticket purchase, head this way.
A little Szentendre history
Approaching Szentendre's main square from the train station, one might notice something unusual: plaques written in Cyrillic letters, Serbian orthodox churches, Slavic-sounding street and church names such as Pozsarevacska and Kucsera, and labyrinthine alleys like in a Mediterranean town.
The reason? Fleeing Ottoman Turkey in the late 17th century, Serbian, Dalmatian, and Greek immigrants settled in this sleepy medieval town after King Habsburg Leopold I granted them civil and religious liberties. It was thanks to these newcomers that Szentendre started to flourish (naturally, by this time the Ottoman occupation of Hungary had ended).
At its peak in the 18th century, Szentendre had a Serbian population of 6,000 people, eight orthodox churches, several Serbian schools, and a thriving economy based on winemaking and commerce, using the nearby Danube for transport. Interestingly, in the early 20th century, when the Balkans was freed from the Ottomans, this close-knit community of local Serbs returned to their motherland, more than two hundred years after they had left it.
As a result, today only a dozen or so Serbian families live in Szentendre, and some of the deserted Serbian Orthodox churches have been converted to Roman Catholic and Calvinist denominations since. In the 20th century, Szentendre came to be best known for its art colony and museums (more below) and as a weekend hangout for tourists.
A step-by-step guide
From the train station, take Kossuth Lajos utca and head to the city center. The Ferenczy Museum, soon on your left, operates most museums in town and itself hosts top-notch temporary exhibitions. Steps away, the outdoor terrace of the Adria Café is a good place for a drink before you hit the downtown. Alternatively, try Folt Café around the corner, which draws a young local crowd, or the kiosk of Ibolyka, who freshly makes donuts (fánk) filled with sweetened farmer cheese and fruit preserves.
The main promenade, named after the late Serbian-Hungarian mayor, Jenő Dumtsa, is lined with unremarkable restaurants and gift shops, but take note of the Marzipan House, home to a paradise of marzipan candies in all shapes and sizes. Marzipan, a paste of almond and sugar, is popular in Hungary in large part thanks to Mátyás Szamos, a Szentendre-born Serbian-Hungarian confectioner who pioneered the craft of marzipan-making. Today, Szamos is a national chain of pastry shops helmed by the descendents of Mátyás Szamos. Their location next to the museum also serves traditional Hungarian cakes such as Dobos and Esterházy and krémes.
Flanked by Baroque houses that once belonged to wealthy Serbian merchants, the cross atop its pink marble base marks the center of Szentendre's old town (Fő tér). The Kmetty Museum houses a small exhibition about Hungary’s first Cubist painter, János Kmetty, and rotating shows of leading Hungarian artists.
The Blagovestenska Orthodox Church, also on the main square, still holds services during the winter when it's too costly to heat the main Serbian church of the town. Seeing its ornate iconostasis is worth the small admission, which can be combined with a visit to the adjoining Serbian Orthodox Museum (they are open every day, except Monday).
The Kovács Margit Ceramics Museum in the nearby Vastagh György utca is a wonderful place. Margit Kovács (1902-1977) was a brilliant ceramic designer whose artworks – decorative figurines, plates, vases, wall reliefs, sculptures – somehow managed to be popular among every strata of society, including laypeople, art collectors, and the Communist elite. I'm most taken by her sense for color combinations and expressive figures of old women.
From the main square, a narrow path (Váralja lépcső) leads up the small hillside called Church Hill. Before you reach the top, you might want to stop by the food stall, Álomlángos, for low-priced lángos, a Hungarian fried flatbread topped with sour cream and cheese. Also good is their palacsinta, Hungarian filled crepes.
The Roman Catholic church atop the hill is the oldest building in Szentendre, parts of it dating back to the 13th century. Besides the views, the highlight here is the Béla Czóbel Museum, displaying the works of Hungary’s renowned painter who participated in the 1905 launch of the fauvist movement in Paris together with Matisse, Derain, and Vlaminck, and who was a regular at Gertrude Stein’s salon (the museum also shows his correspondence with Picasso).
Czóbel wasn’t the only painter who spent part of his life in Szentendre. After WWI, Szentendre replaced the art colony of Nagybánya, which fell outside Hungary's new borders. Szentendre's picture-postcard views and its proximity to Budapest drew many who later became seminal figures of Hungarian art, including Lajos Vajda, Imre Ámos, Margit Anna, and Jenő Barcsay. Today, still, Szentendre has an active art scene, with numerous museums and a revived art colony.
That imposing maroon tower belongs to the Belgrade Cathedral, the seat of the Serbian Orthodox bishop in Hungary. The church is open only Friday to Sunday, but the dim garden shaded by a canopy of chestnut trees is accessible. Nearby lies the Serbian cemetery. With unkempt, knee-high grass and crooked headstones, it’s an apt metaphor for Szentendre's disappearing Serbian life (open daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.).
Most of Szentendre’s few-hundred member Jewish community was deported during the Holocaust in 1944 and killed in Auschwitz. The Szántó Memorial House, just steps away, commemorates the victims and is also home to a teeny-tiny synagogue that the attendant claims is the world’s smallest. Across the narrow road is the Vajda Museum, with works of Hungary's seminal surrealist and abstract painter, (the Jewish) Lajos Vajda.
Those with energy: climb the quaint Bartók Béla utca. Here, away from wandering tourists and flanked by handsome residential homes, Szentendre feels like the quiet village it once was. If you need to take a breather, stop by Dalmát Szamár Bistro's tiny terrace for a drink. There's a wonderful vantage point a bit further uphill, by the 18th-century cross, overlooking this densely built city with the Danube and the Szentendre island as backdrops.
Amble down Angyal utca all the way to the quiet Czóbel Park sprinkled with statues. My favorites are the bronze Czóbel (Imre Varga; 1977), looking charismatic at an advanced age, and the abduction of Europa theme carved from limestone by Jenő Kerényi in 1975. Take Bogdányi út when it's time to head back. On your left are the resurrected studios of the art colony (MANK), on your right the amazing Artmill (MűvészetMalom), a repurposed lumber mill now home to a rotating set of usually excellent shows.
The last section of Bogdányi is kitschy, but after so much high culture it can be satisfying to get lost in a sea of fridge magnets and keychains. And it’s actually possible to unearth pretty textiles and clothes embroidered with Hungarian folk motifs, and there’s also a Herend store if handmade Hungarian porcelain is what you are after. Near the main square, Teyföl restaurant serves delicious Hungarian classics: Palócleves, paprikás, tejbegríz and the like, each with a little twist (with €14-17 mains, the place isn't cheap).
A Serbian meal is more fitting to round out a Szentendre trip? Settle in to the old-fashioned Corner Szerb Étterem, take in the river views, and order the meat-heavy Serbian platter featuring pljeskavica, cevapi, and other grilled meats with a side of ajvar. If you take the boat back to Budapest, the docking station is right across the street from here. Otherwise, walk back to the train station, either along the Danube, or through the city center where you came from.