The Danube River

There are rivers, and then there is the Danube as it moves through Budapest: wide and powerful, dividing and connecting the city.

Here we are standing along its banks at sunset we watched the light soften across the water. This stretch of the Danube is often called one of the most beautiful in Europe. The river itself is the second longest in Europe, flowing through ten countries, more than any other river in the world. The Danube connects cultures, cities and histories for beyond what we could see where we stood.

The Danube was once the dividing line between Buda and Pest, two separate cities. These two cities faced each other across the very river until the 19th century. The construction of the Szechenyi Chain Bridge was the first permanent connection between them. This bridge helped create the unified city we were now standing in.