St. Stephen’s Basilica, Budapest

St. Stephen’s Basilica (Hungarian: Szent István-bazilika) is the largest church in Budapest and the co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest. It is dedicated to Stephen I, the first king of Hungary, who was crowned in 1000 and converted the country to Christianity.

Construction took more than half a century. József Hild began the church in 1851; after the dome collapsed in 1868, Miklós Ybl redesigned it in Neo-Renaissance style, and József Kauser completed it in 1905. The dome rises to 96 metres, exactly the height of the Parliament building, a reference to 896, the traditional date of the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian Basin.

The interior is lavishly decorated with marble, gilding, mosaics and statues. In a side chapel the basilica keeps the Holy Right (Szent Jobb), the mummified right hand of Saint Stephen, Hungary’s most venerated relic, which is carried through the streets in a procession every year on 20 August. A lift and stairs lead to the panorama terrace that runs around the dome, with one of the finest 360° views of the city.

The church is open Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 18:00 and on Sundays from 13:00; the panorama terrace and the treasury are open daily from 9:00 to 19:00. There is no free entry for tourists: in 2026 a ticket for the church costs about HUF 2,600, the panorama terrace with the treasury about HUF 5,000, and a combined ticket about HUF 6,800. Mass, including an English Mass on Sundays at 16:00, is free to attend, and the basilica often hosts organ concerts.

The basilica faces Szent István tér, which hosts a popular Christmas market in winter, and the pedestrian Zrínyi utca leads from there to the Danube and the Chain Bridge. The nearest metro stations are Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út (M1) and Arany János utca (M3).