Faurest, Kristin: Ten spaces - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Fő tér

There is little here that could be called trendy or minimalist. Then, within visible distance are the blocks and towers of a mid 20th century housing estate. All this makes for a marvellously varied and contradictory cityscape. In fact, it might seem an ensemble completely unique to Óbuda, but at least one film director has thought otherwise. The square and environs served as a stand-in for scenes that were supposed to take place in an East German town in the 1960s in the film "Mrs. Ratcliffe's Revolution", the story of a family that leaves 1968 West Yorkshire to help build socialism in the GDR. Somehow the filmmakers thought that the square would look like a generic Central European location - but needless to say, anyone who knows Óbuda would have known better, right away.

The cobblestone-clad streets and smaller spaces that flow off of the square are organically connected to it, contributing to its effect as a whole. A stone jutting out of the corner of one building says "Fő tér since 1686”. It is a fine open space, though it can't properly be called a green space - there are a few attractive rowan trees, but otherwise the space is quite large and open, with relatively little tree canopy or plantings.

The municipality is perpetually looking for ways for the square and its environs to rise above just being a mostly local attraction and become better integrated into Budapest’s tourism network — more specifically, part of the "Buda Promenade” — and in 2008 held a design competition for the site for ideas to improve its infrastructure, aesthetic quality and services, among other aspects. There is certainly much to improve here — there is, as in nearly all the rest of Budapest, no connection whatsoever to the Danube, owing to the heavy transportation arteries that cut off the area from the river. The openness of the square and its emptiness on one hand make it easy to cross through, but, especially now that it's car-free, it would have a higher comfort factor if there were more furniture and greenery gracing its centre, and the attraction of the museums and restaurants could be enhanced with more shops or galleries. And although it's part of a logical route to Szentendre from Budapest if one is going by bicycle, the cobblestones don't make for comfortable pedalling terrain or promote the destination as an attractive one to cyclists.

The square has a number of significant monuments. On the eastern side of the square is the castle, the predecessor of which was built in 1703 on the

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