Budapest 1956 Revolution Audio Walking Tour
Walk the 1956 Revolution through Pest, from the Radio siege and Corvin Passage via Astoria to Kossuth Square, Parliament and the Imre Nagy statue.
- 7 stops and 15 minutes of stories, told as you reach each place
- The intro and stop 1 are free in the app: try before you buy
- Download before you go; the audio plays without signal (the street map needs a connection)
- Walking with friends? Pick 1 to 10 seats; everyone hears each stop on their own phone, at the same moment
30 seconds of the real narration
Plays in the free Walk With Me app on iPhone and Android.
The story in order
- 23 October 1956Hungarian Radio Building
Students bring the 16 points they drew up the day before and ask for them to be read on air. The answer is no, and that evening the guards inside open fire; sources differ on the exact time. - 23 October 1956Parliament, Kossuth Square
The same evening, a crowd estimated at 200,000 fills the square. At nine Nagy speaks from a balcony and asks everyone to go home quietly. - 24 October 1956Corvin Passage & Kilián Barracks
Soviet armored units enter the city before dawn. That day young insurgents form the Corvin group here and take on the tanks at this junction. - 25 October 1956Astoria
Demonstrators climb onto Soviet tanks and the crews let them. Three tanks roll toward Parliament with the crowd, flying Hungarian flags. - 25 October 1956Bullet Memorial, Ministry of Agriculture
Shortly after eleven, firing breaks out on the packed square. Accounts disagree on who fired first, and the dead number dozens, perhaps around a hundred. - 4 November 1956Corvin Passage & Kilián Barracks
The Soviet army returns in force before dawn. This junction and the barracks are among its main targets, and the Corvin fighters battle along Üllői út. - 16 June 1958Imre Nagy Statue
After a secret trial, Nagy, Maléter and the journalist Miklós Gimes are hanged. On the same date in 1989, about 250,000 people attend Nagy's reburial.
About this tour
You can read about 1956 in an afternoon, but walking it shows you how close everything was. The Radio, the Corvin, Astoria and Kossuth Square are a short walk apart, which is why a protest about a radio broadcast could become a revolution in a single night. Along the way the city still marks it: plaques, bronze bullets in an arcade wall, a cinema still showing films. If you would like company on your next walk through Budapest, open the Walk With Me live map to see who else is out walking the city.
The route
4.6 km in walking order from Corvin Passage & Kilián Barracks to Imre Nagy Statue. Stop 1 is free in the app.
- 1Corvin Passage & Kilián BarracksA round courtyard cinema facing old army barracks, where young fighters gathered against Soviet armor and a colonel made an unexpected choice.Free in the app
- 2Hungarian Radio BuildingThe old radio headquarters behind the National Museum, with two plaques on its front, where a crowd wanted one broadcast and got a siege.
- 3AstoriaThe busy crossroads named after its grand hotel, where one morning protesters and Soviet tank crews did something nobody expected.
- 4Deák SquareThe city's main transport hub, where the marchers turned for Parliament, and a police chief who would not set his men on the insurgents.
- 5Bullet Memorial, Ministry of AgricultureAn arcade on Kossuth Square with small bronze balls set into its wall, and a morning historians still argue over.
- 6Parliament, Kossuth SquareThe long front of Parliament, where one word from a balcony drew a famous reply, and the brief days the revolution seemed won.
- 7Imre Nagy StatueA life-size bronze of Imre Nagy on a little footbridge, moved here amid controversy, and how his story ended and began again.
Hear stop 1: Corvin Passage & Kilián Barracks
The first 30 seconds, exactly as you'll hear them on the street.
Stand in front of the Corvin Cinema, set in its round courtyard. It was a cinema then and it is a cinema now. The bronze boy in front of it is the Pesti srác, the Pest kid, by Lajos Győrfi, put up in 1996. Across Üllői út is the large former Kilián Barracks.
The first Soviet armored units rolled into Budapest between three and four in the morning on October 24. That same day, a group of young insurgents formed here at the Corvin Cinema. The Corvin group fought the Soviet tanks at this junction. According to the National Heritage Institute, the Soviets lost about 120 soldiers and 20 to 25 armored vehicles here in the October fighting.
Before you go
The walking takes about an hour and twenty minutes; with the stories, allow two and a half hours. Pest is flat, and the route follows the boulevards and big avenues. Corvin-negyed metro station (M3) is right at the start. The walk ends beside the Pest end of Margaret Bridge, where trams 2, 4 and 6 stop, and Kossuth Lajos tér metro is about 800 meters back. The old Radio building is partly a construction site, so check what you can see on the day. October 23, November 4 and June 16 are days of mourning and remembrance here, so expect ceremonies and crowds on those dates.
Questions
How long does it really take?
1 h 04 of walking plus 15 minutes of stories, so plan for about 1 h 19 with stops.
Can I still see the old Radio building?
From the street, yes. The front on Bródy Sándor utca, with its two memorial plaques, is to be kept, but the courtyard wings behind it are due to be demolished and part of the site is under construction, so what you can see changes.
Why is the Imre Nagy statue by Margaret Bridge?
It was unveiled in 1996 on Martyrs' Square. In 2018 it was taken down and moved to Jászai Mari tér, where it went back on show in June 2019. The move was controversial, and how Nagy should be remembered is still debated.