The World Heritage site consists of  the area on the Buda side between the buildings of the University of Technology and the Lánchíd (Chain bridge), including the Gellért spa baths, the Freedom Statute (Szabadság szobor) and the Citadel (Citadella) on Gellért Hill, and the buildings of the Buda Castle. On the Pest side the area includes the Parliament building, Roosevelt tér at the Pest end of the Lánchíd, together with the Hungarian Academy of Science (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia) and the Gresham palace. The four bridges over the Danube in this area are also a part of the World Heritage site. 

The settlement of Buda is as old as the Conquest itself (896), but it only started to develop in the 13th century when Béla IV built a castle on the hill for protection against the Mongol attacks. The court moved to Buda in 1347, and at this time the castle was extended into a palace in the Gothic style of the time.

During the reign of king Matthias it became a dazzling renaissance royal residence. The town was freed from one and a half centuries of Turkish rule in 1686. The three months of siege caused significant damage in both the castle and the town itself. Using the medieval ruins the rebuilding started in the baroque style.

Budapest was born in 1873 with the unification of Buda, Óbuda and Pest, for which a new, representative royal palace was built. However in the Second World War the building and the Castle Quarter suffered serious damage. With the clearing up of the ruins archaeological digs were started and the excavations are still going on today, as are the restoration of medieval ruins. The majority of the buildings in the Castle are historical monuments, the gateways have Gothic seat niches and the carved stone of the rebuilt facades is reminiscent of the middle ages. Today the Buda Castle Palace is the country's most significant cultural centre. Here you can find the Budapest History Museum (Budapesti Történelmi Múzeum), including some medieval castle sections, the Hungarian National Gallery (Magyar nemzeti Galéria), the Ludwig Museum (Ludwig Múzeum) and the National Széphenyi Library (Nemzeti Széchenyi Könyvtár). In the centre of the Castle Quarter you can see one of Budapest's best known buildings, the Church of our Lady or, as it is popularly known, the Matthias Church (Mátyás templom). lt was the venue for famous events, as several Hungarian kings were crowned here and king Matthias was married hare. The first church was built at about the same time as the castle itself, but Matthias extended it and added an 80-metre tower. The Turks transformed the church into a mosque, after which followed the rebuilding in baroque style. It gained its present form at the end of the 19th century. The greatest artists of the age worked on the restoration.

Following this, the Fisherman's Bastion was built in the neo-Romanesque style on the medieval castle walls. Opposite, on the Pest side stands one of the world's most beautiful parliament buildings. With its length of 268 metres and 96 metre high dome it provides an imposing sight above the waves of the Danube. lt may be visited in groups, and it is worth visiting not only for the beautiful interiors, the shining golden decorations, the frescos and statues made by the famous artists of the ago and the decorated stairways, but also to see the 1000 year old crown of the first Hungarian king, saint Stephen.

The first stone bridge built here over the Danube, the Lánchíd, has become a symbol of the city. The Széchenyi Chain Bridge is a chain suspension bridge incorporating architectural elements in the classicist style. This was the fint fixed stone bridge over the Danube in the capital. After Széchenyi's initiative it was constructed from 1839 to 1849. The englishman William Thierney was its designing architect. It was carried out by another englishman, Adam Clark, who later  on settled in the city. Count István Széchenyi, often called '”the greatest Hungarian” initiated the foundation of the Hungarion Academy of Science, enhanced steamship transport on the Danube and paid the costs of the buildíng of the first permanent bridge between Pest and Buda (Chain Bridge, Lánchíd) was also Minister of Transport in 1848 in the first independent Hungarian government. His old castle in Nagycenk has been turned into a museum.

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