Budapest's Hidden Courtyards and Passages: Gozsdu, Párisi Udvar and Anker köz

In 1817 Baron József Brudern opened a shopping passage on what is now Ferenciek tere, and Pest took to its Paris style so fast that the house was soon called the Párisi-ház, the Paris House. The building has been replaced since, but the name still hangs over a glass-roofed arcade at Ferenciek tere 10, and it is the best door into the Budapest that lives behind its street fronts.

That city is closer than it looks. Walk Gozsdu udvar’s six courtyards from Király utca through to Dob utca, sit under the Párisi Udvar’s glass roof with a coffee, cut through Anker köz under the towers of an insurance palace, and save the grand courtyards of the Palace Quarter for the weekend their residents open the gates. The first three sit within about 20 minutes’ walk of each other in central Pest, so they make a slow morning, and they suit anyone who looks up at facades more than at shop windows. One catch: the Párisi Udvar is a hotel’s private passage, with a cap on visitors and no photos without permission.

All three are free to walk. The Párisi Udvar passage is open every day from 10:00 to 22:00; Gozsdu udvar runs from Király utca 13 to Dob utca 16.

One of Gozsdu udvar’s arched gateways, dressed for Christmas in December 2025. Photo: Globetrotter19, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons.

📋 At a Glance

📍 Where	Central Pest: Ferenciek tere (District V), Deák Ferenc tér (VI) and Király utca (VII)
🚇 Getting there	M3 to Ferenciek tere for the Párisi Udvar; M1, M2 or M3 to Deák Ferenc tér for Anker köz and Gozsdu
🎟️ Cost	Free to walk through all three
🕙 Párisi Udvar passage	Every day, 10:00 to 22:00
⏱️ Time needed	A morning, with a coffee
📷 Photos	Párisi Udvar only with the hotel's permission
🚫 Skip if	You want gardens: these are paved passages and lanes

Gozsdu udvar: six courtyards between Király utca and Dob utca

Gozsdu udvar is the one courtyard on this page you walk straight through rather than peer into. Seven buildings line a single passage, and six courtyards open one into the next between Király utca 13 and Dob utca 16. The man behind it was Manó Gozsdu (Emanuil Gojdu), a Pest lawyer of Aromanian origin who left his fortune to a foundation for young people’s education; the foundation started planning the complex in 1900 to designs by Győző Czigler. The ground floors were shops and workshops, with goldsmiths and engravers among them. In the Second World War it was part of the Pest ghetto, and after a full renovation it now draws more than 900,000 visitors a year, by its own count.

Who it suits depends on the hour. In the morning it is a quiet run of cafés, and you can see the brick and plaster of each courtyard. Late on weekend nights it is one of the loudest addresses in District VII, good for a drink and hopeless for architecture. Come before lunch, walk it from the Király utca end, and when you step back out onto Király utca, number 15 next door holds the memorial wall on the line of the 1944 ghetto wall; our Jewish Quarter walking guide takes you there.

Source: entrances, the foundation, Győző Czigler, the ghetto years and the visitor figure from gozsduudvar.hu; the seven buildings, six courtyards and the goldsmiths from hu.wikipedia.org; read on 21 October 2026.

Párisi Udvar: the Paris passage at Ferenciek tere

The Brudern house of 1817, designed by Mihály Pollack, gave the corner its Paris nickname. The Inner City Savings Bank bought the plot in 1906, Henrik Schmahl designed the present building, and work began in 1909. He kept the old idea on the ground floor: a passage called the Párisi Udvar, its hexagonal hall roofed with pressed Luxfer prism glass from the Haas and Somogyi firm. The state nationalized the building in 1949, the IBUSZ travel agency moved in in 1960, and the passage then spent decades as a listed building waiting for a new life. Today the passage belongs to the Párisi Udvar Hotel.

The Párisi Udvar’s corner facade on Ferenciek tere, November 2024. Photo: Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons.

You can walk in, on the hotel’s terms, and they are worth knowing before you go. The passage is private property opened to the public every day from 10:00 to 22:00. Besides hotel and restaurant guests, no more than five visitors may be inside at a time, and groups larger than that have to arrange it in advance. The furniture is for paying guests only, food and drink bought elsewhere stay outside, bikes and scooters are not allowed, and photos or video need the hotel’s permission.

The relaxed way to linger is to become a guest. The Párisi Passage Café takes walk-ins from 8:00 to 18:30 and does not take reservations; the restaurant serves à la carte from 12:00 to 22:30 and is the part you book. If you would rather look at light than at stone, Cinema Mystica, an immersive light and sound exhibition, sits inside the same building and is open daily from 10:00 to 22:00; our Cinema Mystica guide has the tickets and the timing.

Source: passage hours and house rules from the Párisi Passage house rules; café and restaurant hours and the building’s timeline from parisipassage.hu; the Brudern house, Henrik Schmahl, the glass roof, the 1949 nationalization and IBUSZ’s arrival in 1960 from hu.wikipedia.org; Cinema Mystica’s address and hours from cinemamystica.net; all read on 21 October 2026.

Anker köz: a lane through an insurance palace

In 1907 the Vienna-based Anker life insurance company held a competition for its Pest headquarters. Ödön Lechner entered, Ignác Alpár won, and the palace went up between 1908 and 1910 beside Deák Ferenc tér. The lane that runs through it, Anker köz, began life as the building’s open bazaar row. It is a public lane, so there is no gate and no opening time; look up for the Zsolnay ceramics and the reliefs by Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl. The comedian Géza Hofi lived in the building, and a plaque to him hangs in the lane.

Anker köz comes out on Király utca, and Gozsdu udvar’s entrance at Király utca 13 is a few minutes further along the same street, which makes the lane the natural hinge of a courtyard walk.

Anker köz in August 2023, looking toward Erzsébet tér and its Ferris wheel. Photo: Robot8A, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: the competition, the architects, the build years, the bazaar row, the decoration and Géza Hofi from hu.wikipedia.org; the Hofi plaque from its Wikimedia Commons photo; read on 21 October 2026.

The three side by side

	Gozsdu udvar	Párisi Udvar passage	Anker köz
Where	Király utca 13 to Dob utca 16, District VII	Ferenciek tere 10, District V	Beside Deák Ferenc tér, District VI
Open	A walk-through passage	Every day, 10:00 to 22:00	Public lane, no gate
Cost	Free	Free to walk through	Free
Best time	Morning	Daytime, with a coffee	Any time
Ground rules	Residents above the bars	Five visitors at a time besides guests, no photos without permission	None beyond good manners

The Palace Quarter’s courtyards, and the weekend the gates open

The inner half of District VIII, the Palace Quarter behind the Hungarian National Museum, has some of the grandest courtyards in Budapest, and most of them sit behind the street doors of homes, offices and university buildings. What a visitor can simply walk into there, from the palace rooms of the Szabó Ervin library to the free museum garden, is covered street by street in our Palace Quarter guide, so we will not repeat it here.

The one time the locked doors open in numbers is Budapest100, an architecture and community festival held over one weekend a year since 2011. On average 40 to 50 houses open their gates for it, and volunteers research each building’s history for an exhibition inside the house itself. Dates and the house list are announced on budapest100.hu; if your trip lands on that weekend, plan around it.

Source: the festival, its start in 2011 and the average number of open houses from budapest100.hu, read on 21 October 2026.

Courtyard manners

Most Budapest courtyards are someone’s home, with kitchens and bedrooms opening onto the galleries above you. A few kind habits keep them open to the next visitor:

• A locked door means no. Don’t wait to slip in behind a resident, and don’t ring bells to be let in.
• Keep your voice down. A courtyard works like a small amphitheater, and every word carries up to the top floor.
• Leave the drone in the bag. People live behind those windows.
• Ask before you photograph people, and in the Párisi Udvar, ask the hotel before you photograph at all.
• Don’t sit on stairs or doorsteps, and take your cup and your rubbish with you.

A courtyard morning, in order

1. Párisi Udvar, Ferenciek tere 10 (M3 Ferenciek tere). Coffee in the café, which opens at 8:00; the passage itself is open to everyone from 10:00.
2. Anker köz, about 10 minutes’ walk north to Deák Ferenc tér.
3. Gozsdu udvar, a few minutes along Király utca to number 13, then through to Dob utca 16.
4. The memorial wall at Király utca 15, next door, and on into the Jewish Quarter.

That is about 20 minutes of walking in all. For the Palace Quarter, the M3 runs one stop from Ferenciek tere to Kálvin tér. Walking times are our estimate from map distances.

If you would rather have a guide open the doors and the stories, our comparison of free and paid walking tours explains what each kind covers. For another hunt that rewards looking closely, try the tiny hidden statues walk.

The verdict

The Paris House name has outlived the building it was given to, and that is the courtyard city in one line: the street fronts change, the passages behind them stay. Start under the Párisi Udvar’s glass, walk Gozsdu in the morning light, and keep your voice down wherever someone lives above you.

More things to do around the city are on our attractions page.