the Budapest West Station

postcard dated 1909

the ticket counters to the left as you go inside 

Although it doesn't have the status of the East or Keleti station (see earlier post), Budapest's West or Nyugati station is just as grand and appealing from an architectural standpoint. It is actually more in the north than in the west of the city.

The station was planned by August de Serres, built by Gustave Eiffel's company and opened on 28 October 1877. It was the second station building at what was the terminus of Hungary's first railway line, the Pest–Vác line, constructed in 1846.

On Hungarian maps the word for station - palyaudvar - is abbreviatiated as pu which sounds rather odd when you voice it. There is also a third main railway station in Budapest, Déli, which serves traffic to and from the south including the popular Lake Balaton.  This third station was built in 1962 and is quite ugly.